parkrun dog-run-volunteer balance

I've been regularly volunteering at our George parkrun since it reopened in November 2021 post-COVID lockdown. I only ran it for the first time in about May this year. I maybe run it every 4-6 weeks and the rest of the time I generally volunteer with barcode scanning being my favourite duty.

George parkrun is a lovely route but it is not the course to set an all-time 5k 'Personal Best' (PB). I'd say that most will be >3 minutes slower here than on a flat course. I've taken 2.5 minutes off my time these past months and I'm looking to further gains as I get fitter and faster with running again. On days when I run, I'm generally in the Top 50 so I'm able to resume my volunteer duties at the finish before the bulk of the field gets there.

I've been taking Rosy along to parkrun, especially on days when I'm running. She has come along to volunteer but it is a bit boring for an exuberant dog. By running first, we drain a bit of energy. She knows that Saturday mornings are parkrun days and she asks me to take her along.

Two weeks ago we enjoyed a lovely run together. It was warm and we took the pace a bit easier. Rosy also enjoyed two swims in streams. 

Rusty used to always come with me to parkrun in Parys to run and to volunteer. I feel bad leaving her at home now but running parkrun is no longer an option for her with spondylosis in her lower vertebra. She would be keen but she would be stiff afterwards. Rusty still loves running, but we keep our runs together very light and short, avoiding anything too steep up or down. We traverse the parkrun route trails regularly, but at an easy pace and without the excitement of the crowds. This is right for her.

I decided to take Rusty along this past Saturday to volunteer as she always used to chill at the finish in Parys and loved watching the people come in. This was her first time at a parkrun since before lockdown. Rusty was super excited at the start. She loves the buzz. We ran about 200m with the crowd before turning back; she loved that. At the finish, she was 99% good, only barking occasionally at some dogs crossing the finish. I was on timekeeper duty, but I think Rusts will prefer the scanning location (more comfy and better views of people), so I'll take her along for the next one.

Rusty with me at parkrun on Saturday.

Where I could still be lazing in bed on Saturday mornings, I favour getting up to volunteer at parkrun instead. It gets me up and moving, the 1.5km run to the venue is a pleasant trot and we've got a lovely volunteer community that I'm glad to be part of. I also enjoy seeing the regular participants. 

A beauty of a day (my photo)

I should be able to strike a good balance with taking Rosy along on run days and Rusty along on volunteer days.

All of these parkrun photos by Louis. He volunteers every week, taking photos of the participants and volunteers, which he uploads to the George parkrun Facebook page. He is always happy to take photos of my with my girls for my picture memories. Thank you Louis.

25th parkrun volunteer milestone at George parkrun

On Sat, 30 July 2022, I notched my 25th volunteer milestone at the George parkrun (my total is around 140). When parkrun restarted in George in about November last year, I jumped in to volunteer and meet the friendly George parkrun community.

My usual volunteer role is barcode scanning. This morning I enjoyed a role change as a marshal out on the route so I decided to take Rosy with me. I haven't taken her to parkrun here because this little black dog can be crazy-exuberant and a bit... unruly. Despite being a really good dog at dog school, Rosy's street-dog posturing comes out when other dogs are around and she is on a lead. When she runs off-lead, she is a well-behaved girl. Parkrun requires dogs to be on a lead and as I'm often volunteering, Rosy has been left at home.

Today, Rosy was exemplary. She ran almost beautifully on lead to parkrun and like a star to our marshal point. She watched the participants without barking and wasn't too bad when dogs came past. 

She was actually so good that I'm confident that she has matured enough to participate with me without being a maniac.

 
I'm very proud of this little girl.

First chiropractor visit, first parkrun

19-months after waking up on a Sunday morning with a swollen right knee, I'm still not 100%. Sure, I'm out on my feet every day, I can go hiking, walk the dogs and I can trot along the trails. But I can't run. Like properly run. A good, sweat-inducing run. Well, I can physically run, but if I do, I can expect inflammation.

In August 2020, I went to the physio the day after waking up with an inflammed knee. No structural problems found. It got worse, triggered, as I discovered six-week later, by my new trail shoes, which I'd been wearing casually and that left me limping and sore. 

In early October 2020, I saw an orthopedic surgeon (I was taking my mom there for her post-hip operation check-up). I had x-rays, he checked me out and proclaimed that there was no structural issue.

In mid-October 2020, I saw our local GP, who removed 5ml of fluid from my knee, did an ultrasound to check the soft tissue and confirmed no structural issue.

I then saw a biokineticist (twice) and the physio. 

Then I moved from Parys to George.

I couldn't do any of the exercises given to me by the bio - too painful. Instead, I walked daily - initially only 1-2km and later further, wearing my old road shoes. And daily stretching.

In February 2021, I started with a local biokineticist. She tested my knee and confirmed no structural problems. I then started on a programme to activate glutes, balance left and right (I'd been favouring one side for months), and achieve the correct relationship between muscle groups - like quads and hammies (my quads were too strong). The first three months were the most intensive and then I checked-in every few weeks. 

I remember August-September 2021 being pretty good as I was doing quite a bit of mileage in scouting and preparing for my Checkpoint Challenge event for World Orienteering Day. But then something set me back.

We're now in April 2022 and I'm so tired of not actually knowing what the problem is and why I keep having inflammation flare-ups. I've got low-grade inflammation regularly. I'm not in any pain and my mobility is not compromised, but I know it is not right.

I toyed with the idea of going to a chiro for some time because I haven't had a proper check and assessment since October 2020. I've suspected that the issue is still muscle/tendon/ligament and not bone/cartilage but I've had no plan or way forward out of this, and I've been terrified of doing too much for fear of long-term damage of any sort. 

"Chiropractors are trained to diagnose, treat, manage and prevent disorders of the musculoskeletal system (bones, joints, and muscles), as well as the effects these disorders can have on the nervous system and general health."

Sounds like what I was in need of,

On Friday afternoon, I had my first session ever with a chiropractor. His assessments confirmed that there was no structural problem with my knee - meniscus great, patellar tracking spot on, and joint mobility all normal.

He did find a discrepancy in leg length related to tight right glute and sacroilliac joint and right shoulder sitting a bit higher than left. He sorted this out

In June 2020, I slammed my right big toe into a rock. Head-on collision. I don't recall it giving me any worry until after the knee started and I've suspected it to be a factor. Videos of me on the treadmill at the bio show good form and no problems with foot landing or toe off, but of course this can be part of the problem. X-rays in October 2020 showed joint inflammation and signs of osteoarthritis, which the orthopod confirmed could be as a result of the impact. It has messed with my toe mobility - I can't lift it much. This can affect the toe-off when running and walking.

The chiro worked on my big toe joint, getting more mobility into the joint. This made a big difference.

