In South Africa, October has been declared Mental Health Awareness month. Kip Norman of Roodepoort parkrun is nearing the age of 60 and over half a lifetime ago, he was diagnosed with PTSD and depression. Unknowingly, the condition was kept more or less in check before diagnosis due to his active running lifestyle, with Kip training…
I love greeting everyone when I volunteer at parkrun. When I do timekeeping, I encourage everyone to “finish strong” and when I barcode scan I always ask how the run was. I’m sometimes a bit slow on the scanning but I want every participant to feel valued and let them know how friendly parkrun is!…
Ruimsig parkrun in Gauteng joined the parkrun family in September 2018. In the first year 9,000 different people completed the course, covering 175,000km! Adele Enslin, Event Director at Ruimsig tells us more: How did Ruimsig parkrun come about? We moved to Stubensvalley from Secunda in April 2018 & some parkrun tourist friends mentioned to me…
Neil Munro has recently reached the 100 club, despite two knee replacements. He tells us how he first got involved, the adventures it has taken him on, and why it has been so special sharing it with his family. I heard about parkrun from my neighbour Claude Pearce who was eighty years old in…
Terrifying but true: Around 500 BILLION (yes, billion) plastic bags are used worldwide every year – and over a million plastic bags are used worldwide every MINUTE. Considering it takes 500 – 1000 years for plastic to degrade, it’s no surprise that we’re in the thick of a plastic crisis. In an effort…
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On Saturday, 14 September 2019, Torrin Theron achieved 300 volunteer credits, performing a total of 428 tasks! Torrin started her parkrun journey at Root 44 where she was Event Director from 2013. She then supported the Western Cape as Regional Ambassador from 2015 – 2018 before stepping down to further her studies. She is now…
I was asked by my son, David , whether I would assist at the Roodepoort inaugural as there was a shortage of volunteers. I reluctantly agreed as I had no interest in running at all. The following week I again volunteered to assist not realising that this would become a habit. It was only after my…
This week we heard the very sad news that the legendary Don Oliver had died. For over 40 years Don was one of the great characters of South African road running and his contribution to the sport was immense. A respected marathon runner in his own right, Don ran 18 Two Oceans ultras, 19…
Most parkrunners are aware that every year, in December and January, we offer a few extra parkruns. Some of these are held on Christmas morning at parkruns which have agreed to hold an extra run. On New Year’s morning, it is possible to run two extra parkruns. Again this only happens at parkruns…
