Welcome back to parkrun Diaries! Today’s video will take us to Exeter Riverside in Devon, for a cold and muddy run while we talk about the stigma of addiction in the UK, and how running can help you on your journey to recovery, as well as improve your mental health along the way.
You’ll see some great athletes, such as David who travelled from Plymouth, and Alex, an inspiring guy who we had a discussion with about the addiction crisis in the UK. He offered some great advice, such as how Narcotics Anonymous and running can help people stay clean, and ultimately, on the right path(no pun intended).
We’ll also get to meet Simon, the run director for today, and also some very enthusiastic cowbell wielding Marshalls! Great stuff!
Sorry to the guy and two girls who waved and said hello to the camera, I thought it was recording but it wasn’t, so my apologies, but I hope you enjoyed your run! 🏃♂️🏃♀️
Big thanks to all the volunteers and marshalls today, it’s a great course and I hope to be back soon!
Changing lives one step at a time!
Get clean, get fit, get living!
00:00 Intro
00:55 Exeter
01:44 Meet Simon
02:40 Meet David
03:05 Race Briefing & Announcements
05:01 3,2,1, GO!
06:40 Addicts to Athletes
07:05 Musical Edit
08:12 Meet Alex
09:04 End the Stigma, Addiction Talk
12:10 Narcotics Anonymous Talk
13:20 Addiction in Society
14:41 General Chat with Alex
15:49 Race Finish
16:36 Outro
#parkrun #parkrundiaries #parkrun diaries #running #exeter #riverside #addict to athlete #addiction #addictionrecovery #addictstoathletes #running motivation #runner #parkruntourism #parkrunuk
Welcome back to park run Diaries a friendly showcase the wonderful world of parkrun we’re going to hear some inspiring stories than keeping me happy we’ll be exploring some fantastic courses and meetting all of the amazing volunteers and Marshals that make these events happen so grab those trainers tie them laces and of course
Don’t forget your barcode this is going to be one epic adventure filled with some magical moments you’re watching add it to athlete welcome to Di so today’s video is going to take us to aitor Riverside EXA is the capital of Devon and for someone like me who’s used to coastal towns yeah city is quite big train Line’s being worked on so had to take a replacement bus but we got there in the end Well good morning I’m simus Bora the uh run director at exod Riverside Park run today uh we’re a long established course been here quite a few years now I can’t remember exactly when to be honest and we’ve had about three or four iterations of the course they basically all go
Right the way down the Riverside Valley Park and these days they include a couple of fields and our famous unique selling point is bram’s field which even in the driest conditions is normally like a marsh it can be like World War I in there today however amazingly it’s
Actually quite dry in there so sadly there won’t be any opportunity for you to see people with mud spattered up their backs Runners so keep right from there you hang right up David um my usual Park runn is either Plymouth ply Valley or Central Park or
Um Tim what’s the pl Valley corite I’ve heard a little bit about that um it’s all right on a dry day yeah yeah yeah bit muddy than usually is it mostly Trail then um yeah it’s most Trail I’ll try that one yeah is it’s nice thank you David I appreciate that
Problem enjoy your right thank you can confirm what I found yesterday which is that bram’s field is actually quite dry for some people believe it or not some people enjoy raing through the mud 35 Kevin Saunders is going to Pace at 30 where is Kevin there’s Kevin over there
And Jason hridge will be pacing 25 minutes well done Jason today’s part Walker is Allison Weber who is holding up the speaker here Alison will be there to support Walkers and if you’ve got friends relatives or whatever who you think would benefit from a 5K walk on a Saturday morning as
An introduction to our life encourage them to come along the Walker is there to support them and today’s tail Walker we got two today Paul barter where are you Paul there he is right at the back and with Paul Martin who is volunteering today dear from the dear and Essex and Stoke
And Oxford and ball Plymouth sorry about that and wayworth welcome to you all any more visitors from any more off next to Riverside Park first timer here that’s right you think so many more people at this one than bable forget how small bable is sometimes of all of the pth there are
Some Contra flow sections which means that if you keep right you won’t run into each other thank you very much especially by the way the first St the left hand side is going 3 2 [Applause] 1 we’re off so many people this course is a heart time at Park on a trail as well so but supposed to be less money today cuz the uh the frost we’ve been having so cuz I forgot to bring my trail shoes as well thank you Mar bit of extra distance this morning
