Start your weekend with parkrun fun
IT won’t make you an Ironman overnight but at least it’s a start.
“Congratulations on completing the PE Hobie Beach parkrun today: your time was 00:45:00, you finished in 429th place,” the e-mail read, the day after sallied forth for the popular Saturday fun run.
You may have a better time than me – huffing and puffing, I had to walk much of the 5km course from Hobie Beach to the Summerstrand Admiralty Way beacon, and back – but you may be slower. For most who do the increasingly popular parkrun, speed is not really the point. It’s all about getting out there and taking part.
Unless, perhaps, you are newly weds Liza and Michael Kingston. This couple, who were finalists in The Herald Bride and Groom competition, took first and second place in the most recent parkrun on March 21 with Liza just pipping Michael across the finish line in less than 19 minutes. Liza also holds the course record for women runners.
However, fast or slow, young or old, fit or fat, taking part in one of the 50-plus parkruns across the country is a grand start to a weekend.
Parkrun is an organisation which presents free, weekly, timed 5km runs around the world, often in a parkland setting. St Francis Bay and Grahamstown have courses and there are three in and around East London.
Each race done earns you a point with prizes through the year. For many, though, the best prize is increased personal fitness and the chance to savour a safe beach outing in like-minded company.
The morning I joined, for example, the teenage girl just ahead of me on the beach squealed excitedly to her mother jogging alongside, “look mom, dolphins!” As runners’ heads swivelled en masse to gaze out to sea, several slowed their pace and one or two even paused to watch the graceful animals among the surfers. You probably won’t find that in many other races.
The volunteers vary but Port Elizabeth event directors Werner de Lange and Tamarin Ellis will be there come rain or shine. Together with Adrienne Wilson, Shaun Whinney and Catherine Sweetnam they make sure each Saturday morning is efficiently marshalled with a team of volunteers. It is only because of these volunteers that the run is free to the public.
Since the first Hobie Beach parkrun in August two years ago, says Ellis, there have been close to 5 000 different runners in more than 80 races, including runners from 109 different athletics clubs. Entrant numbers vary, ranging from 250 to 678, and the sight of a happy ribbon of runners stretching out along the beachfront may well inspire you to get started.
A time that can only improve has spurred me on. I will never be an Ironman but I can perhaps nudge my 45 minutes down and inch closer to a stronger, fitter body. What are you waiting for?
Further information from www.parkrun.co.za
-Gillian McAinsh