All in all, a good experience. I'll see him again on Wednesday when he'll check how the SI joint is doing, work on toe mobility and check in on the knee.

Since the George parkrun got going again in October 2021, I've been volunteering - most of the time on barcode scanning. Until this morning, I had yet to run a parkrun since pre-lockdown. 

The house I moved to at the end of January is 1.5km from parkrun, so I've been running to and from parkrun every Saturday. I've been thinking of running early, before the start, and then doing my volunteer duty, but I just have not had the confidence to do so. When a clock is ticking my brain switches into another gear. 

I did think that today would be the day... It was raining early so I figured I'd just do my normal jog to the start, which I did. Just after the start, I began packing up the start items when I was told that only one barcode scanner was needed, another guy was in place, so I could slot in with handing out tokens or collecting tokens. I was picking up dog water bowls when I thought - well, maybe I should run!

I knew it wouldn't take me long so I told the team that I was going to run and that I'd hop into a role when I got back. Off I went. This was maybe three minutes after the start with a trail of walkers leading up to the gate.

I know the trails of the route very well as I'm on these at least once or twice a week. It would be muddy and there are lots of tree roots on the one stretch. I enjoyed passing all the walkers and catching the slower runners, moving steadily up the field. I had two little walkies on hills, and ran the rest. I ran easily and comfortably, focusing on footfalls and posture and form.

My finish time of 32:32 means that my real time was likely just a sub-30, which on this course is rewarding for me for a first running. I'm not unfit - I walk, hike, swim and paddle with odd jogs - but I'm not up to scratch with running at all. Women's winning finish times on this course are not often under 24 minutes and this summer have mostly been over 25.

This was my first parkrun run since 14 March 2020. I have now done 105 parkruns and I've volunteered 127 times (72 of these as Run Director). 

I'm itching. Itching to run hard and fast. I've been really contained these past 19 months. I started running as a teen and I've hardly let up in almost 30 years - until now. My frustration has been tempered by enough other activities and a crazy work schedule. I haven't really had the capacity to deal with my knee situation because I haven't known what it is. This has been eating away at me and has had a big psychological impact.

My knee journey is not over. The knee is the symptom probably of transference from my toe. While slamming it into a rock was the start, the new trail shoes were the trigger that set off this whole situation. Bio helped, keeping active helps. 

I'm hoping that we're now going to find a long-term fix - one that will see me back to the activity that I love most.

George parkrun stats: where are the 18 to 24s?

 

Our George parkrun kicked off three weeks ago with the first events here since lockdown last year curtailed parkrun activities. In its first two weeks, George parkrun ranked as the highest participation parkrun event in South Africa - but note that many of the really big SA parkruns have not yet restarted. I've been volunteering at these events, enjoying the barcode scanning volunteer role.

This past Saturday's George parkrun was cancelled following last week's flood-condition rainfall that has washed away some trail sections and annihilated necessary bridges.

One of the parkrun guys shared these stats from the George parkrun event held on 20 November. It is a treat to see the high number of women, especially into the more mature ages. What did puzzle me was the lack in participation of men and women in the 18-24 age group with a significantly less-than-fantastic showing from 25-29 year old men. I want to shout to them all - "You are in the physical prime of your life!". Well, they should be.

So, what is the reason for the female dominance? In a chitter-chatter with the guy who shared the stats, he commented, "And  the  volume  of  women  keeps  growing.  Escape  from  housework  and  kids?". 

To which I added, "Women may also be more health conscious, and they have greater societal pressure to look good".

Our parkrun is now closed for the next few weeks with both bridge rebuilding needed and the new covid variant putting a damper on things. When we restart, I'll definitely keep an eye on the stats especially on the 18-24 age group numbers to see what is happening here. I hope this was a once-off, but I suspect it isn't.

parkrun milestone - 100th Volunteer Occasion

Thank you very much for your support at Parys parkrun, event 258 on 2019-09-14. 

You've now volunteered at this event on 100 separate occasions.

Yesterday, I reached an unofficial (official milestone is 25) parkrun milestone: 100th Volunteer Occasion. Of these, 68 have been as Run Director at our Parys parkrun. I've been the Event Director, initially together with my friend Karen, since I moved to town in December 2015. I have lived in Parys for 192 Saturdays.

Instead of being full of joy about this milestone, I'm resentful. Not about being a volunteer, contributing to my community, and of the pleasure I have from interacting with our local parkrunners and visitors. These give me joy. Instead, I am actually pretty irritated because in October last year I was on 82 parkruns. Just shy of a year later, I'm only on 93 parkruns. 

So why, you ask, have I only run 11 parkruns in a year (and only 5 logged parkruns this year!)

Late last year, parkrun forbid volunteers from running before the official 8am parkrun start, doing their volunteer duty from 8am to 9am (or there abouts) and then being included on the parkrun results for their self-timed run.

We are a small parkrun with around 30-40 locals at each event; our numbers are often doubled by visitors. Our volunteers are the same-same people each week. They love running and they enjoy volunteering. We would meet at 7am, run the parkrun route - opening gates and picking up litter at the same time - and then do our volunteer duties.

With a small pool of people who volunteer, we don't have the luxury of non-core volunteer roles that allow for participation too. These roles include 'equipment storage', 'results processor', 'media' and the like. What a joke! We only have volunteers are needed for timekeeping, barcode scanning, tokens and turnaround marshal. Sometimes we have a tailwalker. We can get by, and we do, with three volunteers plus RD: two timekeepers, a turnaround marshal and the Run Director doing barcode scanning AND tokens. We all jump in with pre-event setup and packing up.

For some time we continued with volunteer runs even after I had phone calls from parkrun telling me that we couldn't do this. I told them straight that I didn't agree with their ruling and that it would have a serious effect on us. It did.

We were, of course, under the spotlight and our results were being checked. I received a not-so-friendly email telling me to delete the results of those volunteers who ran before parkrun. I couldn't do that to them.

We stopped the volunteer runs. Some of my regular volunteers need their Discovery points; so they rarely or no longer volunteer. Others have little other opportunity to run in the week and so they volunteer less often so that they get to participate on a Saturday morning.

Where before there would be five of us on route at 7am, on my run Director days this year I've been out there at 7am - on my own. Why should the volunteers get up earlier than necessary to run for no parkrun points when they can enjoy a warm afternoon run on a route of their choosing (if they run/walk at all on Saturdays). Even now, I don't always run the whole route - at 07h30 I just run to open the gates and then I return to the start to setup.

Our volunteers are awesome (the same-same people generally), but we've lost something.

Why did parkrun introduce this no pre-run ruling?

