Santa the theme at festive Hobie Beach parkrun

FATHER Christmas could be going on a 5km run along Hobie Beach on Saturday.

Organisers of the weekly Hobie Beach parkrun are requesting all parkrunners to dress in red or something festive, including Father Christmas outfits or even just Christmas hats, for the Hobie Beach festival charity run which starts at 8am.

They will be supporting two charities – the Malabar Home for the Aged and the Eastern Province Child and Youth Care Centre. Participants are urged to bring either a litre of long-life milk for the home or stationery for the Youth Care Centre.

The parkrun started in London as the Bushy Park time-trials with 13 participants in 2004. Today, there are nearly a million runners hitting the road worldwide at 8am every Saturday.

A parkrun entails people getting together for a free timed fun run every Saturday and is open to all ages and fitness levels.

There is no registration fee and participants do not have to belong to clubs, but must register online on www.parkrun.co.za/registerand bring along their barcode which will be used to control their times.

Results in each event are processed and booked online after every run.

Each registered runner has an individual page cataloguing the details of each event they have participated in. They are also rated with runners across the globe.

To date, the PE Hobie Beach parkrun has over 6000 registered parkrunners. - Mogan Segadavan