When I had to uh run from crediton buty trains again doing uh doing repairs on the line so yeah reminds me of exit 6 weeks ago shot it all day editing and then these Subways are confusing me I just went the wrong way there’s uh there’s no uh obviously
There’s no toilets on the double deck of buses so we just had to get off at the top of creditor now we run into the train I swear I’ve always running after the trains uh last week was uh one of the best run weeks we’ve ever done just over
30k uh loads of news about the charity as well we’ve had a contact from British Triathlon um at D Devon and we got some events coming up at the local library and job center as well so uh yeah if you’re in barille North Devon you want
To see what the charity does pop down 15th of January from 10 till 1 we got Flyers there the banners out cat mess us with the blue and Orange see me down street but you can’t get close cuz I’m much too fast and I’m much too loud I’m so CAU up now is it me all my love can get it up Fe on Alem me and I’m running let R through my blood it’s magic watch me go I feel get
It see me running by that P here comes the mud yeah I definitely regret not bringing my trail shoes now hey mate you’re right buddy we do a park diary for YouTube if you want to say a quick happy New Year uh my name’s Alex local resident of EXA second Park R
Up a hobby runner for a little while um I love this event pretty good first one was last weekend Co hopefully come all year have you done any other Park runs what no this this remain one yeah just just this one and the one I did last
Weekend is there any more in X is this the only one you know think there’s xma yeah there’s one up hold in forest all right okay I don’t drive so it’s a long run to get there yeah TR to Xmen so perfect nice one what was your name
Anyway Alex Alex nice to meet you cool yeah thanks mate the channel is called U addex to athletes should be on today or tomorrow yeah that sounds a lot like my life really yeah man well you B the problems with that yeah trying be openminded and on yeah that’s H will
It’s about removing that stigma of addiction 100% if I had people to talk to about it before um you know before I got to where I was I would have would have hopefully been been a better place yeah man but I was just so scared you
Know got career on the line family you don’t want to disappoint well it’s hard when when your friends um aren’t you know you say you’re the with the problem yeah and you don’t want to lose those friendships but yeah you know it’s life and if there just wasn’t there stigma
Yeah and coming out with these sort of things be a lot easier but you um I’ve got a lot of friends now who aren’t clean who are clean sorry and aren’t using and um you know I have bad days where I think about using when I read that over
Christmas oh no way um time yeah but it’s not the same yeah not it’s it’s still progress though cuz it’s been in your mind and you’ve been getting fitter so you know relapse is all part about you know of the long journey of of recovery you know a lot of people go for
Relapse but saying one recently is um first time after a relap I knew I presented with a choice yeah that was like a go use again yeah yeah be feeling sad and then go these again yeah Lely feeling sad or I could get back into a
Room but I must sponsor talk through wi relapse yeah and I made that choice and it just felt like the first time in a while I caught myself before I broke I got back on thre using and being depressed yeah yeah which is refreshing it’s all part of Internet you got you
Got drugs mental health problems housing problems it all comes with it thank you Marshall I didn’t think that was my problem yeah yeah started using drugs again stopped running for 2 years thank you m and then start taking running up again thought yeah yeah 4 months ago no way
Taking that properly um keep up with it mate you’re doing well keeps me clean yeah yeah keeps me clean that’s it there’s so many people have found that like running just in general so good for mental health and Recovery it’s good to have something to know work towards yeah mate just something yeah
That gives you that sense of I’m getting better yeah yeah cuz you can tell yourself that you can see yourself getting stronger yeah and it’s like wow I am actually getting better I it takes up like 5 six hours a week yeah and then you know I’ve
Added some socialness to it with with the uh running club yeah yeah definitely um it’s just yeah amazing have you um have you been in a sort of cycle of addiction yeah I was uh do you remember the legal highs years ago yeah yeah RC’s
Yeah and the head shops yeah M the head shops they used to sell me legal highs when I was in my school uniform I finished school go to the head shop and they’ sell me these packets spice and yeah mate and they would change names every week yeah all these weird
Substances sometimes you you know that’s a famous quote but the pain just changed just got out way the pain staying the same yeah man definitely and um yeah it’s just hard to ask for it and you know with GES like yours in the na you can um start to destigmatize it is that
