Welcome to this week's newsletter
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| In this week’s newsletter we launch new events at Kingscliff and North Lakes, hear an inspiring tale from Brendan Murray, and make plans for the ‘longest parkrun’ Australia has ever seen! |
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As per usual, the stats are in for last Saturday, October 20, with event launches at Kingscliff and North Lakes and course attendance records at Albert Melbourne and Claisebrook Cove!
Albert Melbourne - 107runners | 17 first timers | 28 PBs;
Balyang Sanctuary - 76 runners | 20 first timers | 33 PBs;
Claisebrook Cove - 72 runners | 19 first timers | 20 PBs;
Coomera - 71 runners | 26 first timers | 15 PBs;
Ginninderra - 59 runners | 8 first timers | 18 PBs;
Kingscliff - 15 runners | 15 first timers | 10 PBs;
Kirra - 77 runners | 28 first timers | 16 PBs;
Main Beach - cancelled due to GC600;
New Farm - 310 runners | 45 first timers | 46 PBs;
Newy - 245 runners | 68 first timers | 36 PBs;
North Lakes - 46 runners | 29 first timers | 46 PBs;
St Peters - 144 runners | 24 first timers | 31 PBs;
Wynnum - 88 runners | 22 first timers | 27 PBs.
Thanks to our amazing Event Directors, Run Directors, volunteers and sponsors for your continued support!
Were you a first timer last weekend, or did you run a personal best? I would love to hear about your experience on tim@parkrun.com, @parkrun_au or on Facebook.
I attended the Kingscliff launch at 8am on Saturday morning, our third event in New South Wales although only 15 minutes south of the Queensland border. Ordinarily this would have meant an extra hour in bed for me however, as Queensland is a bit backward and doesn’t have daylight saving time, this was actually 7am Queensland time so the extra hour of sleep was not to be. Come April 2012 when daylight saving ends I’m tipping that it will become a bit of a thing to run Kirra at 7am followed by a ride or drive to Kingscliff for the 8am start. Remember, you heard it here first! Anyway, back to the launch, our Event Director at Kingscliff is Dawn Courage, a name that may already be familiar to Gold Coasters as she is regularly mentioned on the Mortgage Choice radio ads.
 Dawn has been a regular runner and volunteer at Kirra parkrun over the past 9 months and so I was delighted when she approached me a few months back about setting up in Kingscliff. The location Dawn has chosen is fantastic, starting and finishing in Salt Village, with a flat 5km course and an array of cafes and shops to keep everyone entertained post-run. 15 eager runners, many who were first timers, joined us for the launch with a red hot course record being set by my mate Dave Coombs, and cupcakes for all runners and volunteers provided by Wendy and Nikki. I stayed on after the run to help dawn process her first lot of results however unfortunately we had a little technical glitch from the parkrun side so apologies to Dawn and the runners for not having your results processed until yesterday. Well done Dawn and team on a great first event.
Our new National Operations Manager Gareth Saunders attended the launch of North Lakes parkrun and reported back that it was a wonderful morning with 46 runners including 29 first timers. I look forward to visiting North Lakes parkrun soon, well done Tim and team.
We all love parkrun and photos and during my usual Saturday afternoon Facebook trawl I found this one from Newy parkrun with comments highlighting: 1. On the left, a bit of pre-run love between Hayley and Ben Petersen; and 2. On the right, an in depth conversation about headbands between Dave Robbo and Troy Green. HILARIOUS!
Lastly, a want to publically thank Coomera Event Directors Renee and Adam Gimbert who gave up their Saturday to promote parkrun at their local shopping centre as part of a Gold Coast City Council event. It is commitment like this from our core volunteers that has enabled parkrun to flourish, not just here in Australia, but all over the world. Thanks again guys.
Happy Running!
Tim from parkrun Australia
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Banter from Brendo!
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Several months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Zach Kimber after he was invited down to Main Beach parkrun by Tim Oberg. I really took to Zach’s display of effort at parkrun (he has a very handy PB of 20:05) as he always leads the pack out from the start without fear regardless of the caliber of runners that would later pass him (funnily enough this is the crazy way I like to race too). His mum Tanya later contacted me asking whether I could Coach Zach to help him reach his potential for the upcoming Special Olympics Trans Tasman Tournament. “Yes please” I said, “Love that kids attitude”!
