Park run to celebrate 10 years

A popular running group that has helped many Dunedin locals smash their fitness goals is set to celebrate a major milestone of its own this week.

The Dunedin Park Run will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a special "silver and sparkles"-themed run on Saturday.

Run director Jo Gibson is expecting the celebrations to be really special for the regular faces.

She said park runs originated in the United Kingdom about 20 years ago, and had since been popularised around the world.

The Dunedin Park Run was held every Saturday morning and consisted of a timed 5km run around the Botanic Garden.

Participants completed two laps of both the upper and lower gardens, starting from the garden’s Croque-o-dile cafe.

Despite being put on the clock, the ultimate goal of the park run was to foster community and friendship.

The timer was able to facilitate friendly competition and measure individual progress week by week, Ms Gibson said.

Watching countless people who had been doing the park run for years achieve their personal bests had created some pretty significant moments, she said.

"Some people have met partners through park run, they’ve made their best friends through park run ... [it] brings that sense of community."

"It’s wonderful seeing more people being physically active out there and participating for wellbeing and all sorts of reasons."

Dunedin was one of the first few park runs in New Zealand. Not many others were able to say they had hit a 10-year milestone.

While the course had remained mostly the same over the past 10 years, Ms Gibson said the numbers had definitely grown.

Since starting, the Dunedin Park Run had welcomed 6687 different participants, completing a grand total of 59,728 park runs among them, just shy of 300,000km.

Some people had even completed 400 park runs on their own, she said.

The park run attracted an average of 175 participants per week, with 230 people showing up last Saturday, including 20 new faces.

Each week about 15 volunteers would give up their Saturday mornings to co-ordinate the event.

Ms Gibson said the park run brought together people from all walks of life, from professional athletes to casual joggers, and let people be involved at different levels.

The 10-year anniversary park run will start this Saturday outside Alpine House at 8am following a briefing for newcomers at 7.50am.

tim.scott@odt.co.nz , PIJF cadet reporter