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On a cool Saturday morning in many cities around the world, groups of people in bright running shoes gather in parks and on riversides. They are not professional athletes. They are teachers, students, office workers and parents who belong to a community running club. Ten years ago, such clubs were rare. Today, they are everywhere, and their popularity keeps growing. Why do so many ordinary people want to run together? The first reason is health. Doctors say that running for thirty minutes, three times a week, can reduce the risk of heart disease, control weight and improve sleep. However, many people find it hard to exercise alone. When they run with a group, they feel encouraged. If one member feels tired, others cheer them on. As a result, members are far more likely to keep running week after week than people who train by themselves. The second reason is friendship. Modern life can be lonely, especially in big cities where neighbours rarely talk to each other. A running club gives people a regular chance to meet others who share the same interest. After a run, members often have breakfast together or chat in an online group. For newcomers to a city, a running club can be the fastest way to make friends. Some members even say that their running friends have become like family. There are also benefits for the community. Many clubs organise charity runs to raise money for schools, hospitals or poor families. A single charity run can collect thousands of dollars and bring hundreds of people to a local park, which helps small shops and cafés nearby. In addition, when more people run in public spaces, those spaces feel safer and more alive. Running clubs are not perfect. Some people worry about injuries, especially beginners who run too far too soon. Good clubs solve this problem by dividing runners into groups based on speed and by teaching warm-up exercises. Others complain that popular running routes become crowded on weekends. Still, most members agree that the advantages are much greater than the disadvantages. In short, community running clubs show that sport is not only about winning medals. It is about health, friendship and a stronger community. That is probably why, every Saturday morning, more and more people are lacing up their shoes and heading for the park. In Vietnam, running clubs are also becoming popular, especially among young people in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Many clubs meet at five o'clock in the morning before work, and they welcome runners of all levels, from complete beginners to experienced marathon runners. Some clubs even organise weekend trips to the countryside, where members run through rice fields and small villages. These trips are not only good exercise but also a chance to discover beautiful places and enjoy local food together.

A hundred years ago, athletes trained by simply repeating the same exercises every day until they were exhausted. Coaches believed that pain was a sign of progress. Today, sport looks very different. Science now guides almost every part of training, from what athletes eat to how long they sleep, and the results are remarkable: records that once seemed impossible are broken again and again. One of the biggest changes is in understanding recovery. When athletes exercise hard, tiny tears appear in their muscles. In the past, athletes often ignored this and kept training, which led to serious injuries. Scientists now explain that muscles grow stronger during rest, not during exercise itself. As a result, professional teams plan rest days as carefully as training days, and many athletes wear devices that measure how well they slept. Nutrition has also changed completely. Instead of eating whatever they liked, athletes now follow eating plans designed by experts. A footballer, for example, may eat more carbohydrates before a match for energy, and more protein afterwards to repair muscles. Some teams even test players' sweat to find out exactly how much water and salt each player loses, so that drinks can be prepared for each individual. Technology plays a central role too. Small sensors in shoes, shirts and watches collect data on speed, heart rate and distance. Coaches study this information on computers and can see, for example, that a player runs more slowly in the last fifteen minutes of a match. With this knowledge, they can change the training programme to improve endurance. Video analysis is equally important: players watch recordings of their own movements to correct mistakes that are invisible to the naked eye. However, some people worry that science is taking the fun out of sport. They argue that young athletes now feel like machines, with every minute of their day planned by experts. There is also a concern about fairness: rich teams can afford the best scientists and equipment, while poor teams cannot. This gap may decide who wins before the match even starts. Despite these concerns, most experts agree that science has made sport safer and fairer in many ways. Injuries are treated faster, training is based on evidence rather than guesswork, and athletes can enjoy longer careers. The challenge for the future is to use science wisely — to help athletes reach their best while keeping sport human, joyful and open to everyone. Science is not only for professional athletes. Today, many schools use simple scientific ideas to help students enjoy sport safely. Physical education teachers, for example, teach students to warm up properly, drink water regularly and rest between exercises. Some schools use heart rate monitors in class so that students can see how their bodies respond to different activities. Researchers say that when students understand their own bodies, they are more likely to enjoy sport and less likely to get injured. In the future, scientists hope to design training programmes for children that are both fun and safe, so that the love of sport can last a whole lifetime.

