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I'm the kind of guy who has to fool himself into getting exercise, and I seem to have found a way of doing it.

I tried the BBC Couch to 5k challenge a couple of years ago with the aim of getting back in shape, and managed to keep up the habit. The only problem was, I was getting really bored running on treadmills, or just going around the same route every day. 

One day I was driving through Kings Park (the neighbourhood) and I realised I had never set foot inside the park itself. I decided to go for a run in Kings Park (the park) for a change, and found it much more rewarding to run in a new place. 

It made me wonder how many other city parks I had never visited.

I had a look online and kept seeing references to there being over 90 parks in Glasgow, but there was no comprehensive list, even on the council website. I got in touch with Glasgow City Council and they sent me a list of 88 parks. 

Looking at the map I found some that the council seemed to have forgotten about, and added in former Glasgow parks from before the city council boundaries were narrowed, taking in Cambuslang, Rutherglen, Giffnock and so on. It turns out there are over a hundred parks in total, ranging from giant country parks to small urban squares.

Running the Parks charts the progress of me attempting to run every park in Glasgow. I'll tell you how exhausted I am, what the weather was like, and what audiobook I'm listening to. I'm ranking each park, entirely subjectively, and you can follow my progress on my Google map.

So far, it's been exhausting and illuminating in equal measure. It's as much about exploration as it is exercise. It's been a great project to undertake during the year of the pandemic, because visiting parks and open spaces is one of the few activities that has been unaffected. 

There are loads of cities across the UK with a similar bounty of hidden green gems. I would recommend doing something similar to anyone who likes exploring their local area. You'll learn so much about the city, its history and its sheer variety. You'll find beautiful and fascinating places that you never knew existed. 

And if you're like me, all of that distracts you from the unpleasantness of doing physical exercise.

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