Zach and I got down to work and Tim arranged for adidas to provide him with a new set of gear including running spikes for competing on tartan. The outcome was that last week Zach travelled to Cairns for the Special Olympics and came home with 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal. According to Tanya he really came home strong in the shorter races!
Well done Zach, we are all extremely proud of your achievements.
Brendan from Main Beach parkrun
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Club Shirts
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At parkrun we like to celebrate persistence. We love to acknowledge when a parkrunner has reached a significant target. Each person attaining the target is uniquely identifiable on the website alongside their results by an icon to signify their achievement. At parkrun we have four clubs:
10 Club - for juniors only. You have to be 19 and under at the time you achieve your tenth parkrun.
50 Club - The red symbol signifies that you have achieved 50 parkruns.
100 Club - The black symbol signifies that you have achieved 100 parkruns.
250 Club - The black & gold symbol signifies that you have achieved 250 parkruns.
In the UK hundreds, if not thousands, of parkrunners have joined one of these illustrious clubs and been rewarded with a commemorative t-shirt. Here in Australia we have only a handful (for now) of 10 Club and 50 Club members and we are in the process of obtaining your commemorative shirts from our major sponsor adidas. There has been a bit of a delay with the red 50 Club shirts as adidas keeps very low stock of these locally, so please be patient as we do our best to come up with a solution.
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Longest parkrun…………
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The longest parkrun idea was started by some lunatics in the UK in the summer of 2010. The idea is simple – parkrunners meet on the Sunday closest to the longest day of the year, to visit 7 different parkruns. But while the potential total distance is quite large (35km), this isn't a heavy duty running event. It is first and foremost a social day - there's no official timing, runners can turn up at as many (or as few) of the runs as they want, and do as much of the courses as they want.
Australia’s inaugural ‘Longest parkrun’ will take place at 5am on Sunday 16th December with the route taking in North Lakes – Sandgate – New Farm – South Bank – Wynnum – Coomera – Main Beach. Click here for further information or to register your interest in attending.
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Pan Pac Masters volunteers
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I have recently accepted the volunteer position of Cross Country Race Director at the Pan Pacific Masters Games to be held on the Gold Coast on November 4. This is a real honour and I would like to thank Events Queensland Gold Coast for the opportunity. To make this event run smoothly I require a Top Gun / best of the best squad of around 10 volunteers who can assist me on the day between 6-10am. If you are available please email tim@parkrun.com
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Suncorp Bank Freo Fun Run
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Our partner, Suncorp Bank is proud to sponsor the newest event on the Western Australian running calendar – the Suncorp Bank Freo Fun Run. Set for November 11 in iconic Fremantle, with two unique distances to run, 4km and 10km, there is something for everyone and it is sure to be a great day out. You'll also have the chance to take part alongside Suncorp Bank Ambassador Adam Gilchrist, and event ambassadors Aaron Sandilands and Narelda Jacobs as well as a host of 92.9 personalities. ENTER NOW at www.freofunrun.com.au and join the excitement!
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Variety Santa Fun Run
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Variety – the Children’s Charity, will host their fourth annual Santa Fun Run on Sunday 25th November 2012 and parkrunners have been offered a $5 discount when registering by entering the promo code ‘parkrun’. You can run it, walk it, skip it, hop it - finish it however you like, just make sure you do it in your official five piece Variety Santa Suit! Best of all, registrations include a Santa suit for adults and children (aged 3-12). Click here for more information.
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Feedback from the field
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| Amanda Raffone – I ran at Coomera parkrun today, thanks. It was good fun and the people were so nice!