They said it was because of safety.
This is bull because if I am the turnaround marshal, I stand 1km from the start, on my own, on a public access road, with my mobile phone in my pocket. A sitting duck until the runners start coming through. Now, without other volunteers, I run on my own in the morning on a public access route with not many other people around. My safety is more compromised than on a volunteer run with other volunteers for company.

They said it was because their public liability only kicked in from 8am. This is rubbish too. Their public liability should cover from at least an hour before the start as people arrive early at the very busy parkruns to get parking and volunteers are also very early at some events to setup.

They said that parkrun in the UK never had volunteer runs and it all works quite fine there. Sure, and it works mostly quite fine here except that small parkruns are under pressure and there is a lower level of volunteerism here than in the UK. South Africa has a culture of volunteer runs in the running club environment where volunteers at club-hosted races run the weekend before their event. I enjoyed this privilege myself for many years as a volunteer marshal at a big 21km event organised by my first running club.

parkrun rides on the goodwill of volunteers who, without compensation, ensure that events happen every Saturday around the country. Rain or shine. We use our personal mobile phones with a downloaded app for timing and scanning (the original provided barcode scanners and timers are obsolete). We clean the routes, pick up litter, deal with any access/permissions. Not parkrun. Us.

No volunteers. No parkrun.

I used to get so worked up about people cheating at parkrun. I've heard all kinds of tales from other parkruns where people join the route halfway or they skip a loop... As this is hard to police, these people still get their parkrun times, Vitality points etc. This was brought up at an annual parkrun convention where the people from parkrun UK were in attendance (I wasn't - I received this feedback second-hand). They told the event directors not to stress about this; that it wasn't worth making their lives more challenging by implementing policing strategies. Vitality's perspective on this was apparently that parkrun gets people out and active, which achieves their aim of better health and fitness of their clients. Whether people run the full 5km or only 2km, that the cheater got out of bed, walked/drove to parkrun and did a few kilometres, is better than if the person stayed in bed and did nothing active.

I really appreciate these perspectives. They are correct. I've been far more chilled about this kind of thing ever since. I don't like it, but I don't see red.

What I don't get is that this is ok but volunteer participation is not? I still don't get why parkrun is preventing the people that they depend on to make this organisation possible from participating.

So, this explains why I have only done 11 parkruns in almost 12 months. For most of this past summer, I wasn't in town on Saturdays and when I was, I was Run Director and I ran early - but didn't log those runs to avoid getting nasty emails from parkrun.

There have been around 32 Saturdays this year so far. Since January, have been Run Director 13 times, I've run only 5 parkruns officially. I was out of town a lot for the first few months of the year. And the rest? I've had little motivation to run at parkrun.

So, I celebrate this milestone with mixed feelings. It is nice to have a measure of what I've put into my community and the return is in the friends that I have made and the pleasure of enjoying the successes and milestones of our parkrunners.

I totally subscribe to parkrun's values and I uphold them through my action of volunteering. Seems to me that volunteers to parkrun are like the cobbler's children who have no shoes.

We've got about 15 weekends left this year. I'll be RD for at least 4-5 of them. I'll be away for some others. I've got 7 parkruns to go until my 100th parkrun milestone. Will it happen this year?

Too many choices for Freedom Day

The past few years I have done the Freedom Day parkruns on 27 April. These Freedom Runs for Freedom Day started five years ago, organised by some friends. At that stage there were only 9 parkruns in Jo'burg and they planned a route that did all of them in a day. This involves driving-running, driving-running throughout the day. I missed the first year as I was away, but I've run the last three years.

This year, as there are so many parkruns there is a Jo'burg East, Jo'burg West and Pretoria options for Gauteng. I am sure there are also runs in Cape Town. And we have four parkruns in this Vaal area, Parys is one of them.

Part of the appeal for me is not only to spend the day running, but to catch up with friends from Jo'burg who I mostly get to see once a year at this event. With people now split east and west... I've been indecisive. When there was only one version, I didn't have to make a decision.

I concocted a plan for doing a long run here in Parys; but as Event Director of our parkrun here, that we're newly on the new scanning system and we have the additional Freedom Run, it looks like I'll be at home providing support to our Run Director for the day.

I'm doing a long paddle this afternoon as the river is up after the recent rains, so it maybe isn't a bad thing that my long run is shifted from tomorrow.

Back in the day there were only three adventure races a year - 180km, 250km and 500km. It was like this for about three years. Everyone who participated in adventure racing, came to these events from all over the country. Then came mountain biking events, the start of growth in trail events, the introduction of sprint adventure races... and 10 years after adventure racing was introduced to South Africa there were fewer teams at a 500km than there were in the early days.

in addition to parkrun, we also have a myrun event here in Parys - on Sunday mornings. They recently introduced a 2.5km run in addition to the standard 5km. While this is superb for children and those walking or starting out, it does give those who would do 5km an easier alternative. This past Sunday, there were very few people on the 5km, with the majority opting for 2.5km.

Choice is nice and choice is good. But too much leads to inaction or a spread of fewer people at each event.

Rusty and I at myrun Parys

Digesting 2018: Parys parkrun (pt 4)

Parys parkrun

I've put our Parys parkrun here because it has been a constant in my life since I moved to Parys (three years ago this past Dec). Parkrun was not only something I enjoyed participating in, but as the Event Director here and fulfilling Run Director and other volunteer roles, I have made new friends and a community in this town. I love driving past parkrunners and waving at them or having a quick hello at the shops. Small town joys.

In November we were alerted that volunteer runs before the 8am parkrun start would no longer be permitted. I spoke to Gill Fordyce on the phone and she explained that this was coming from parkrun UK and also for reasons of safety and that outside of the parkrun time that volunteers were not covered by the event's liability.

OK. I can understand this. But...

Our volunteers are participants too. We've tried to get non-participating volunteers - family members of participants - but realistically you don't get enough of them volunteering often enough to make this viable. Many of our regular volunteers help out weekly or twice a month. They would hardly get to run if they did not run before parkrun.

Our volunteer run serves two purposes.

First, we start at 7, open the two gates on the way and we check the route for hazards and pick up litter.

Secondly, it is an opportunity for volunteers to participate and is a small thank you for more than an hour of their time spent enabling other people the opportunity to enjoy our parkrun.

Volunteerism in South Africa is something like 5%. I don't know how this is calculated - like number of people who have volunteered (ever) against total number of registered parkrunners? Anyway, we only have around 30-50 locals who regularly (more than twice a month) come to parkrun. We've got a lot more (maybe over 200?) parkrunners who have Parys as their home parkrun.

Small parkruns cannot exist without the same people who volunteer almost every week - rain or shine. We have people who are nearing 50 parkrun milestones - and they have never volunteered. We have people nearing 100 who maybe volunteer once or twice a year; and this is with having a volunteer run so they can still do their run and get their points.

