Aqasa leads the way
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, retirement means ‘leaving a job, stepping away from a career, and stopping active work permanently’. For me, this once felt like a mythical but desired destination. It didn’t require a passport, just a birth certificate and the promise that when my ‘date’ came up, I’d receive the keys to a permanent sunrise, a bar and friends to lounge around with and have congratulatory chats about a life.
But the older I get, the more I question this previous fantasy land. I want to clear certain financial matters, however, my purpose and identity, so embedded in a role/title at work, might unravel once the final out-of-office is switched on, and I don’t want that.
I discovered parkrun in December 2012, and over the last 13 years, it’s changed my life and identity and given me a different way to think about retirement.
We often spend an enormous amount of time preparing financially for retirement and considerably less time thinking about the social and emotional transition. We can fill our heads with: will I have enough money? What will my pension be worth? Can I afford to retire? What will happen to the ‘triple lock’? But perhaps additionally important questions include: who will I see, where will I go, what will I do with my time, who will know if I don’t turn up, who can I help?
These aren’t soft questions, they are questions about purpose which are well explored in excellent books ‘The Five Types of Wealth’ by Sahil Bloom and ‘The Five Regrets of the Dying’ by Bronnie Ware.
At the beginning of September 2026, I started another Annual parkrun challenge called ‘The Southwark Slam’. The Southwark Slam is my annual challenge to complete all the parkruns in the London Borough of Southwark during September. My wife and I started it in 2015 following the death of my foster mum, as a tribute to her. Over the years it has become part of my annual running calendar: an opportunity to explore different parts of my borough, meet people, visit different cafés and, most importantly, spend time with friends old and new.
This year I decided to add another dimension. Having recently joined the Volunteer 250 Club, I decided I would volunteer at every event during the 2026 Southwark Slam.
This decision reinforced something I have come to understand: parkrun is not entirely about running. It’s about participation, community, having somewhere to go, and having something to contribute.
This year’s Southwark Slam started for me on 5 September at Southwark parkrun #624. I was part of the volunteer team doing pre-event set-up, helping to get everything ready for the 569 participants who eventually crossed the finishing line.
Amazing Jane
One person really caught my attention: Jane. Jane is in the VW 65-69 age category and is a familiar face at Southwark parkrun. She was doing three different volunteer roles: Post-event Close Down, First Timers Welcome and Funnel Manager. Jane wasn’t running on Saturday, but she still participated, saving her energy for the Big London Half Marathon the following day.
Although Jane is a runner, parkrun gives her so much more. It’s a place where Jane contributes to her community, where she has purpose, visibility and is seen. Going to parkrun doesn’t always mean crossing a finishing line.
My work undoubtedly gives me a sense of identity; I’m sure it does for many people. But when the work stops, I don’t want my identity to disappear.
Retirement doesn’t need to remove our experience; it doesn’t remove our relationships, our ability to contribute, or our need for connection.
Jane’s Saturday demonstrates that perfectly.
From the financial pension to the social pension
I can see another pension I need to build: the social pension. This includes knowing where my ‘people’ are, where I belong, something to look forward to, where I learn, and what provides structure and a sense of purpose.
For me, parkrun has become part of my social pension. Alongside the physical activity, it has provided friendships, travel, volunteering, conversation and a reason to explore.
Three weeks after the Southwark parkrun, I found myself back at Southwark Park on the Sunday, this time for the Southwark Junior parkrun for the final instalment of the Slam.
The gang including Aqasa’s wife and daughter
I volunteered as Tail Walker, helped with the event shutdown and then joined the other volunteers for drinks and cake afterwards, and that seemed like a fitting way to end the month. I didn’t just complete the challenge; I contributed to it.
The Southwark Slam took me through different parks, different volunteer roles and different communities.
It introduced me to people I knew and people I didn’t; it reminded me that there are many ways to participate. This is the lesson I’m taking into my own thinking about retirement.
One danger about the traditional idea of retirement is that it can sound like an ending. Instead, we can think of it as a transition into something different. At parkrun, there are so many ways to have purpose. I can learn new skills, I can gain inspiration from others and I can turn up on Saturday mornings and be part of making the day a little better for a whole group of people, some I know and some I do not know.
Throughout parkrun, I spend a lot of time around people at different stages of life; I see people of different generations coming together without worrying too much about age, job title or background. parkrun doesn’t ask what you used to do; instead, it asks what you would like to do today. This is a much better way for me to think about retirement. I don’t ever want to retire from purpose. I want to have the freedom to decide what comes next. Perhaps more parkrun tourism, perhaps more volunteering, perhaps new challenges I haven’t even thought about yet. parkrun is never about the finishing line; it’s about being involved, and that’s what I want from my retirement.
Happy running, walking and volunteering.
How Parkrun Began
You can read about how parkrun was created by the founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, a care leaver, in his book ‘One Small Step’, The Definitive Account of how a run became a Global Movement by clicking here.
What a lovely ode to parkrun! Thanks