After trialing the concept in mid-March, it is hoped the Whanganui Riverbank parkrun will become a weekly event, all year round, once restrictions for Covid-19 are lifted. Photos / Judy Mellsop
After trialing the concept in mid-March, it is hoped the Whanganui Riverbank parkrun will become a weekly event, all year round, once restrictions for Covid-19 are lifted. Photos / Judy Mellsop
It was designed to offer people a fun Saturday morning dash along the waterfront which is connected similar events worldwide, but now it is hoped the eventual Whanganui Riverbank 'parkrun' will signal a return to normalcy.
Parkrun is a free and weekly 5km morning run or walk, intended for people of all ages and abilities, where results will be recorded so the registered can keep track of their progress, as well as how they fare alongside other parkrunners in their demographic internationally.
The original parkrun was set up by then-unemployed Paul Sinton-Hewitt, CBE, in Teddington, England, in 2004, and has since grown to over three million participants in more than 20 counties.
Whanganui is to have the 30th parkrun set up in New Zealand, as race director Judy Mellsop got the idea after joining her son at a Rotorua event last year.
Mellsop, along with fellow directors Nathan McKinley, Carla Tonks and Alec McNab, arranged a trial parkrun in mid-March for 15 invited participants.
The 5km course starts downstream from the Cobham Bridge, then heads into the Whanganui township before looping back to the start/finish line.
The first official parkrun had been scheduled for Saturday, April 4, until the Covid-19 pandemic saw New Zealand enter Level 4 lockdown.
Once New Zealand gets the all-clear to hold public events again, and the international parkrun group announces the same, Mellsop said they will hold one more trial run, before opening the 5km event up for the public – every Saturday at 8am, weather dependent.
"You register once and then you can use that barcode forever, anywhere in the world, to do a parkrun.
"I've been to about ten different places in New Zealand over the year, I think, doing them.
"We've got time keepers, and then people who scan your position and your barcode.
"Put that on the internet, it all joins up, and you send it off to somewhere, and you'll get an email saying what your time was and the details.
"It might say for your age group, because you're in five year bands, 'you got better than 60 per cent of the others doing parkrun in your age group'.
"Some people will be aiming to move up through that."
A walker herself, Mellsop said the parkrun covers the spectrum from the super fit who would nearly sprint 5km, through to the social fitness person who wants more of a morning stroll.
"So it suits a really big age range of people, and wide ability range - so long as you can cover 5km you can do it.
"People are so keen, I've already had messages for when we had our date of when we were going to start – people from Palmerston North were going to come over, bring car loads of people to do it.
"They really get into it, and so wanted to go to a new one."
The volunteers at the Whanganui Riverbank parkrun trial event in mid-March.
Mellsop said they will be looking for volunteers to help as course marshals, time keepers and bar code scanners, and interested people can register on the website - www.parkrun.co.nz/whanganuiriverbank.
People can also follow the Facebook page - Whanganui Riverbank parkrun - to see when the weekly events will officially begin after public restrictions are lifted.
