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Why wouldn’t you run half a mile to save £1?!

Written by Fiona March 11 2013

A bizarre exchange with a car park attendant got me thinking. Today I’d ran half a mile from a business meeting to make sure I arrived at my car just in time to pay £2 for 2 hours of parking and not £3 for three hours. I made it with seconds to spare and I had to run fast in my work boots and a skirt!

1852_10100130747221182_1089358733_nThe attendant caught me short when he said: “But why would you bother to run just to save £1?”

I had to think quickly and I said that I like a challenge. To be honest, £1 isn’t much money but I hate to pay more for something when I can have it for less and I’d have felt cheated out of the £1.

The attendant continued to attack. “I mean, why run when you save only £1 and that won’t get you much these days will it?”

Apart for an hour of cheap-ish city centre parking that £1 could buy me three Crème Eggs, a pint of milk or whatever I wanted to buy. That £1 would still be mine and not taken by the car park for me not parking there.

Then, when the attendant finally let me out of the barrier – having charged me just the £2 – I thought a little more. If more people ran to reach their cars to save money in car parking we’d all be a bit slimmer and a bit better off.

Supermarket parking rant

And these thoughts led to another “laziness irritation”. You know the people who drive to supermarkets and even when they are in the car park they have to park as close to the store as possible? They’ll take disabled parking spots or mums and kids’ spots if there are no others.

But I’ve long thought that some of our nation’s health problems could be changed by forcing people to walk a little further to go shopping. So, the area in car parks closest to supermarkets could be reserved for the properly disabled and for mums with young babies.

The rest of the population could be made to walk just 50 or 100 metres more between their cars and the supermarket. Maybe there could be decreasing car park charges for those who park further away. Walking just short distances on a regular basis can help you to lose weight and improves your cardiovascular fitness.

I bet the car park attendant today would have rolled his eyes at my red, sweaty face and wondered out loud at my madness if I’d suggested the supermarket car park idea.

But it’s the smaller and regular bits of exercise that I do that I’m convinced keep me light on the scales.

And don’t get me started on parents who drive their kids to the school gates…. Grrrr.

Can you suggest ways to add a little walking or running into each day to improve the health of the nation?

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