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| Kevin Armstrong - There are many reasons why Melbourne lays claim to the title of “Sporting Capital of Australia” and I was reminded of this at the Albert Melbourne parkrun on 13 October. I thought it was pretty good to have Sonia O’Sullivan (Irish running legend & Melbourne resident – Sydney Olympics 5k silver medalist, multiple World and European champion at both track & cross country, 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games Australian team member, 2012 London Olympics Irish team chef de mission etc.!) in front of me as she cruised around the Albert Park Lake circuit with the rest of us chatting with a friend. But then coming the other way I saw James Tomkins (Oarsome Foursome member, multiple Olympic and World champion rower and recent Australian Sports Hall of Fame inductee) on a morning run! The only thing that would have made this better was to have James running with us too – but maybe next time. We need to grow our numbers and all are welcome – champions and the rest of us. There may not be a famous sporting face every week but as it is Melbourne you never know who you’ll find yourself running with!
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Will Thames – Congrats on a very well organised North Lakes parkrun launch. It was as well done as many long-standing parkruns. Congratulations Tim, and I hope it continues to be a great success. Was very pleased with 5th place 
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| Josh Jones - Thanks to the team from North Lakes parkrun for organising and volunteering on your Saturday. Well done today!
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| Ruth Davies - Congratulations North Lakes parkrun. It is an awesome course and was great fun. See you again next week!
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| Martyn Ellis - First North Lakes parkrun done, many more to come.
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| Pippin Holmes – We are all loving the family atmosphere at Claisebrrok Cove parkrun. It is so nice to have a weekly sporting event that the whole family can do together.
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| Jeremy Savage – Claisebrook Cover parkrun today was fantastic! Thanks to everyone who makes it happen.
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| Ian Ferguson – Congratulations to the team at Claisebrook Cove parkrun on creating such a great event.
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| Drop me an email if you have an interesting parkrun related fact, happening or comment that you would like to share with all parkrunners. |
parkrunner of the week
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Name: Natalie Green
Club: Unattached
Age: 39
Home parkrun: St Peters parkrun
Occupation: Copywriter
Number of runs: 8
Number of times volunteered: Lots - even when I can't run, I try to come along.
What do you do at parkruns: Soak up the Saturday morning, help out, socialise... oh, and run.
How has parkrun changed your running: I've come to consider parkrun a barometer for my fitness. When I was training for my first half marathon this year (never going to stop telling people about that), the more training I'd done the easier the 5kms felt. Lately, during the week I've swapped the long runs for cross training and shorter, more intense, more frequent workouts and every parkrun PB (or not as the case may be!) is confirmation that hard work pays off.
What do you like about parkrun: Where do I start?! It doesn't matter whether you finish first or last, everyone there is encouraging, supportive and caught up in the fun, healthy spirit of the event. I've met so many great people I wouldn't have ordinarily met. parkrun is a brilliant way to start the weekend AND even though they don't run, my kids absolutely love being there (and counting down the start.
Most memorable or funniest parkrun moment: My kids often cheer me on in the final stretch (as I'm coming around the last bend I usually keep something left in the tank so I can finish strong in front of them... even if I'm completely buggered... or been completely rubbish during the preceding 4.5kms!) It's an amazing feeling having my own little cheer squad.
How can we improve parkrun: There's not much I would change about it at all... maybe install an escalator on the Sydney Park heartbreak hill???
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Reminders
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Barcode reminder
Barcodes are used at all our events to record your result. Please collect and print your barcode here. No barcode, No result!
All questions answered
Do you have a question about parkrun? How do I get my barcode? All your questions are answered here.
Volunteering at parkrun
We ask every parkrunner to volunteer 3 times a year. When volunteering you receive the maximum number of points towards the yearly competition.
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Children at parkrun
All children under 11 must be supervised by a parent or guardian. Guardians must ensure that children place themselves appropriately so as to prevent a situation where they are being repeatedly overtaken at the start. This is to ensure the safety of your child.
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the parkrun show
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You can download your copy of the parkrun show here. (iTunes)
The parkrun show is the audible roundup of the "goings on" of everything that caught the teams eye from the weekend in parkrunworld.
Brought to you by Marathon Talk.
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Our Sponsors
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all out performance
adidas has been focused on athlete’s performance since the first running spikes were made in the 1920’s earning the first Olympic gold medal in adidas shoes. Today, adidas is proud to be supporting parkrunners everywhere. Explore adidas running adidas.com
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