Letter to the editor

Smarter Running: Shaping the Behavioural Change Interventions of the Future!

Dear Editor,

The front cover of the November issue illustrates individuals taking part in a running event in a park, and the same issue features Shah’s article on smartphone technology (ST). ¹ With these two issues in mind, we were prompted to write.

Parkrun is a series of 5km runs taking place in towns and cities across the United Kingdom. ² Events are delivered by a network of local volunteers and held in public spaces, ³ including parks and green environments. Importantly, activities provide participants of different abilities with an opportunity to be physically active. ³ Many people have traditionally been put off from taking part in sports for a range of reasons, including their past experience. Yet, research indicates that parkrun appeals to non-runners, with women, older adults and overweight people ‘well represented’ in adoption rates. ³ Events consider key design characteristics, important for helping people to participate in physical activity. Parkruns are regular, so can be inbuilt into people’s busy routines, local and take place in familiar natural environments.

Research shows that while health and fitness benefits are important in facilitating initial engagement, social support, cohesion and helping others have also been reported as being influential in facilitating continued involvement. ⁴ Indeed, parkrun provides participants with regular and informal opportunities to take part in physical activity either on their own or with friends and family, while encouraging and rewarding the repeated behaviour. While running is not for everybody, over one million people have ‘signed up’. ⁵

There is an increasing interest in the role of smart technology as an aid to facilitate increases in physical activity, including running, through a range of web-based and mobile applications. Parkrun has recently joined forces with the physical activity tracking app, Strava. ⁵ Among a host of potential benefits, ⁵ runners can upload their parkrun time to their Strava profile, increasing the opportunity for social support and cohesion, and potentially facilitating continued physical activity engagement both inside and outside of parkrun events. Importantly, Shah’s article offers a reminder of the need for further research into the impact of ST interventions. ¹ Outcomes emerging from such investigations could be important in shaping the behavioural change interventions of the future!