Every year, millions of people travel not to relax on a beach, but to play or watch sport. A football fan may fly across the world to see their favourite team in a final. A golfer may choose a holiday in Scotland simply because it is the home of golf. A cyclist may spend a week riding through the mountains of France. This growing trend is called sports tourism, and it is changing both the travel industry and the places that welcome visitors. For travellers, sports tourism offers something that an ordinary holiday cannot: strong emotion. Watching your team score the winning goal in a huge stadium, surrounded by thousands of fans singing together, is an experience people remember for the rest of their lives. Playing sport in a new place is equally exciting. Running a marathon in a foreign city, for example, lets visitors see streets, parks and landmarks in a way that no bus tour can offer. For host cities, the benefits can be enormous. When a city hosts a major event such as a marathon, a tennis tournament or a motor race, hotels fill up, restaurants are busy, and local shops sell more. A single weekend event can bring in millions of dollars. That is why cities compete fiercely to host big competitions, sometimes spending large amounts of money to build new stadiums and improve transport. However, sports tourism also brings problems. Prices often rise sharply during big events, so local people may not be able to afford a hotel room or even a ticket to the match in their own city. Huge crowds can damage parks and streets, and the extra flights and traffic increase air pollution. Some residents complain that their quiet neighbourhood suddenly becomes noisy and crowded for weeks. Another issue is that the benefits are not shared equally. Big hotels and international companies usually earn the most, while small local businesses may gain very little. If a new stadium is built only for one event and then left empty, the city may be left with a large debt and an unused building. Despite these problems, sports tourism is likely to keep growing, because people love both sport and travel. The key, experts say, is careful planning: events should use existing stadiums when possible, protect the environment, and make sure local people also benefit — through jobs, cheaper tickets and better facilities that remain long after the visitors have gone home. Vietnam is also becoming a popular destination for sports tourists. Every year, thousands of foreign visitors come to take part in marathons in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, or to cycle through the mountains of the north. Surfing in Da Nang, kayaking in Ha Long Bay and trekking in Sapa attract adventure lovers from all over the world. Local people benefit when tourists stay in small hotels, eat in family restaurants and buy handmade souvenirs. However, experts warn that popular places must protect their natural beauty, or the crowds that bring money today may destroy the very landscapes visitors come to see.

Sport and the environment are closely connected. Athletes need clean air to breathe, clean water to swim in, and a stable climate for outdoor events. Yet sport itself can harm the environment: huge stadiums use enormous amounts of energy, thousands of fans travel by car and plane, and a single match can produce tons of rubbish, from plastic cups to food packaging. In recent years, however, many sports organisations have started to take the problem seriously. One major change is in stadium design. New stadiums are being built with solar panels on their roofs, rainwater collection systems, and LED lights that use far less electricity. Some stadiums even grow grass on their roofs to keep the building cool. Old stadiums are also being improved: many have replaced single-use plastic cups with reusable ones, and fans are encouraged to bring their own bottles. Transport is another important area. A large part of a sporting event's pollution comes not from the stadium itself, but from fans travelling to it. To reduce this, some clubs offer free public transport tickets with every match ticket. Others organise special buses and trains for fans, or build safe cycle paths to the stadium. When fans leave their cars at home, traffic jams and air pollution both fall sharply. Athletes themselves are becoming powerful voices for the environment. Famous footballers, tennis players and Olympic champions now speak publicly about climate change and plastic waste. Because millions of young fans admire them, their message reaches far beyond the world of sport. Some athletes have even started their own projects, such as planting trees or cleaning beaches. Critics point out that these efforts are still small compared with the scale of the problem. A football season involves hundreds of flights for teams and fans, and most sports clothing is still made from plastic-based materials. They argue that real change will require stricter rules, not just voluntary actions. Nevertheless, the direction is positive. Sport has a unique power: it brings people together and inspires emotion. If that power is used to promote a greener lifestyle, the impact could be far greater than the sport itself. The goal is clear — future games should be exciting for fans and kind to the planet at the same time. Some major events are already showing what is possible. At recent Olympic Games, organisers used recycled materials to make medals, served food in reusable containers and powered stadiums with renewable energy. Fans were encouraged to travel by train and bicycle, and thousands of volunteers helped sort rubbish for recycling. Although organising a green event costs more at first, organisers say it saves money in the long run and leaves a positive example for future hosts. If every competition follows this example, sport could become one of the strongest forces for protecting the environment.

Hi! Our town is organising a charity run next Saturday to raise money for a new children's playground. I know you love running. Would you like to join our team? It will be a 5-kilometre run in the park, starting at 7 a.m. After the run, we will have a picnic together. Write back and tell me if you can come, what you need to prepare, and ask me two questions about the event. Hope to hear from you soon! Alex