4 replies to this topic

[parkrun]

In October 2010 I met with parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt in a cafe in Wimbledon, South West London, and asked him if I could bring the parkrun concept to Australia. Not long afterwards Paul gave me his blessing and now, just over 12 month later, we are up and running (literally) with 3 thriving events, almost 1,700 registered parkrunners and an amazing group of volunteers. I couldn't be happier.

So how has this all come about?

Once Paul gave me the go ahead the first person I contacted was 'Kiwi' Tim Gordon, my great mate who was working as a personal trainer in Sydney at the time. We both agreed that Queensland's Gold Coast would be the perfect location to launch parkrun in Australia. Next I contacted Samantha Hughes, Senior Active Parks Officer at the Gold Coast City Council. Little did I know that Sam is also an avid runner and in fact a former Gold Coast Marathon winner so immediately she was supportive of the concept.

Kiwi Tim moved up to the Gold Coast in December and I returned newly married in January. We met with Sam and soon afterwards gained the support of her boss, Mayor of the Gold Coast and running legend Ron Clarke CBE. We agreed on a suitable 5km course at Main Beach and John Borbidge and Brendan Murray from Mezzanine Coaching Agency volunteered as our first Event Directors. On 4 April 2011 parkrun launched in Australia and we haven't looked back since.

As I write this our event registrations have grown to:

Main Beach parkrun, Gold Coast - 915
New Farm parkrun, Brisbane - 415 (launched 17 Sep)
Albert parkrun, Melbourne - 298 (launched 19 Nov)

We have bold plans for 2012 with the aim being to launch at least another six events. St Peter's parkrun in Sydney is scheduled for 21 January and if Facebook 'likes' are anything to go by then Perth, Adelaide, Townsville and Canberra will also follow suit.

None of this however, will be possible without grass roots support from the Australian running community, both in terms of volunteering and participation. So if you live in any of these locations, or anywhere else where you think a partkrun event will be well received, please get in touch and become part of parkrun family.

Happy Running!



Tim Oberg
National Manager | parkrun Australia
tim@parkrun.com

[GoldCoastRunner]

Park Run = Single most valuable training tool freely available to the public (apart from oxygen that is)   .

From 5k TT to test your ability and current form, to long run fast finishes tacked on the back of your weekly Saturday long run the possibilities are endless. This is going to be one great training tool…..Not to mention a great way to settle bets by racing your mates.!!

[Bellthorpe]

I've run one ParkRun, after a night out drinking free CR drinks beer (thanks again Adrian). It's a great event, and I'm a fan. Will do more. Thoroughly recommend.

And I'm just seconds behind parkrun on age adjusted times, so he knows his ass has a target on it for me ...

[tymb]

fantastic news that one is coming to Sydney, having heard lots about them from listening to marathon talk I hope to run my first in a couple of weeks while on holiday in the UK. Will be back in Jan to head down to St Peters. While my life involves juggling two young kids at the minute I will be happy to help out when I can

[brownsinglet]

Agreed, Parkrun is a well organised event.  The Newfarm parkrun starts and finishes at a coffee shop so great for a post race beverage.  Looking forward to running my 2nd parkrun this coming weekend and volunteering on the 24th of Dec.