Now how about telling my regular volunteers that if they volunteer they can't participate? Boom! They may then volunteer once every three months. Actually, I'm a fairly compulsive volunteer but if I didn't get to run I wouldn't volunteer as much either.

I've given up so many parkruns the past three years - like this past Saturday when I was Run Director (I didn't run early because of Rusty, not because of parkrun's ruling). I'm almost on 90 volunteerings and 90 parkruns. I would have been on 100 parkruns months ago if I didn't volunteer as much. It is one thing choosing not to run for my own reasons rather than to be told by parkrun that I may not participate.

Our volunteer roles mostly all take place during parkrun time because we need all the hands we can get. We do not have the luxury of being counted as volunteers for 'equipment storage', 'other', 'race briefing' or 'results processing'. Just this morning I fulfilled these roles as well as that of Run Director, Barcode Scanner and Finish Tokens (and I took photos at the finish of our milestone runners).

I found an email in my parkrun inbox this morning from parkrun.

"We have received feedback that Parys parkrun is still allowing pre runs? Please will you confirm that this has been stopped as requested telephonically to you in November last year?"

Dum-dee-dum

Yes. We. Are.

So what can happen here?

Parys parkrun can close down.

We now have a MyRun in Parys on Sunday mornings so people can still do a timed 5km run and they can get their Vitality points.

Parkrun is important to me because:

• It is run on public ground and is part of the community.
• The start is closer for our runners coming from the township.
• It brings visitors to the town.
• Parkrunners chase milestones, a motivation for them. Yes, they can aim for 50 MyRuns but is isn't quite the same (yet). As there are no more parkrun milestone tees, this is maybe not quite the incentive that it was.

I feel that Parkrun SA is bigger than both Gill and Bruce Fordyce. Each and every event is run by volunteers who make the 170 plus events in South Africa happen each and every Saturday morning (and the world, in fact) with absolutely no input from headquarters. We promote our parkruns, setup the equipment, help the participants, pack up, process the results, run our Facebook pages. 

We now have five Run Directors here - a super team. It wasn't that long ago that it was only me and Karen. Most of us volunteer on other days when we are not being the Run Director too. And we all usually do the early volunteer run - opening gates and picking up litter - happy to give up our time afterwards to allow our community to participate.

There are two types of volunteer roles: during parkrun and not-during parkrun. The later includes things like the aforementioned equipment storage as well as pre-event setup, post-event close down, communications, results processing, token sorting, first-timers briefing, other, run report writer etc. While these tasks are required to be done, they don't require a person to give up participating. Here in Parys, we do these roles too and don't even count them as volunteer roles, because we don't have the luxury of extra people to do these.

During-parkrun roles are those of run director, tokens, time keeping, marshalling and barcode scanning. Fun roles during parkruns that allow you to also participate are those of photographer and pacer (I didn't know that this role existed) and tailwalker.

Would they give up 12 to 40+ parkruns a year? This is the number of times that some of my volunteers volunteer each year.

I've just checked our parkrun email and I've been instructed to remove some volunteers from the results.

"All the above need to be removed from the results by Friday 18th January - this week. It is such a pity that this has happened and that so many visitors were witness to this. We have had feedback from a number of people about this."

Well, I hope that 'a number of people' will enjoy there being no Parys parkrun because this is the direction we're headed. I can bet that these visitors have not volunteered half as many times as our volunteers.

Parkrun runs off the goodwill of the volunteers. Take away goodwill and what do have? Nothing.

No volunteers. No parkrun. No participants.

// end of pt 4

Parys parkrun cleanup

Two weeks ago we held a cleanup on the bottom section of our Parys parkrun route. Our route is open to the public and so it gets really littered.

Trash either comes from the fishermen along the bank, people passing through and those that take trash bags from outside houses and then rip through them in the area, leaving the contents on the floor. Yes, it is disgusting.

We arrange cleanups every few months as the municipality intermittently empties the few trash bins around but they don't pick up the rest of the rubbish.

During this cleanup, we filled something like 30 black bags with thanks to our parkrun volunteers.

Unfortunately this is something we're going to have to keep doing regularly because littering behaviours take a long, long time to change. A week after the cleanup there is already litter along the route - not as bad, but the start of it again. *sigh*

This section was my mission - under this big mulberry tree. Layers of trash! We did good here.

With half of the bags full of trash collected from the section around the three bridges and under the mulberry tree.

The ever supportive Parys Gazette featured our cleanup.

Another recent snippet in the paper ahead of our 200th Parys parkrun (which was on 11 Aug). Our 4th birthday is coming up soon.

9 Freedom Runs for Freedom Day

For the third year in a row (my post from 2016 and my post from 2017) I had the pleasure of again participating in the 9 Freedom Runs for Freedom Day. These are 9 parkruns in Jo'burg that are held on Freedom Day (27 April). The event is coordinated by my friends Francis Rogan and Staci Katsivalis. There is no entry fee and the various parkrun Event Directors voluntarily host us visitors as we move from one parkrun to the next throughout the day.

This concept was started four years ago (I missed the first running of this event as I was away at the time) when there were only 9 parkruns in Gauteng. Now we have so many that we can enjoy a different mix of runs each year. This year three of these events were held on Freedom Day in Jo'burg area, Pretoria and Cape Town.

I did self-drive this year as I needed to shoot back to Parys directly afterwards; but I did enjoy getting to run with and catch up with friends. I'd like to use 'too much chatting' as an excuse for what felt like slower times... Certainly parkruns 4 to 7 were a reflection on the warm day and hilly courses!

Let's see where we ran:

#1 - Boksburg parkrun: 28:47 (28:16 last year)
We ran here last year and it was definitely much warmer this year for the 6am start. Located at the Boksburg stadium, this really is an enjoyable course. I ran with Chrissie and enjoyed catching up with her.

#2 - Rondebult: 29:51

What a treat to run this one (and the next two) with my dear friend Sarah. We used to see each other often and being in Parys (2.5 years now!) I don't often have the pleasure of her company. Apparently Rondebult's course used to go around the large vegetable field. This was an out-and-back. It's a flat course and to be honest we spent so much time chatting I didn't pay too much attention to much else. For me the value in this course would be to watch the vegetables grow bigger each week. Sarah has done this one before and said that cabbages get planted here and other veg.

#3 - Victoria Lake: 29:24 (28:28 in 2016)
We did this one last year and I quite enjoy this two-lap course at Victoria Lake in Germiston. I like the section of sidewalk along the dam. Pretty flat too. Lots of chatting.

