Heart & Soles: The runaway success of group running

A new exercise revolution has been literally moving Nelson over the last three to four years. Running often used to be associated with lone devotees, pounding streets and paths with somewhat grim determination, usually focused on upcoming competitive events. But increasingly, runners have been appearing in ever-larger clusters, fierce expressions of concentration replaced with happy grins and conversation overlaying this once largely silent activity. These organised group runs have been a growing global phenomenon for many years now, the social connection complementing and sometimes even outweighing the health benefits. Alistair Hughes finds out more.

New to Nelson is the Neale Park parkrun, held every Saturday morning at 8:00am. These are free, 5km community events where the public can gather to run, walk, volunteer or simply spectate. They take place at more than 2000 locations in 23 countries, with ten million participants across the world. This concept grew rapidly from the original event founded in London in 2004, and it was while living there that Nelson parkrun event manager Ruth Rogers and her family became familiar with the movement.

Always a keen runner, Ruth found parkrun was a great way to stay fit and meet people. “So when we moved back to New Zealand in 2017 and discovered there was no parkrun in Nelson, I was quite surprised, because this is such an active, community-minded place.”

Ruth is a public health nurse, and her passion for wellbeing, societal health and community engagement merged with a love of running, leading her to explore options for our region’s own parkrun. However, because it is a global entity with strict guidelines connected to indemnity insurance, course selection was not straightforward.

“So even though we're such a beautiful region with lots of places to be active, we didn't have an obvious venue in Nelson. We don't have a large public space like Hagley Park, and even our green spaces, like the Maitai, have lots of little twists and turns and sharp drop-offs that wouldn't be able to accommodate several hundred runners.”

Ruth and the other course designers, Neil Aldred and co-event director Anton Garny, researched for months, eventually returning to one of their initially considered options: Neale Park, off North Road.

“It fits absolutely within those parkrun guidelines. Nice and flat, beautiful views over Tasman Bay – a great place to congregate and close to Founders Café for coffee together afterwards.”

She takes particular pride in the fact that it is a fully accessible course, able to accommodate a wide range of participants, including wheelchair and mobility vehicle users.

Since launching the weekly event in late November, with support from Nelson City Council and the region’s running community, including charitable organisation Active4Good, Ruth has been blown away by the level of public support.

“We hoped it would be popular, although we really weren't sure. But right from day one, we've had an incredible response. We’ve now had 17 events, over 1600 participants and more than 137 different volunteers. It was a bit of a ‘if you build it, they will come’ type situation.”

Ruth is eager to emphasise that the volunteer support has been astonishing, with over twenty individuals readily giving up their time every week.

“People are incredibly generous with their time. Interestingly enough, parkrun research shows that the benefits of volunteering are just as high, if not more so than the participating. So I'm really keen to look at how I can engage with those that wouldn't just see parkrun as an opportunity to exercise, but to also connect with their community.”

She emphases that there is no fast or slow and it is never a race, parkrun is an event for everybody.

With average weekly participant numbers of 240, ranging in age from preschoolers to 89 years, parkrun Nelson seems set to stay. And fortunately for us all, Ruth hasn’t any plans to go anywhere just yet either.

“In getting this up and running, we had to make a commitment as a family, knowing that this was going to be our Saturdays into the future. It's a team effort and a labour of love.”

parkrun is free, but participants are encouraged to register before their first visit at parkrun.co.nz/nealepark.

From a huge global movement to a small, locally organised regular event, younger people have been meeting on a Sunday morning to enjoy a run along one of the country’s most beautiful waterfronts.

Unlike the 1999 film Fight Club, you do talk about ‘Run Club’, and Nelsonian Mitchell Brooks is more than happy to explain. He had been working on a cropping station in Australia for a year when he came across letsgetarun on social media. “I saw it pop up on my Instagram and decided: ‘When I get back, I’m going to do that’. And it’s probably one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

Created by another young local, Cameron Harding, Let’s get a Run invites everyone to join a group of around 20 every Sunday morning for a half hour run along Rocks Road at your own pace.

“Everybody's different, so there’s no pressure on how fast yourun,” says Mitchell. The return trip is often capped off with a swim at Tahunanui Beach. “Then we normally get a coffee and chat for an hour or two, so the whole event pretty much takes place over a couple of hours.”

Let’s get a Run often attracts overseas visitors staying in the city. “We’ve had people from Germany, Denmark and Britain turn up to join in,” he says. “I would say that it’s usually an even split between men and women, and the youngest would be 18, through to about 30. We've got people in the police, surf life savers, tradies, baristas, accountants, it's quite a wide spread.”

