Active at altitude

The craze for sport does not end on the sofa or in the seats of a stadium here in South Africa; it continues out onto the streets and across the parks. Much to my delight I discovered that the people of this country enjoy doing sport almost as much as I do.

This trip is a holiday yet it has had several similarities to training camps of my past athletic career, but with more wine and food. My first few days in Johannesburg I was keen to get over the flight and test my fitness at the altitude of 1650m. Swimming was not a problem and when presented with an open water pool, shared with just two other swimmers and at a cost of forty pence per session, I was in heaven.

After a couple of steady runs in the local park I was feeling brave and signed up for the five kilometre, free, park run. Now an international event hosted by cities all around the world I have participated in several at home and thought I should sample an African one.

The sun was already beating down and the air feeling far too thin as I made my way across the park to the start. It was just 07.45am and the masses were gathering - children, pensioners, dogs, families, the buzz was quite incredible. I set myself a target to beat my slowest recorded UK time, bearing in mind the heat, the huge hill, the altitude and the fact that this holiday has featured plenty of delicious South African wine. The odds were stacked against me.

In the end I was surprised with more than just my time and result. A few hours later the email with the statistics dropped into my inbox. One thousand two hundred and sixty runners had completed the 5K that morning. That takes mass participation to a level far above anything we in the UK can comprehend for a weekly occurrence.