Health, fitness encouraged at parkrun

Runners of all ages and abilities are encouraged to get active at local parkruns.

The parkrun is a free 5km community running event held each Saturday at 7am at various locations around Australia and globally, including a number of locations on the Sunshine Coast.

The parkruns are non-competitive and designed to help promote fitness, health and a good social community. It is common at the event or runners to encourage each other verbally and also clap runners as they cross the finish line.

Parkruns also at times have a theme such as barkrun where runners’ pet dogs join in or events designed to draw attention to social issues like racism and domestic violence.

The Sunshine Coast is fortunate to have a wide variety of parkrun course types, from flat courses at Mudjimba, Kawana and Brightwater, through to the Maleny course that skirts along pathways and bush tracks around the Maleny Golf Course, and the Nambour parkrun that utilises steep and rocky bush tracks at Radar Mountain and is regarded as one of toughest in Australia.

To join in the parkruns, meet at the location at around 6.45am at the latest to ensure you can attend the pre-race briefings.

Participants who participate regularly can register for a barcode that allows them to keep track of their run times online. For details, visit: PARKRUN website

It’s worth noting that if you don’t have a barcode, you will be listed as unknown and your time will not be recorded on the web site (apparently your run never actually happened if you don’t register), so you will need to keep track of your time yourself.