Yesterday, 34,677 people

went on the Adelaide to Glenelg "Fun Run". You will notice I say "went". I did not say "ran".
It is an annual event organised by the media in cooperation with the police (who need to stop the other traffic), the ambulance service (in case of illness and injury) and services like Rotary who hand out water along the way.
It is a twelve kilometre course. Some people run it, others walk it and some wheel it. I stay at home. I have never had any desire to pedal in such a thing. Yes, yes I know similar events take place elsewhere. I know they are very popular. I have no doubt that the adrenalin flows at an increased rate. It is all considered to be "fun". Perhaps it is.
Some people use it as a fund raiser for charity. Our friend Polly has walked it to raise funds for charity. That is probably a good use of the event but most people just do it for "fun".
The problem, as I see it, is that the "fun" is considered to be an annual thing for many people. They would not dream of doing a twelve kilometre run at any other time. Oh yes, some of them train for the "City to Bay" but it is not a year round thing. Even so the people who participate are, most likely, those who participate in some sort of exercise at least each week. There are hundreds of thousands of other people who do not participate in exercise at all.
Of course nobody wants 34,677 people stopping the vehicular traffic down Anzac Highway every Sunday morning. It would be a major disruption to life each week. If that same number of people were spread out across the city they would scarcely be noticed. Doing the "run" gets you noticed. It is something to tell your family and friends about. At least some people do it for that reason.
And the hundreds of thousands who really do not exercise at all do not get noticed. They may not wish to be noticed. They may not want to risk appearing in the list in the paper which says they were the 34,677th person to reach the finish line. Or, like me, they may just not want to do it. Coming in 34,677th though would not bother me. I would be quite pleased with myself if I pedalled that far in a morning. Perhaps I should try.