Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 52, November 2013 | Page 34

ip h rs e EW N rtn a P parkrun SA Join the friendly, free 8am Saturday morning 5km in your area! Bruce’s Bit I n the July 2012 edition of Modern Athlete, there was a prediction that the parkrun concept would take South Africa by storm. However, I don’t think any of us could have predicted quite how ferocious that storm would be! At that time, there were just three parkruns operating in the country, with barely 500 registered parkrunners. The Roodepoort and Ebotse parkruns were in their infancy, and Delta was a mere toddler still ?ve months shy of its ?rst birthday. Also, parkrun was purely a Johannesburg concept, with little interest from the rest of the country. Today there are 20 parkruns spread throughout the country, with four more to start before the end of 2013. Most astonishing of all, there are now over 35 000 registered parkrunners in the country, growing by between 1 000 and 1 200 a week! Early next year, parkrun South Africa will number more than 50 000 and no one wants to predict its size by the end of 2014. In addition, parkrun venue enquiries are being ?elded every day from all over the country, and we expect parkrunners to be able to select a parkrun from up to 50 different venues by the end of next year. Perhaps the most rewarding feature of parkruns has been to observe and follow the personal journeys of so many 34 ISSUE 52 NOVEMBER 2013 / www.modernathlete.co.za parkrunners. Some have lost masses of weight, there are those who have transformed from slow walkers to fast runners, and there are even some who have gone from parkrunner to Comrades ?nisher in six months. Each event director could write a book about the bene?ts of parkrun! None of this would be possible without the invaluable help of both event directors and volunteers. The central ethos of parkrun is the volunteer spirit and it is quite heart-warming to see so many give up part of their Saturday morning to help with marshalling, results scanning and timing duties. One of the most frequently asked questions of parkrun is: “How are you able to bring this free of charge to parkrunners?” We are able to do this thanks to the generous support of our three major sponsors: Blue Label Telecoms, adidas and Discovery Vitality. Blue Label Telecoms believed in us when we were a mere 30-strong, adidas offers generous support, including supplying our club member tees, and all of?cial kit, and Discovery Vitality both supports us and offers Vitality members a generous 500 points for every completed parkrun. The future looks very bright for parkrun SA as it ful?ls its role of being a signi?cant member of a worldwide family that is rapidly approaching a million members. parkrun PARTNER! Modern Athlete is proud to announce our new partnership with parkrun SA. Each month in the magazine, you’ll get all the news, info and updates from the friendly, free 5km runs around the country, as well as speci?c features on a parkrun near you. Plus, all registered parkrun members will receive a FREE Modern Athlete digi-mag each month! SA's Biggest Running Publication A word from parkrun SA founder and nine-time Comrades Marathon winner Bruce Fordyce.