Couch to 5k app getting us running
STEVE Cram has told of his pride in the nation’s fun runners as the ‘Couch to 5k’ App celebrated seven million downloads.
The fitness drive has helped an army of ‘absolute beginners’ find a happier, healthier lifestyle, new figures reveal.
Athletics legend Cram, nicknamed ‘The Jarrow Arrow’ in his heyday, marked the milestone with blind runner Maggie Bowes, 73.
“It’s an incredible, brilliant way for people to start,” he said. “I began the same way as everybody else. People think it is different for an elite athlete.
“But my old coach Jimmy Hedley used to ask me ‘Do you know the hardest thing about training?’ And he would say ‘Getting out of the front door’.”
Cram, who set world records in the 1,500 metres, 2,000 metres and the mile during a 19-day period in the summer of 1985, added: “So many people like Maggie come up to me to say they are using Couch to 5k.
“I love the idea that they talk back to me. I’ve a relative who says ‘I keep swearing at you Steve.’ I say ‘go for it’.”
Maggie, who was born blind, suffered broken vertebrae in her back in a fall two years ago.
Cram’s gentle words of advice have guided her recovery and she is back doing 5k parkruns.
Recalling her fall while out shopping with her guide dog, she said: “I ended up in hospital for about three weeks. My guide runners were very good. They came to go for a walk with me. I started the Couch to 5k and chose Steve to guide me. I said ‘It’s got to be an athlete, somebody who knows what they’re doing.’”
Her guide runner Natalie Jackson helped her train near Maggie’s Warwick home. She said: “I can hear her talking to Steve and can hear his voice when we run.”
Now a BBC commentator, Cram, 63, added: “Maggie is amazing.”
The app, made by BBC Sport and the Department of Health, launched in 2016. It offers a nine-week, threetimes a week running programme, designed to guide beginners through a gradual transition. Each lesson is guided by familiar voices including comedian Sarah Millican, DJ Jo Whiley, Cram and fellow athlete Denise Lewis.
Experts say regular running reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke, and improves mood and wellbeing. In 2023 there were 605,000 new downloads for the app and almost two million active users of Couch to 5K.