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9 months ago
My experience from trying to persuade others to run is that many find it pretty scary. I certainly remember my first attempted run (after years playing team sports) was agony, and I suspect lots of people have had similar experiences with trying to jog even short distances. Scottish's 5km series is a great introduction for newbies, and there are numerous community 5km events around which seem to attract people who clearly are new to running. I suspect what people want is to know they won't come last - that's where events like the Round the Bays and the REAL women's duathlon's are really good, because no matter what level you are there's always someone around your level. Basically I think keep the distances short and you'll hook in new people. |
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9 months ago
Over here in the UK we have Parkrun which is basically 5km weekly time trials. See http://www.parkrun.com/about/overview. It gets all levels of abilities out as it's not seen as competitive etc and it's free. Requires some dedicated volunteers but I'm sure most clubs would have a few of them willing to help out and it could even act as a bit of a feeder for membership. |
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9 months ago
Running groups such as "get up to 5" "Race Team" "Saturday Runners" by Bevan James Eyles. The people that go to these are active marketers of the products - we've met awesome challenges with Bevan and the other coaches support so we absolutely rave about them to anyone that will listen.. positive experiences encourage others to try it too... |
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9 months ago
I like Biscuit's idea. Here's some suggestions to expand on it. |
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9 months ago
There will be a whole lot of other factors, but it seems to me that moving the start/finish of the Wellington Half Marathon to an iconic location - the stadium - had a massive impact. I also think because the Auckland half and full goes over the bridge that many more people participate than otherwise would. |
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9 months ago
Government mandated exercise. Actually a better idea the more I think about it. From my observations the unemployed seem to be the least healthy, and most at risk group in society for preventable diseases due to lack of education, "unproductive" social/family norms (lol), and mental health issues. And with regular exercise shown to be one of the easiest / cheapest ways to have positive effects on preventable diseases and mental health issues, government policy along those lines could easily be justifiable... |
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9 months ago
All those on the unemployment benefit, must get their butts out of bed, and report to their nearest WINZ office, at 6am, Monday to Friday, for a compulsory group walk or run for 30 minutes. No attendance, no payment. |
Hamish M 9 months ago
Hi all,
My boss stumbled upon this recently www.powerade.co.nz/challenge and it has set me thinking of ways to encourage the general population to run/walk a little more. Another example would be mapmyrun.com.
I'm wondering if anyone has any low cost low tech examples of things (actual things) that have worked to encourage the general population to run more? If yes, I would LOVE to hear about them!
FYI - this is a potential work project, and I will take all the credit for any brilliant ideas that anyone shares! :)