#4 - Bezuidenhout Valley: 32:08
A run in my old 'hood. Bez Park is near my old high school and I remember this park from when I was a child. I certainly think that parkrun has breathed a bit of new life into it. This is a good thing because it really is a lovely green area.
The route is pretty decent and it includes some hills. I did take a few little walkies. Sarah and I were joined by Claudio, who I saw later at another parkrun again. This was Sarah's last one (she only planned to run three) as she is running a 32km road race this weekend. bye-bye to Sarah and I was off to...

#5 - Albert's Farm: 31:19 (30:26 in 2017; 31:26 in 2016)
Albert's Farm is one of the more challenging JHB parkruns and as a result is has smaller numbers than some others. I've always enjoyed this park from orienteering and it has featured in the last three Freedom Day runs. This one I ran on my own, which is a good thing because this hilly course is not a good one for chatting. Looking at my past times here, not too shabby this year.

#6 - Golden Harvest: 33:25 (31:58 in 2017; 33:49 in 2016)
 A bit of a route change on this course after a bridge got swept away recently following heavy rains. From what I recall, I'd probably bet on this new version being a bit harder (and longer?) than the previous course... Or maybe that was just me. I was really feeling the heat of the day and definitely lingered a bit longer walking on some of the hills! After hills at Bez Valley and then Albert's Farm and then Golden Harvest, I was dragging my feet a bit. I ran in the beginning with Dave and the rest on my own. I needed all the breath I had for running. I always love Golden Harvest - it is a super venue - and for me this is one of my favourite parkrun courses.

#7 - Lanseria: 32:30
My first time on this two-lap course; and I really enjoyed it. It has a good mix of up and down and a farmy feel. I ran this one with Dave and my legs actually felt pretty decent. This location is north of Lanseria airport so it is a long way out; but a nice one to go to if you're in the north.

with Dave Funnell

#8 - Ernest Ullman: 30:56
I ran here on a Saturday a few weeks ago when I stayed over with friends; this is their home parkrun. On that day, with fresh legs, I ran a 26 min parkrun; this was definitely not on the cards for my 8th consecutive parkrun this day!  I took it easy, enjoyed a little walk up the slight hill at the end of the lap and ticked over on the course. Driving my legs had felt a bit stiff but once running I actually felt good. This flat course was a nice reward after the hilly courses.

#9 - Atholl: 33:45
This is a bit of a weird route but one that makes the best use of a small park and the space available to host and make another parkrun available. I ran not quite the first kilometre with parkrun SA founder and Comrades legend Bruce Fordyce. If you're new-ish to my blog you probably won't know that Bruce and I were adventure racing teammates back in 2006 when Bruce and David Vlok were doing a tv series. Together with a Cape AR guy, Evan Price, we all did the 250km Swazi Xtreme adventure race together. What an experience! And what an opportunity to get to know Bruce. He was 50 at the time and doing his first multiday, non-stop adventure race. What great memories! We had a bit of a chat and then I put my head down to get this last parkrun in the bag.

Selfie at Boksburg; with Sarah at Rondebult

I didn't have too much time to hang around afterwards so I said goodbyes to friends and headed back home to Parys, dropping another runner in Soweto on the way.

Thank you to all of the parkruns that hosted us and the volunteers that were out there. They really make this day a special one. And to Francis and Staci - thank you on coordinating another super event. xxx

When I woke up on Saturday morning I was surprised that my legs weren't in the least bit stiff. I really haven't done much distance so I was expecting a bit of punishment afterwards. I spent Saturday in the car on the road to KZN. Fortunately my legs didn't seize up in the car either.

For sure, if I'm in town again on 27 April 2019, you'll find me again at 9 Freedom Runs for Freedom Day.

Running, different locations and friends; a great combination.

Cheating at parkrun makes me see red

Yesterday I saw red at our local Parys parkrun. I was 'off-duty' yesterday and so I had the opportunity to run with Rusty. After the rains on Thursday, I was out on the route on Friday evening to check out the mud situation. Except for an overflowed drain and a patch of mud, the route was fine. It was even better by Saturday morning.

In briefing, the Run Director on duty told the participants to run around the drain overflow and to get back on the grass - this is a detour of maybe 10 metres onto the road and then back on to the grass.

Yet, a bunch of people decided to run on the road ALL THE WAY to the bottom of the route (around 650m) where they rejoined for the in-and-out turnaround and then they detoured back on to the road and up to the turnaround marshal.

There are a few issues with this:

1. Running on the road is a shorter route in distance.
2. Running on the road is an easier and faster surface - not that our route is technically challenging at all, but tar is always easier and faster than dirt and grass. Interestingly, my fast-running friend says that short tar detour around the drain probably scored him an extra 2 seconds compared to running on the grass.
3. The road is NOT the route
4. Other participants follow those that detour including first timers, visitors and children. We do not have clearance/permission for running on the road. It also presents a safety risk. And, this is PARKrun, not ROADrun.
5. This is cheating.

The worst is that there is not much that we can do about it. I know who some of the people were and we could just delete their results; but we don't know who all the people were. One can't punish some and not the rest; that wouldn't be fair.

I called a number of people back down to the route. One of the guys was a visitor - he'd never been on our route. I invited him to follow me.

So, what we have to do now, which we do occasionally, is to put a marshal further along the route to police participants.

What makes me see red is that we should not have to do this. I know that other parkruns have similar issues; they shouldn't have to double barcode-scan participants and have dozens of marshals out either. But this is the reality.

When I got into the finish area I was really irritated and frustrated. Friends there were correct in saying that I was really the only one who was upset about this; and they were right. But what makes it OK for people to cheat and for this to now be acceptable?

Yes, parkrun is free. Yes, parkrun is for fun. Yes, people are only cheating themselves.

BUT, when things like this become acceptable, then more becomes acceptable.

Like low pass marks being adjusted to improve averages, making a low standard of education acceptable (and covering up fundamental flaws in the system).

Like one person in government putting their hands in the cookie jar and the next following suit because the first did it and then more and more follow until it is the norm...

Like taxis and people who drive in the emergency lane in peak traffic because they're in a hurry to get somewhere.

Like participating in an obstacle course race where someone skips an obstacle, running around it, and they finish ahead of you. 

Are these things ok? They're not to me.

I'm trying to take a deep breath. I know that something that is really insignificant in the big picture shouldn't stress me out so much. But it does. Mostly because I am disappointed in the people who took the easy road. 

I'll be RD again next week and I'll definitely have an extra marshal out on the route - but I am resentful of the fact that I need to do this.

Volunteering makes you smarter

Being in Jo'burg overnight for a meeting, I had the pleasure of doing a different parkrun yesterday - the one at Ernest Ullmann Park and Recreation Centre in Wendywood. It is a two-lap course and for much of the course there is a two-directional flow of runners. On either end (near the start/finish and at the fartherest end) the route 'bulges' and the participants go around the bulge (one-directional) and then meet up again at the neck.