It is so encouraging to see such a positive and self-motivated group of young people committing themselves to something so beneficial, that it almost hurts to ask …why?

“I would say the majority of the group are there for the social aspect,” says Mitchell. “Everybody is looking for a better way to start their Sunday instead of waking up hungover. Obviously, exercising is improving yourself, and you get the reward of having worked hard with your peers.”

He says that the 8am Sunday start tends to weed out the people who wouldn’t really want to be there, and those who do show up have found the interaction and exercise tremendously rewarding.

“Because Nelson is so small, many of us grew up with our same friend groups from school, and it's quite hard to meet new people – that’s what I've found personally, anyway. But in our Run Club group I think ‘Where have you guys all been hiding?’ It’s honestly some of the best people I've met, I think they'll be friends for life.”

The positivity has spread, with local businesses apparently extending friendly support – Tahunanui’s Raglan Roast café even welcoming the group with free coffees a couple of times.

There are some serious runners in the group: marathon and half marathon participants, and many aiming to compete in this December’s The Spectacle, but Let’s get a Run is never about racing. “When you're in a group and all just taking it easy, there's no pressure on performance,” says Mitchell. Everybody's so like-minded and wants to be better and active, and there's nobody there that lets the group down.”

Golden Bay Team Training instructor Tom Lake finds many people are more likely to push themselves when exercising in groups. “They see the person next to them keep going and are more inclined to persevere or even up their tempo.”

He has seen that sharing and achieving goals in a group can be really impactful, with a knock-on effect of building confidence in self and body which transfers to daily life.

“The social aspect should not be overlooked,” he emphasises. “For many, a group fitness session is as much about connecting and camaraderie as it is about exercising. In our busy lives with work and family commitments, many find group fitness as their main social time during the week.”

Athletics Nelson, our region’s registered organisation promoting running and walking, has happily watched their latest popular running event develop from its initial concept.

“We do a pack run from The Prince Albert backpackers and bar on Tuesday evenings at 5:30pm,” explains accomplished runner and long-term member Brian Kemp. “The original idea was that we could run and talk, instead of racing each other. But what actually happened is that people in the Brook Street/Wood area have come along and through social media we’ve seen it develop into a regular group run for that neighbourhood, you could say.”

It could be called a runaway success in fact, and proof that events can sometimes take on a life of their own. Brian is gratified to see the social element which has been created by group running, with other notable benefits as well.

“Apart from physical and mental health, a few of the female runners mentioned that they wouldn't run on some of the trails we use alone – at 6:30 at night, at the top of the Grampians, or the Maitai Valley and places like that. So we put our lights on, and some of the ladies who’ve turned up said, ‘This is great. We wouldn't have done this on our own.’”

Brian adds that he’s certainly witnessed friendships formed through his Tuesday night group and has also learned how to discover new trails around Nelson.

“If we have 20 people there, five or six might know each other through running circles, but the majority of the people didn’t, but have now become regulars. Some have even started doing a couple extra runs, and they all come from different walks of life.”

Brian says the pack run age range stretches from 13 right through to a 70-year-old, with an equally wide range of ability from marathon and harrier runners to enthusiastic novices. “I think everyone sort of encourages each other. We've got a couple of really good runners who are willing to run with the slowest people and share the knowledge. People are keen to run in a group situation for motivation and it doesn't matter if you come first or last, I encourage new people to come along on a Tuesday and give it a go!”

As an Athletics Nelson member, he is happy to recommend other organised club activities and offers some advice for those who would like to join a running group, but aren’t certain of their own abilities yet. “If you’ve never run before and want to test it out, walk up to the Centre of New Zealand monument or the Grampians. Then try running on a trail for 10-20 minutes, try the Maitai Tantragee trail along the river – that's an ideal place to start.”

Communal activities may not necessarily suit everyone, and Tasman-based project manager Rosa Volz still finds solace in solitary running as a release from everyday commitments. “I find it provides relaxation, reflection and maybe even time for problem-solving. Physically, running gives me cardiovascular exercise and some strength, but in my mind, the objective is always to enjoy yourself.”

By contrast, group running events emphasise the social aspect, murmurations of local runners clearly relishing interaction as much as action.

“I wonder if the time during Covid lockdowns in which we couldn't be together has refreshed people's perspective on community,” adds parkrun’s Ruth Rogers. “I feel really passionately about community connectedness and the positive impacts of hormone release from exercise. Surely that’s a peak combination.”

Many would agree, judging by the hundreds of happy faces at Neale Park every Saturday morning and at other local organised runs. For several years, the top of the south has been named the country’s most active region, with Sport NZ surveys registering the highest number of weekly exercise hours. Our group running events now seem set to make us the friendliest as well.