It was fitting that Castlemaine celebrated 25 and 250 milestones on the weekend that parkrun globally reached 1 million events.
First time visitor Daisung Jang reached his 25th event and regular runner, Neil Critchley, marked his 250th as a moment to savour, describing it as “pretty awesome”.
Neil loves to put in a fast finish, and his persistence has led him to maintain a onsistent finish time of around 25 minutes since joining in 2019.
His enthusiasm for this course is palpable, citing long strides on laps 2 and 3 through the downhill and northern end of the course as a highlight. As for Parkville-based Daisung, he accompanies his partner to other parkrun courses since he started four years ago. It doesn’t matter how you participate; individual effort combined with the shared experience keeps people coming back week after week.
Saturday brought 91 regulars and visitors from across Melbourne to experience a beautiful morning at the Botanical Gardens, and despite windy conditions the expected rain stayed away. Well done to the first finishers, Rohan Singh, Rowan Drew and Daniel Nixon. They appeared to benefit from the fast track and all three finished in under 19 minutes. Clara Kiefel-Johnson was the first female in 22:05, and Margaret Clarke was the highest performing age grade at 79.81%. Participants of all abilities can join the 5km event by running, walking or interval training.
Five recorded new PBs: Clyde McKechnie, Justin Coulthard, Sadie Alexander-Reynolds, Peter Reynolds and Indigo Foreman. A top effort!
Volunteers are the heart of the event and this group helped create a safe and welcoming environment. Thanks to Shana Chong, Brendan Colnan, Robyn English, Ross Jarvis, Aureen Morris, Dave Petrusma, Maree Phypers, Vernon O’Reilly and Rosamund Stobie. Much appreciation and special thanks go out to Karina Taylor for her role in coordinating all things behind the scenes. Parkrun would not be possible
without the efforts from all who support the event or pitch in on the day.
There are many reasons to join or volunteer. If you’d like to give parkrun a try, you can check it out every Saturday.
Arrive around 7.45 am for the Run Director’s briefing. It operates on a ‘no barcode, no time’ policy. Keep your barcode on hand and you can register for one at www.parkrun.com.au. Organisers would love to see you at an event soon.