Parkrun

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Or should I say 'parkrun' as there is no capital letter at the start of the word!


parkrun is a free timed 5 km event that is held all over the world on a Saturday morning. If you have never heard of it then go check out the parkrun website and see what all the fuss is about.

In short, it started in Oct 2004 in Bushy Park in London. A group of 13 runners all got together on a Saturday and ran round the park for 5 km. Then they had the great idea to have one of them casually time the others to keep track of how they were doing. Not a race or a competition, but more to assist with their training. This one event grew and now 20 years later there are parkruns held on Saturday mornings, in local parks/beaches all over the world. At the last count, there was just under 2000 of them around the world. There are currently 43 in New Zealand, I have done 2 of them but have only just started back today so one day I might have plans to travel around and complete some others that are not so local.

Let me get one thing straight away, I am not a runner!

I have no aspiration to become one either, I leave that to my baby brother who does do that and does it well. Me, I am a walker, a fast walker but a walker.

You can hop skip, jump, run or walk your way round the 5 km track.

parkrun is entirely run by volunteers, so there is a real community feel to it and without the volunteers then the event wouldn't run each week. In NZ we start at 8am but I am aware that in other places around the world, they start at 9am or even 9.30am

Today I made the decision, as part of this get moving campaign I have put myself on, to attend an event again and give it a go. I last did an event back in October 2017 (I completed only 3 weeks and then life got in the way) It was awesome to see someone there that I know, so it didn't feel so uncomfortable standing at the start listening to the briefing and having no idea what was happening.

I am proud that I got up early, got moving and went to parkrun. Always easier to move when you have others around you all aiming for the same thing, managing to cross the finish line.

Think I will be definitely going back next week.

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