Has started up in my town 3 months ago but is a worldwide thing.
All courses are 5 km and must follow rules such as no crossing roads and take place every Saturday morning.
8 am in southern Australian states, 7 am in northern (and therefore hotter) ones.
I have done 15 now - not missed one since I started, even one week when I was away from home, I did it somewhere else.
Register once and then can do any Parkrun anywhere - free for all runners or walkers.
I do a mixture of fast walking and jogging - personal best time is just over 37 minutes.
Are you sure they are free - worldwide? In my neck of the woods they are not. Someone has to organise them and whoever does that at least expect their effort to be acknowledged in the form of a small compensation which they generate by demanding a fee from the participants. So why would people take part in something which they can also have for free? Security and company may be reasons why people participate in organised park runs. Yet security is not yet an issue over here and long distance runners are used to being lonely on the track anyway. It’s for these reasons that park runs have not got off the ground as a regular activity. There’s just one in a whole year.
It is a lot easier to do such walks in Australia than here in the UK. Australia being so vast is than much further away from the centre of the earth. Therefore the gravitational pull is less. this in turn means less effort to walk/run or anything else.
I can’t say world wide but I know the Heart Foundation walks are free and looking at the park run web site it looks like they are free also.
It might be because Australia has a long tradition of volunteer organisations, for example the State Emergency Service is a volunteer organisation as is the Bush Fire Brigade but overseas? I cannot say.
Park Runs are brilliant! They have caught on in the UK in a big way. You don’t have to be a runner to participate, just sign up and wander down to your local park and get yerself around a 3 mile course in whatever time you want. Ideal for people wanting to lose weight (the main reason why people start running) and it encourages the couch potatoes to practice through the week also. I see loads of them staggering down the street in the latest fashion hundred quid running shoes and kit, clutching a litre bottle of some strange looking fluid…For three miles?..
Most of the people I used to run with do them (those that haven’t died or suffered heart, knee or hip trouble) and visit different venues each week. They go for the social side and re-live some of the wild long distance adventures we used to do, and for a while they feel young again…But it’s not proper running, it’s just a fad…Just like in the late seventies and eighties when there was a ‘Running Boom’ Everybody and his father wanted to be a runner. Thanks to Steve Jones, Ron Hill and Jim Fixx…Who got me started, and was, and still is, my mentor and hero…He’s dead now though. RIP Jim…
Marathons and Half Marathons sprung up all around the country, including the London Marathon, and figures exceeded expectations. Eventually they weren’t allowed to close certain roads, or roads that crossed railway level crossings, and the police demanded more money to police the events. Small clubs could not afford to continue, or could not abide by all the extra rules and regulations so most of them have died out now except the big city ones and the cost of entry is eyewateringly expensive.
What’s left of the running boom are doing park runs, but I’m afraid they are not my cup of tea. I’ve always run to get away from the crowds and people and just be by myself for a while…And no bloody music!
According to their own website they are free worldwide.
Of course other organisations sometimes organise funruns - which may not be free ,that is same here - but Parkruns should be.
If you have one annual event it probably isnt Parkrun which is a weekly thing.
Security is not an issue here either and of course lots of people run on their own as well (5km is hardly long distance running though)
No you are not missing anything - obviously people can still run on their own on park tracks any time and some people prefer that.
But what appeals is the commitment to a weekly event and the social side of doing it with others and the challenge of improving your time (you get published results)
It sounds great, July. I think I might encourage my daughter to give one a go. I confess that I am a solo runner who enjoys the rare treat of being alone.
