We are pleased to have a number of regular active runners who are over 50 years of age and although Sport England classifies this category of people as “older people” we believe you’re only as old as you feel.
Age grading in competitive races means that older people have as much chance as middle aged or younger people of achieving but at Birmingham Swifts we promote a non-competitive approach to our Thursday social run, aiming to be inclusive to all ages, genders, sexuality and ability. This ethos is also in place at parkrun where we attend on a Saturday morning.
We recommend you can run 5k non-stop before joining our Thursday evening social run. Importantly though, pace is not important. No one will ever be left behind and a run leader will always be at the back of the group run supporting our slower runners.
However, we do appreciate that as we get older our bodies don’t quite behave as they used to. For older people who are looking to increase their physical activity but haven’t run before, our Starting Out groups will be ideal. They are designed to work with people of all ages, based on a nationally recognised activity plan.
If you are unable to make it to one of our LGBT+ Starting Out groups, Birmingham Wellbeing can link you to other free Run Birmingham hosted Couch to 5k (C25k) programmes and Active Parks activities to get you moving.
In the meantime, while you are still building up to running 5km, you are welcome at our pre-run warm up at 7pm on Thursday for some light movement activity and post-run social, usually held at The Fox on Lower Essex St from 8:30pm to meet other members and chat.
We would like to host an older LGBT+ runners group, with a shorter distance run and cafe based social afterwards during the week if interest exists. If you would be willing to support this as a run leader (funding provided for training) or be a participant, let us know and we will see what we can arrange.
For people who have previously run but are now retired, we have volunteer opportunities within the committee, supportive roles or as trained leaders. Contact us for more information.
Links:
Birmingham Wellbeing: http://beactivebirmingham.co.uk
Active Parks: http://beactivebirmingham.co.uk/active-parks
Run Birmingham: www.runbirmingham.com
Parkrun: http://www.parkrun.org.uk