If you go down to your park tomorrow, chances are you could just be witness to a one in a million occasion.
That’s because somewhere in SA it will be the millionth occasion that a different person either completes or volunteers at a parkrun event.
Started in London 20 years ago last month, by a South African to boot (Paul Sinton-Hewitt), the standard 5km event has truly mushroomed into something of a global phenomenon.
SA road running legend, multiple Comrades Marathon champion Bruce Fordyce heads up parkrun SA and is pleased as punch at how the event has made footprints around the country.
“Paul started the whole concept off in Bushy Park, London, on October 2 2004 simply because he was lonely and wanted someone to run with him. There were only 13 at the very first one. The way it took off was that one of the original 13 participants said it was too far for him to come from Wimbledon each Saturday so he asked if he could start one there, then one started in Leeds and away it went.”
Fordyce’s first experience of parkrun was in 2011 when he was due to run the London Marathon. “I wasn’t really keen to run because of the marathon the next day but I saw the magic — there were around 600 people and at the front of the event guys were running 16 minutes while at the back there were people pushing prams.”
And so Fordyce brought parkrun back to SA later that year, Delta Park in Randburg, Gauteng, to be precise.
“After three months Dave Ashworth [husband of top runner and former Comrades Marathon Association chair Ann] asked to start one in Roodepoort, the next one was in Benoni, then East London.”
Strangely enough the last province in SA to come on board was the Western Cape. “Which is surprising,” says Fordyce, “as some of the nicest versions of parkrun are in the Western Cape”.
There are now 220 parkruns across the length and breadth of SA and the joy of the event is that it’s 100% free, one registers, can buy a bracelet with a bar code or simply print out a paper bar code to record every event one participates in and you’re licensed to lope or even limp along.
Such is the popularity that when Fordyce signed up in 2011 his global sequential number was 136,862 — if one were to sign up today the number would be more than 10-million and counting.
The event — never called a race because everyone is regarded as equal — is simplicity personified. Starting time is 8am every Saturday, around the country, though it may differ slightly in other countries.
The most recent SA parkrun to be launched was in Paul Roux, between Bethlehem and Senekal in the Free State.
“The biggest individual parkrun we’ve had was in North Beach, Durban, the Saturday before Comrades Marathon a few years back.”
Personally, Fordyce has completed 546 parkruns, mostly in SA of course, a good few in the UK and then also in Poland, Russia, the US and Australia.
Another member of the 500+ club is kwaMashu-born Jabu Mkhize. Now living in Cape Town, the former Transnet executive has notched up 514 parkruns.
“I did my first one in Roodepoort, 11 years ago and was immediately bitten by the parkrun bug. Bruce [Fordyce] was presenting a T-shirt to someone who had done 50 parkruns and I immediately wanted one of those T-shirts,” he said.
He has no favourite parkrun, saying they all have their own unique characteristics but said that without a doubt the Valley of a Thousand Hills event in KwaZulu-Natal was the hardest he has run.
Philosophical and philanthropic is probably the best way to describe what parkrun means to Jabu .
“Parkruns are a vehicle for our community to heal and deal with the ills of our community ... when we were young our parks used to be safe and now they’ve been taken over by criminals. Parkruns are helping our communities trying to take them back and use them for a good cause and changing lives, building communities, forging new bonds and forming new friendships."
His long road to 500 parkruns hasn’t been easily travelled though.
On one occasion he narrowly missed his flight from Johannesburg to Upington, but so determined was he to tick off another parkrun that he simply leapt into his car and drove the almost 800km to Upington.
“On another occasion I was driving to Loxton [also in the Northern Cape] from Cape Town but my navigation system took me onto a gravel road where I had a puncture and by the time I’d fixed it I was too late for my accommodation and had to sleep in the car before running parkrun the next day.”
Where will Jabu be for parkrun’s history millionth milestone on Saturday?
“I’m in the tiny Northern Cape town of Aggeneys for this weekend, and really looking forward to be part of the event’s history. Who knows, it might even be me,” he laughs.
Last word to Fordyce, the man who brought parkrun to SA.
“In our busy little office of four staff members, we have a ‘boastful’ saying each day that we will never be this small again — because each and every week there are a few thousand more parkrun family members.”
Among the thousands and thousands of participants in the length and breadth of the rainbow nation on Saturday, whether it be a runner, walker or volunteer, one of them will be one in a million.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.