That Narcotics Anonymous yeah yeah yeah yeah I didn’t know there was that big round here I thought that was like an American thing yeah I didn’t I didn’t I’ve seen it all them read it reading about it for like 6 months before I actually got in into the same people
Yeah um but yeah they they have regular meetings once every uh I think there four or five a week now oh no way um I think there is one up in anore but they X all right or an extra a week yeah I might have to contact them that be
Really good really good yeah that’s awesome and but if you just go on the website take in your post code yeah tell you’re the closest ones even if you can’t can’t make a Mee in person a lot of them are live streamed all right get you know remove
That time yeah yeah followed just had that support and woman our faces oh really yeah struggle to talk yeah defied underfunded yeah yeah and just no one TR truly knows how many people are are there as f yeah exactly self medicated yeah people went like me went off off quite a few
Years you would thank you Mar thank you still turning up to the most basic things yeah still turning up to work still turning up to family gathering yeah that’s the hardest as well ni you got to put on a brave face and just try and deal with
It but yeah you know a lot of people out there can’t get through the week and they drink yeah exactly yeah s in the morning on roulette yeah so it’s crazy all these different addictions yeah lives I mean anything can be addictive as well like I mean some people find
Coffee addictive even though it’s not that harmful compared to the other things but anything can be addictive get social media things like that yeah social media is a real T like young younger generation yeah yeah so I took myself off Instagram five or six years ago yeah
Yeah it’s a good idea hand it I hate the fact that everyone look like they’re having a great time environment thanks much done it’s crazy you have all these things that obviously are addictive let’s go everybody’s feeling good how many par you done now everyone
My main focus at the moment yeah yeah B is kind of I still do it four or five times a week I love bouldering mate we got my school got one set up nice cuz I’m scared of heights but bouldering was good fun yeah yeah yeah bit pattern
Underneath have you seen all of them um Church conversions that turned into climbing wall one in to that was the church I’m not sure we got one in bore apparently there’s loads around Europe now yeah I know that the next thing you know yeah yeah
B yeah I mean we’ve got 2 and a half thousand members at our place yeah yeah um it’s great everyone L it ex is actually massive mate it’s my first time proper coming here today oh really I’m so like not used to this is the prettiest Park yeah yeah yeah up up that
Way past City Center get a little bit more City like I mean I moved here three or four years ago now yeah yeah and I love it have all this just on my doorstep yeah and bless really yeah mate definitely Deon is such a lovely County yeah forget how great it
Is sometimes everyone’s nice nicely you go ahead if you want M I’ll catch up the end if you want yeah yeah well done mate well done thanks Mar thank you cheers Simon yeah really good Simon thank you I I wish I brought my trail shoes now made a mistake I thought it’d be
Frosted over hi mate thank you thanks much appreciate it thank you nice how was that oh G you’re down here this on for use tickets down there yeah it’s down here after is it is it what your name m Conor Conor is Alex is it Alex yeah nice to meet you I’ll um
Have a look into ad to yeah yeah good have you got a number actually yeah yeah two seconds um I might actually have um I’m not sure if I got the really good to uh to meet um Alex there and David as well and Simon the race director really
Goes to show how um how addiction can be everywhere um literally is running behind me I was like did you want to uh did you want to be on the Park Grand Diaries and um yeah we got talking and um yeah Alex told me about his story and
Um his recovery progress so yeah um well done Alex really proud of you mate hopefully get in contact and we can um we can help you further but it seems like you’re doing great already mate so yeah keep up with the running and um well done David on your run as well and
Yeah probably uh what a course I should have uh checked my shoes out I probably should have bought my trail shoes so yeah hope you enjoyed that video um if you want to see some more click up here where we do um bville Park Grand iries I’ll click down here we’ve
Done bitford and um I’ll try and fit it somewhere but somewhere around there’ll probably be the Diaries as well so yeah cheers for watching guys see you in the next one not sure where that will be um might be doing a hike next or a bike
Pack in adventure but um yeah we’ll see how it goes so yeah cheers for watching guys see you later
1 Comment
Where's the climbing wall in Barnstaple?