Forgive my colleague Paulo Vieira, owner of this Folha’s No Corre column, but I believe it is important to make an appeal to the bunch of race organizers on the streets of São Paulo: how about promoting events that include longer walks and not just the 3k mixurucos that (few) legging promoters around the city include in their schedule? Why not promote long walks, not like guided tours of historic landmarks, which stop every block, but longer routes through the many corners of our cities? Or do only demonstrations against, in favor or quite the opposite offer the opportunity to fight?
When a journalist ends up on the contact list of sports event advisors, the mailbox is full of emails reporting lots of races, no less than 7 or 8 every weekend across every corner of the country. Well, since my last São Silvestre, in 2014, I never ran again, I preferred to dedicate myself to hiking, trails and so on. And I must admit that I’m envious of seeing so many initiatives aimed at those who put their asses out in the parks, streets, beaches and forests out there.
Even the large street demonstrations in São Paulo, the March for Jesus, this Thursday (4), and the LGBT Parade, on Sunday (7), more parties than walks, it must be said, limit their routes to 3.5 kilometers from their starting points until the end. And you can’t say that singing praises or beating fans falls into the category of aerobic exercises, no matter how lively they may be.
There are also timid initiatives, such as the commendable Let’s Trilhar no Parque project, a free monthly initiative by the Municipal Department of Sports and Leisure, which since 2024 has taken around 63 thousand people to walk through the city’s conservation units. But guess what: the longest distance traveled is always 3k. The so-called Kabbalistic number that someone must have concluded is the maximum that this grandma will want to face.
Another enviable and more exciting program is the Night Walk, in the Cantareira State Park, Horto Florestal de São Paulo, in the north zone, which totals around 8k round trip to Pedra Grande, from where you can see the night landscape of the capital of São Paulo and, with any luck, a beautiful starry sky.
If these two honorable quotes made it into the column, it is impossible to ignore that in São Paulo alone, at the beginning of the year, I was informed that more than 250 races were proudly scheduled for the 52 weekends of 2026. In basic arithmetic, almost 5 per weekend. Some include the 3k walk—but, most of the time, the option sounds almost like a concession to the grandmother who will accompany her running grandson and take a walk around the park while the young athlete tries to improve his pace with an eye on the next race.
An example of this vision is the email I received a few days ago suggesting an agenda for an activity called Urban Walk, which will be held on Saturday (13) at Villa Lobos Park, in the west zone of São Paulo. As the name suggested it was an opportunity to walk, without requiring expensive sneakers and fashionable supplements, I went after it to find out more. And that’s when I realized that I hadn’t read the entire text: it’s a 5k race, which will include the option of 3k for those who want to walk. Okay.
In order not to commit any injustice, especially because the motto of the race was to invite the population to “take the first step against a sedentary lifestyle” — and, I confess, the idea really attracted me — I went to talk to Thiago Klein, spokesperson for the race’s marketing company, Norte Marketing Esportivo, who ran the Instituto Esperança do Ajante project. I asked him exactly what I asked above at the beginning of this text: why only 3k of walking?
“We have here in the North what we call the National Movement to Get Off the Couch,” Klein explained to the column. “It’s basically an idea of anti-sedentary lifestyle, of trying to get people off the couch and get them running, going out,” he added. And there came the fixed idea of the race again…
“But even for those who don’t run, you will give the option of walking at an event that isn’t just about walking down the street”, he pondered, “it’s about waking up early, going to a place that has a built-in space, a whole experience for you, with a check-up day, gifts distributed, it all generates a feeling of well-being just by being in that environment, a feeling of belonging too”.
“With the theme ‘movement that becomes change’, Urban Walk is an invitation for people to get off the couch, overcome sedentary lifestyle and obesity”, says Norte’s material. “Here the focus is not performance, but health”, he continues, which, let’s face it, is very different from the usual discourse about overcoming limits and brands. Point in favor.
But then, I reiterate the challenge here: how about offering long walking options, truly aimed at making people walk around their city more and more and further, like 3k, 5k and 10k itineraries without the need for sneakers with carbon plates and whey for breakfast?
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