Timaru has become the latest location to join a globe-spanning fitness phenomenon.
Parkrun is a global organisation that encourages people to get outdoors and walk, jog or run 5km on a set day, each week.
The organisation hosts around 2,500 parkruns each week across 23 countries and on May 3 more than 100 people attended the inaugural Caroline Bay event.
Caroline Bay parkrun event director Colin Macpherson said he began work on getting a parkrun in Timaru in early 2024.
‘‘I’d come back [to Timaru] from a short break in Wellington just before New Year.
‘‘I’m a passionate runner myself and I’ve done a few parkruns over the years and I had the opportunity to do one up at Waitangi Park in Wellington.
‘‘It’s always a really good atmosphere, really good vibes with people who are really supportive, engaging and inclusive.’’
He said after returning home he had a good feeling about the experience.
‘‘I posted something up on my Facebook account saying ‘this kind of thing’s good for the soul’.
‘‘A colleague of mine commented that we should really have one in Timaru, and I had been thinking after that, ‘why don’t we?’
‘‘I looked into what I needed to do and spoke with a few people in the running scene to see if it had been done before or if there would be any barriers.
‘‘I wasn’t really getting any negatives so I just decided to go ahead and put forward a proposal to parkrun.’’
Mr MacPherson said although the process took a bit longer than he anticipated, it was exciting to have finally launched the event this month.
‘‘There was a lot of anticipation and prep in the week or two before, just wanting everything to go smoothly.
‘‘We’ve got an amazing volunteer team, we had 17 on the day doing all sorts of different roles.
‘‘In the end I was blown away. In the middle of week I was wondering how many people would turn up because parkrun advised us to keep it on the down low so we didn’t massively overwhelm our team like what had happened at some similar parkrun events.’’
Mr Macpherson said they had 130 people finish.
‘‘It was incredible to see so many people coming as well from all over New Zealand.
‘‘We had people fly down from Lower Hutt, outside Auckland and then people travelling from Christchurch, Dunedin and Palmerston.
‘‘It really seemed to be the parkrun tourism culture that I’d heard about.’’
He said people were coming from all over because they wanted to be here for the first event and see the new, bright and shiny parkrun.
The whole idea of parkrun was that once an event was set up it would continue to run indefinitely.
For the new Caroline Bay parkrun, it will be held every Saturday at 9am during winter and 8am during summer.
Mr Macpherson said absolutely anyone could take part.
‘‘It’s free, anyone can come along but we really encourage people to register at parkrun.com.
‘‘With registration you receive a one-off barcode number that can be used for parkruns anywhere in the world.
‘‘When you cross the finish line, you get given a token that aligns with the place you came and then you have that and your barcode scanned.’’
He said through the wonder of technology you get an email with your results.
‘‘You can see where you sit in the world in terms of top finish times, if you want to look at it that way, but it’s all just about participation.’’
He said although it might sound a bit conflicting, parkrun is not just a timed 5km running event.
‘‘This is about getting a community together, meeting some new people, socialising, networking and just getting out in the fresh air to be physically active.
‘‘It’s also rewarding for people who just want to come out, volunteer and be a part of something.
‘‘We don’t want to guilt people into it but we can never have too many.’’
He said it was a great event, something he was super passionate about.
‘‘The team, the volunteers are super passionate about it as well.
‘‘We want to keep it running for as long as we possibly can, hopefully forever.’’
Anyone looking for more information on the Caroline Bay parkrun can visit its Facebook page or the Caroline Bay section on the parkrun website.
