Picture: MATTHEW FIELD
The Sunrise-On-Sea Parkrun will celebrate a special milestone on Saturday January 22 when it hosts its 400th run.
“We started on January 5, 2013 and we just had our birthday,” said Parkrun regional ambassador Dannie Bessinger.
He said that the run has been going consistently for the last nine years, but had to close down in 2020 and 2021 due to the lockdown restrictions.
“We were basically out from March 14 2020 to October 2021,” Bessinger said.
Sunrise-On-Sea is part of an international project that first started in the UK in 2004.
According to the Parkrun website, the first race took place in Bushy Park, Teddington and had just 13 runners.
Fast forward to today and the project has now expanded to 23 countries and over 100,000 runners taking part every week.
Entering is easy, Bessinger said.
“Parkrun is free, you don’t have to pay for anything. All you have to do is go to the Parkrun SA website and you only register once.
“You can then join us every Saturday at 8am,” he said.
The route is always 5km no matter where in the world you’re running, and one of the main draws of the event is that it gets runners out into nature.
“Parkruns avoid cars and traffic. The basic concept in the UK was to do it in the parks, free from traffic and people,” Bessinger said.
“In SA, we don’t have the same number of parks as the UK. We are mainly on farmland, golf courses and estates. We even have a few on beaches.”
To register, visit the Parkrun website and follow the necessary prompts. The Sunrise-On-Sea run starts at Murambi Roses every Saturday at 8am.
Runners taking part in the 400th run on Saturday are encouraged to wear purple to celebrate the special occasion.
“That was our original colour to recognise our volunteers because we’re dedicating this run to them,” Bessinger said.
