Editor – To all those who attended the first-ever Ladysmith ‘parkrun’, I salute you. It was an eye-opener to me in terms of my own fitness and my own mental fortitude.
Within minutes of starting, my body began to creak and groan. My muscles began to burn and I was sweating profusely.
My biggest embarrassment was that I was not running, but walking the race along with many others who had come out to support the event and cause.
About 20 minutes in and into my third kilometre, my willpower began to betray me. I started looking for excuses not to finish the race. It had started to rain; what a perfect excuse! My cell-phone would get wet, I reasoned with myself. The fact that it is water-resistant seemed to matter little.
It was at this stage that I remembered what Bruce Fordyce had said in a speech before the start. “Parkrun is not a race against anyone else but yourself.” Reinvigorated, I finished the race.
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