The route requires a good deal of marshals to prevent people from cheating. Yes, a lot of people will  cheat at parkrun when given the opportunity.

After finishing, I went to say hello to the Run Director and to introduce myself. Being the Event Director here in Parys, I enjoy it when other Event Directors and Run Directors come and say hello. Frank was standing at the start of the finish chute, directing runners in.

Within a minute or so there were two happenings that spurred me to write this post. I can't remember the first but I remember the second, a guy pushing a baby jogger pram. He wanted to go down the chute but did say that he hadn't done both laps. I told him to come around the side of me and not to go through the chute.

"But I want to go down here", was his response.

I told him that it confuses the finish marshals and timing so to please come around (a detour of about two metres!).

He was insistent. I was insistent. He went around.

What a stupid idiot!

Let me explain to you how parkrun works.

Everyone starts at the same time. 08h00. You then have to run, jog or walk the five-kilometre course. Some courses may be one big 5km route; others are out-and-back, some are two-lappers and others may have a repeat loop of a section somewhere along the course (our Parys parkrun is the latter layout).

When you finish, there will be a finish chute. The volunteers who do the timekeeping usually stand at the entrance to the chute. They clock your finish time. They may or may not call out your time. For the most part, they are focusing on making sure that the click the stopwatch button for every person entering the finish chute.

The next step is receiving a position token. For bigger parkruns, the volunteer will hand you a token. Here in Parys, we have the tokens on a wire, which a marshal at the finish manages (we no longer hand you the token).

You then progress down the finish chute, with your position token, to the volunteers doing the barcode scanning. They first scan your personal parkrun barcode, which you receive for free when you register online as a parkrun participant.

Anyone can participate in parkrun whether or not you have a personal barcode. The value of having one is that your results are logged on the parkrun system, which you can access through the parkrun website. A record is kept of how many parkruns you have done, where you have done them, the time recorded and how you placed overall, in your gender and in your age category. There are various parkrun milestones for 50, 100 and 250 parkruns completed and for each of these your receive a running tee from parkrun - free-of-charge with thanks to parkrun's sponsors.

Back to the finish...
The barcode scanning volunteers will first scan your personal barcode (if you have one) and then the position token.

When the results are processed by the designated volunteer, the clever parkrun system pairs the 'clicks' on the stopwatch with the position and personal barcode scans. And there you have the results.

Common issues we see are:

People who have not completed the full 5km distance going down the finish chute
We don't mind if you cannot yet complete the 5km distance - this is where routes with loops or two laps are very useful because they allow beginners to build up to completing 5km. It is not right for you to go down the finish chute - because you have not done the full 5km. We ask that you peel off before the finish. By coming down the chute, you get a time and result but you have not actually done the distance. This messes up age gradings, positions and placements for other participants who have actually done the full distance. Yes, this is cheating.

Marshals on the route try to look out for this and at the finish, especially with the faster times, we can spot offenders. It gets more difficult down the line.

We see this with children too. There have been instances where children will sit out a loop/lap and then they come through the finish with their parents. THIS IS CHEATING. I don't care whether you are 6 or 60, if you have not done the full 5km you should not go down the finish chute and you should not get a time.

Children in prams (or carried on a parent's shoulders) do not get results, even if they did walk 100m. Until a child does the full 5km on their own two feet, they do not get a result.

People finish and then go back to fetch a friend and then come through the chute again
You can only go through once. Yes, I know you want to run through with your friend, but all you have to do is to peel off at the entrance to the chute.

When you cross the timing volunteers, they click you. If you the duck under the tape to miss being scanned because "I've already finished", then you bugger up the timing.

Think about it. Let's say the timekeepers have logged 54 people (you for the second time included) and then you duck out of the finish chute, the token scanning will only be on 53. So the next person that comes through will be logged as 55 by the timekeepers and 54 by the scanners. This messes up the timing for the people that come after you. We do checks - between the timekeepers and the scanners - but it could take a number of people before we pick up the discrepancy.

People turnaround in the finish chute to walk back out the way they came in
One-directional flow here, friends. In one side, out the other. It isn't difficult. Don't turnaround once you've been scanned to walk out the way you came in against the flow of people coming into the finish. Really???

People without barcodes pass the timekeepers and then try to duck out of the finish chute 
This has the same effect as above in causing a mismatch between stopwatch clicks and positional tokens.

Even if you do not have a parkrun barcode, we still count your participation.


WHY VOLUNTEERING MAKES YOU SMARTER (and appreciative)

• because you understand how things work
• because you see all the stupid things that participants do and then you don't do the same stupid things
• because you appreciate volunteers who, every Saturday morning, are there early to setup and to be out there so that you can enjoy a free, weekly, timed run.

When you go to parkrun, think. Use your brain and do what you are required to do (complete 5km and pass through the finish chute once).

And remember to volunteer. For parkrun and for anything else.

I learned so much in adventure racing from volunteering (as support crew or a marshal) and also when I was very involved in media because I got to observe all the stupid things that participants do (and all the really neat things). It made me a better racer because I saw first-hand what worked well and what didn't - I didn't need to make the mistakes myself.

Volunteering makes you a smarter and more considerate participant. Try it.

And with a bang the new year has begun

What a first week of 2018! I have not yet had a chance to reflect on 2017 as I'm deeply immersed in 2018 already.

I've had a really great week on the work side. Our YOLO Compost Tumblers were listed on Takealot.com on 15 December. Our timing was really late for the xmas shoppers as a result of a bunch of supplier-side delays for components and then time to build the needed stock... It happened and the process with Takealot has been superb from the start.

I thought that I'd get a notification when sales went through so that I'd be alerted to replace the stock. Come 1 Jan I thought that we had not had any sales, despite receiving a number of direct orders. I didn't think this unusual as it is the holidays and I suspected we'd only see sales in late January.

On Tuesday morning I checked my seller portal: 3 sales before 31 Dec and one that morning! I sent off two boxes on Wednesday and one on Thursday to replace stock. How very exciting!

At the same time my phone and email were pinging with direct orders. The boxes I sent on Wednesday were delivered on Thursday morning and the one was dispatched to a customer by Takealot by noon the same day!

The stock we built up before the start of the holidays is almost completely depleted and so we're moulding again. I've got two orders on standby for the one colour combination. Our plastic supplier opens on Monday and we're hoping that he has stock of the colour that we need. We stockpiled plastic before xmas but are out of just this one colour!

It seems that many New Year's Resolutions are waste / recycling / composting related. Nice!

Celliers' friend came to visit for a night this week. I took him with me to Otters Haunt to enjoy some river scenery. Rusty always loves it there.

