Have you heard of parkrun? - Real Mum story on MoM

10 Comments

Quite by chance about 2 years ago I stumbled upon something called ‘parkrun’ a community activity organized by the participants themselves, designed to get people of all ages walking, jogging, running and moving towards a healthier lifestyle in a free, timed 5km event, once a week.

Every Saturday, at 8am across Australia, you can find various communities doing their ‘parkrun’ and the sponsors ensure that after 50 and 100 runs you get a free T-shirt. Volunteers are usually given a free coffee, or similar, every time they volunteer (depending on the local sponsors). It is now well established in Australia and has made the news a few times as communities relate their success stories.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing parkrun and it is great that children can be involved too. While Australia doesn’t yet have the 2km kids event, they are welcome to join with the adults and be pushed or carried the 5km, or walk/jog it themselves (with an adult if under 11 years). The kids also enjoy it and it was great being able to do it together (at least before they started going quicker than me!).

The only downside for us is the travel time to the event, which means an early start on a day we could be sleeping-in! One day we might look at organizing an event closer to home, but probably not just yet!

So I hope you’ve heard about parkrun already (and if you haven’t that you can make a mental note of it now just in case it is for you or your kids!). Many families across Australia are loving it. I only wished we’d heard sooner!

Posted by mom176887, 5th May 2016

10 Comments

- - mom19782016 said
  - 11 Jun 2016
    7:09 am
Well thanks for posting this. I hadn’t heard of it but think my kids (and I ) would be up for that when they are a bit bigger. sounds like a great healthy lifestyle to get involved in.

- - mom172741 said
  - 19 May 2016
    9:31 am
We love Parkrun! We attend every Saturday. There are more and more runs popping up across the country (and world). I really want to be a Parkrun tourist in Singapore and try out their course. We are going to support a new run closer to home this weekend that is being trialled. Great community and great start to the weekend!

- - mom81879 said
  - 11 May 2016
    6:37 pm
I have actually never heard of this, it’s new to me. But I’ll be having a look to see if there’s one happening close to where I live anyway. I walk most days with my dogs anyway

- - BellaB said
  - 07 May 2016
    4:30 pm
Thanks, especially for the link. It’ll be useful.

- - mom90758 said
  - 06 May 2016
    11:25 am
Very nice! I must admit I had never heard of this before. But checking your link I found out there is one parkrun every Saturday going on quite close to where I live.
Very good on you for being so active!
- mom93821 replied
  
  07 May 2016 , 8:03 am
  Just love this kind of sharing on this site!
  - mom90758 replied
    
    07 May 2016 , 10:59 am
    
    Indeed. A great way to get to know what is going on.
- - mom93821 said
  - 05 May 2016
    2:47 pm
Sounds interesting, do you have a link for this?
- mom176887 replied
  
  05 May 2016 , 8:52 pm
  The main Australia page is http://www.parkrun.com.au/ from where you can search for runs in your area using the ‘events’ tab. Each event has its own webpage and usually a facebook page too.
  - mom93821 replied
    
    06 May 2016 , 7:07 pm
    
    Thank you for being thoughtful and taking the time to post the extra info and link.