If you can't Bend it like Beckham then Run it like Paul Sinton-Hewitt! - Southall parkrun #3 - 22/01/22

Southall is a town in West London in the Borough of Ealing. Since the 1950’s the area has attracted a large number of Asian immigrants, and is now home to a thriving British Punjabi community - the largest Punjabi community outside the Indian subcontinent. Known as ‘Little India’ the signs on the main railway station are bilingual and The Broadway is a blaze of shops selling Indian, clothes and sweets. Southall is where the fantastic award-winning film  Bend it like Beckham was set and is now home to another London parkrun. 

The Elizabeth line roundels at Southall state the station's name in English and Gurmukhi script.

The park was acquired by the council in the early 20th century having previously been a private estate. Southall Park retains the feel of an affluent private garden with its rose gardens and boating lake but now with a bandstand, tennis courts, bowling green and children’s playground. The new paths create a circular walk within the park and are used for the three-lap clockwise course which finishes on the grass. 

What was very distinctive was the number of women from the Punjabi community who were volunteering and gave us a warm welcome. Speaking to the Event Director we learned that there had been considerable outreach to the local community and Sikh Gurdwaras to ensure the community was involved.

You can book a tour of the Gurdwara Sahib in Southall by clicking here; https://sgsss.org/visits

In an area and at an event that owes so much to the existence of the British Empire it was propitious that one of her majesties Commanders of the Order of the British Empire was in attendance, step forward Paul Sinton-Hewitt!

Paul, the founder of parkrun, was born in Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia) and grew up in South Africa. He moved to the UK and whilst unemployed and unable to run, due to an injury, set up the first 5k time trail on 2nd October 2004. This would then go on to be rebranded as Parkrun. Awarded the Albert Medal by the Royal Society of Arts for building a global participation movement he was appointed a CBE ‘for services to Grassroots Sport Participation’ in 2014. 

At the end of the event, I was able to speak to Paul. His impact on me is unquantifiable and I wanted to say thank you. There is a saying you shouldn’t meet your heroes but that did not apply here, Paul was warm and generous and this was after running a 21min 30sec parkrun himself 😀

I can't bend it like Beckham but I can run it like Paul Sinton-Hewitt! Photo credit Shveta Shah.

There is a book about the beginnings of Parkrun which I highly recommend, you can buy it by clicking here The History of Parkrun

I left on a high, motivated to contribute more through my running and my deeds. I guess this blog is a testament to that meeting. 

Stay safe and happy running

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