Rusty loves visiting Otters Haunt, which we do at least once a week. Whether we walk on the island (as in this photo, on the section of winding trails or for a longer run in good company with our friends Karen, Rocksy and Skally (the latter two being border collies), she just loves every visit (I do too!). She appreciates the scenery too. Otters is the most divine, dog-friendly place to stay for a weekend getaway and only 5 mins from town.

It has been swelteringly hot so my running was been downscaled this week to longer walks with Rusty. She was a hot dog this morning at parkrun. She did the first kilometre to the turnaround marshal and a big tree. I was planning to just take her on one loop but she plonked down in the shade of the big tree and definitely didn't seem keen to continue. I lopped her lead around the post and the marshal, John, kept and eye on her. I ran the two loops (stopping to give her kisses after the first loop) and then we ran together for the one kilometre to the finish.

I haven't run with my morning group the past two weeks. I'm going to aim to join them for at least one morning a week at 6am. I'm back into my late-night working mode, which is not very useful for waking up early. One morning I can do.

New Year's Day parkrun double

Our Parys parkrun was again part of a 'New Year's Day double' with Potchefstroom parkrun and the new Meyerton parkrun. Potch and Meyerton started at 07h00 to give participants enough time to run or walk their courses and to get through to Parys for our 09h00 start.

I set off for Potch at 6am with Louis and Karen, fellow Parys Run Directors, as well as Ruben, Celliers' son. Something started clicking for him a few months ago and he is really getting into his mountain biking, kayaking and parkrunning. Despite a late night, Ruben was keen to come through to Potch as he has only ever done our Parys parkrun. He unfortunately couldn't make the double as he needed to get through to his mom's house - they have all left for a few days away.

Before the Potch start we took a photo with a number of our Parys regulars. 

Ruben and I ran together. He enjoyed being at Potch parkrun and we decided that we need to get Celliers and Kyla to join us for a parkrun here.

It looked like Ruben was the only child participating at Potch parkrun this morning - he was very chuffed with this observation. With Potch completed, we headed back to Parys. I dropped off Ruben at home, said bye to the children and took Rusty and my camera to our parkrun. 

We had a record number of participants today - around 193! At the finish Louis even had to scratch in our parkrun box for the tokens from 150 on (we don't usually need to use them!). It was cooking hot out there but still the participants were full of smiles. Lots of parkrun Tourists as well as those doing the New Year's double bolstered our numbers. It was a colourful and friendly morning.

Going into 2018... I should reach my 100 parkrun milestone. As Rusty is on the mend after her toe injury I'll be getting her back up to fitness and aiming to get her faster than me. I look forward to setting a new PB with her. Two weeks ago I ran my fastest time for 2017 (without her). My actual PB was set on our old course, which was about 300m shorter. I'd like to better it.

Hip-hip-hooray to all of you.

Year-end running (and New Year's Day parkrun double)

I've really had a good break this past week. With family and friends visiting and people in and out of our house like a train station, it was a good time to resign myself to rest, fun and social interactions.

I had two excellent runs last week with our morning running group but this week I gave in to not getting up before 08h30. Sleeping, reading, dozing and chillin'. I always find that when the pace of life and pressure slows down, I crash.

While my running has been lower this week, I'm on fire with my paddling (more on this in another post). Rusty's injured toe seems to be mostly healed and for the past week-and-a-half or so she has shown no sign of latent stiffness or discomfort. I've kept her on lead and on walkies-only outings on flat surfaces and she has been doing well.

This morning I took her to parkrun, her first since the beginning of November. We mostly walked and she seems to be doing well. I'll keep a close eye on her to check for stiffness and discomfort. I look forward to having my running friend back up to speed.

It seems that I did well to miss Thursday morning's run with Rob, Andrew and Gerhard. I saw Rob this morning at parkrun and he said that Andrew really stretched them on Thursday morning.

"My GPS didn't work. It couldn't keep track of the satellites we were going so fast," he said. hahaha

I plan to make a few sessions next week to get my energy up to face the year ahead.

New Year's Day for me starts off with a 'parkrun Double' - first a parkrun at Potch at 07h00 and then back to Parys for our parkrun at 09h00. I'm taking photos so it will be a jog-and-click outing for me.

I've actually had a pretty decent year of running. Rusty has been a big part of my consistency - improved from last year which was probably my most erratic in the last 20 years. 2018 should be even better with both Rusty and established relationships with running friends in this town.

With other parkrun volunteers on Xmas Day. 

Me and Rusty on xmas day. Photo by my cousin Jess.

Congratulations on your fastest time this year

"Congratulations on your fastest time this year."

This is one of the best lines to receive in a parkrun results email.

I haven't run parkrun 'properly' for many months. I got Rusty in late March and started taking her to parkrun in April. Although we improved our times, we were yet to close in on my faster times.

Rusty is still recovering from her injured toe tendon and as I was home this past weekend and not in the Run Director role, I got to participate.

I had a heavier than usual week last week with my morning running group runs but nonetheless I pulled out my best parkrun time this year on Saturday (25:06). It is still a minute off my PB but to put this into context, my PB was set on our previous parkrun route which was around 250m shorter than our current route. I'll need to work hard to better my PB, which should be more achievable when cooler temperatures come around again.

I won't get to run this Saturday as I'm RD again but I am definitely aiming for a sub-25.

I do love rogaining

What a divine day I have had! First I was Run Director at our Parys parkrun this morning and a celebration of our 3rd birthday. Then six hours of rogaining in the Vredefort Dome area, starting from Thabela Thabeng. I had a very good day out - I'm happy with my route and nav. It was brutal out there today - tough terrain and incredibly hot. But I loved it! Most of the controls I went to were locations I have never been to on the property. Thank you to Ian Bratt and Glen Terry for a cunning course.

After Forest Run, I decided to leave my sign up for visitors to the area (I enjoy seeing altitude markers). I saw it pop up in some photos from the recent Kinetic Full Moon event held out here and now it was my turn for a photo with the trig and sign during the rogaining event today.

What a great view! This is what it looks like 'inside' a section of Vredefort Dome area. It really is magical. You don't get to see this unless you're on foot.

I'll post my route and comments in the next few days.

When you feel like you can run forever

It doesn't happen often. Last night I had one of those runs where you feel like you can run forever. The temperature was mild, the air was fresh, I was out with Rusty and I just felt... good.

About two months ago I caught a nasty cough and throaty-chesty thing that just wouldn't go away completely. It didn't make me overtly ill, but I wasn't right either.

It was only a week ago that our whole household got hit with a virus. It started with me at about 21h00 on the Sunday night feeling nauseous and within an hour I'd started vomiting. By 01h00 I was joined by Ruben and then Kyla and then Celliers. The virus has done the rounds in town so it wasn't a food-related illness; just a bad bug.

While Celliers and the kids stayed home on the Monday, I had to be out-and-about to set up for last week's agricultural show. I got in a much-needed one-hour nap in the afternoon and a lie-down later and that was it. Fortunately by Tuesday morning I was mostly recovered.

Last night it felt so good to feel good again. Not every run is like this, but those that are keep us going.

Me and Rusty at parkrun on Saturday morning. She is running so well. The mornings are already quite warm so we took it easy - look at that long tongue. She plopped down in front of the water bowl at the finish (she refuses to drink on the route, despite a dog bowl at the turnaround and a tap towards the finish).

9 Freedom Runs for Freedom Day 2017

Last year I participated in the 9 Freedom Runs for Freedom Day and yesterday I had the pleasure of doing it again. This is a concept created by my friends Staci and Francis. When they first held the event in 2015, there were only 9 parkruns in Johannesburg. There are now many more. Each year they choose 9 parkruns and on Freedom Day (27 April), a public holiday in South Africa, we run each one, driving from venue to venue.

Last year I only ran 8 of the 9 as I drove through in the morning from Parys and started with the second one. This year I drove through the afternoon before, slept over and was in Benoni for the first one at 6am.

This event also gave me a wonderful opportunity to hang out with friends throughout the day. I travelled with Sarah for the first five, then with Tania for the next four and then Allison gave me a lift to my uncle's house. I had the pleasure of running with Allison, Sarah, Tania and Cindy (she came to the first two and then did some in Pretoria) and seeing other running (and orienteering) friends throughout the day.

There were a bunch of parkrunners in for all 9 and many others there to enjoy only a couple, plus parkrunners joining us at their home parkrun. We had a good crowd at each venue.

This was the line up for this year's 9 Freedom Runs for Freedom Day (Facebook page):

The schedule is tight! A new concept was introduced this year: leapfrog. You do only every second one, which allows for more time for participating and travel between events.

We were running consistently between 28-32 minutes, heading back to our car, drinking something, driving and getting to each venue with about 15 minutes before each start. Tight.

#1 Ebotse parkrun - 31:25

Ebotse parkrun is in Benoni and it was our first parkrun of the day. We got there in the dark and started to run as the sun was coming up. This one was filled with as much talking as running as I caught up with Sarah, Tania, Cindy and Allison along the way. It is a pretty route and a very pleasant parkrun.

#2 Springs parkrun - 29:10

More catching up and chatting for us girls at Springs parkrun. It was colder here than in Benoni and we were quite chilled until later in the run. This is a lovely park with a snaking route through large trees. It is a fast and flat route and very pleasant.

Tania and me with Sarah and Cindy just behind.

Tania and me.

Sarah, Cindy and me. 

We also had a nice hello here with orienteer Ian Bratt.

Orienteers at Freedom Runs - Tania, Sarah, Cindy, me and Ian.

#3 Boksburg parkrun - 28:16

The day had started to warm up by the time we got to the Boksburg stadium for the Boksburg parkrun. Another good route and a good time, despite Tania and I talking the hind leg off a donkey. Not too much climb here and some sweet sections. Good use of the area.

#4  Victoria Lake parkrun - 28:28

My first visit to this side of of the lake in many, many years - like since I was a child. Victoria Lake parkrun in Germiston is a two-lap route and is very pleasant, flat and fast. I ran this one with Tania and again we chatted from start to finish. Nice and warm now but fortunately with a cool breeze too.

#5 Rietvlei parkrun - 29:55 (28:20 last year, but it was only #3 for me then)

Sarah, Tania and I started out together at Rietvlei parkrun in Alberton. I ran here last year and I've been here for orienteering - it is a super venue. What was different this year is that they changed the direction of the route and this way is much better, especially as you have a mostly downhill finish. After halfway our trio started splitting up. Tania blazed up the hills - I took a little walkie to catch my breath and stretch out my legs.

This was Sarah's last parkrun as she has four days of orienteering over this long weekend. With a nice 25km in the bag, I transferred my kit to Tania's car, we all said bye and Tania and I headed off to Albert's Farm.

#6  Alberts Farm parkrun - 30:26 (31:26 last year and #5 then)

I actually had a good run at the Alberts Farm parkun, which is on the southern slope of Northcliff hill. I also know this venue very well from orienteering.



My time was a minute faster than last year - very surprising. Of course I had a walkie up a few hill sections plus even on the flat at the bottom of the park. My legs were needing the stretching but overall not feeling too bad. Definitely no chatting from me at this point. Allison and Tania are really good on the hills, which they ran. Another one in the bag.

Almost at the finish...

#7 - Golden Harvest parkrun - 31:58 (33:49 last year, also my 7th)

This is such a great venue for parkrunning and orienteering and I've been here many times over the year. Golden Harvest parkrun is one of the best parkrun routes - it really is a beautiful park and the route has so much diversity in scenery and terain. Again a better time than last year, which is great. And I had a few walkies too.

#8 - Midstream parkrun - 30:37

Held in the huge Midstream estate, this is a relatively new parkrun. The inaugural event held a few weeks ago has 1,200-odd participants! This is the most dull parkrun route that I've run. I can totally see the need for start and finish locations with sufficient parking space, which this has, but the actual route itself is uninspiring. There are so many pedestrian paths in the estate but I can definitely see the limitation of route options around parking requirements and the course being able to support so many runners. When you're a parkrun with over 1,000 participants, this is a big issue.

Tania, Allison and I ran this one together. Not much chatting. The route is mostly flat with a very slight uphill for the last two kilometres.

This one was very tight for time with parkrunners leaving Golden Harvest to get here and to run and then head to Bryanston.

#9 Bryanston parkrun - 29:10  (30:27 last year, also the last parkrun)

The group of parkrunners who did all 9 Freedom Runs

And finally, the 9th parkrun - Bryanston parkrun. Tania and I ran most of the way together and it felt good to hit the final one.

This is an out-and-back along the Braamfontein Spruit and is a pleasant run. I have no idea how the route supports >1,000 parkrunners each Saturday! I'll stick to enjoying it on Freedom Day when the numbers are low and the route is enjoyable.

9th parkrun done.

Orienteering friends Richard and Alison joining me and Tania at Bryanson (Jess there too but we only saw her afterwards).

After the run, we said goodbyes and Allison gave me a lift back to my uncle's house. After a hot shower and a cup of tea I headed back to Parys. After waking up at 04h40, 45km of running, 200km of driving between parkruns and then 140km back to Parys, it was little wonder that my eyes didn't stay open for very long once my head hit the pillow.

Girlfriends, it was awesome to hang and run with you for the whole day. My warm thanks to Staci and Francis for organising and to all of the Event Directors and volunteers for hosting these Freedom Day parkruns. See you all again next year.