Parkrun South Africa hits a million parkrunners … and counting

On 16 November 16th at 8am (this Saturday morning) about 40,000 people will line up to start their weekly parkrun at 220 different locations across South Africa. But this week a remarkable milestone will be reached. One of those runners will be the millionth different person to participate in a parkrun in South Africa.

The magic million parkrunners includes more than 60,000 people who have volunteered at a parkrun as run directors, timekeepers, tail-walkers and marshals. They remain an indispensable and most valued part of the parkrun movement, spreading enthusiasm, love and a sense of community at every event you attend. 

The one million South Africans are also part of the global parkrun movement that has also grown and now numbers 10 million people in 23 countries. That too was started by a South African, Paul Sinton-Hewitt.

To mark the day Bruce Fordyce, who started parkrun South Africa at Delta Park in Johannesburg back in 2013, will be joining runners at Delta Park, an established parkrun that usually has several hundred participants. Fordyce, possibly South Africa’s greatest Comrades Marathon runner, has championed parkrun SA and is now its president. 

Read: Meet the global team: Bruce Fordyce | parkrun ZA Blog 

Bruce is an avid advocate for parkrun, continually touring South Africa, baptising new parkruns and encouraging existing ones. He has completed more than 546 parkruns himself, including 240 different ones in South Africa. What a way to get to know our beloved country and people. 

Says Fordyce: “Who could have guessed that when we stood there at the inaugural Delta parkrun with just 29 people, that just 13 years later we would see more than 1 million different people join parkrun here in South Africa – incredible!”

“I’m excited to see what’s going to happen next with parkrun in South Africa. There’s so many more people who would benefit from coming along to parkrun, whether to walk, jog, run or volunteer, and we look forward to another million South Africans signing up over the next few years.”

Parkrun (with a small “p” for the uninitiated) is a weekly 5km run that takes place in public parks and spaces across all nine provinces of South Africa: from Kai Kai in the north of Northern Cape to Louis Trichardt in Limpopo, from Pongola in KZN to Zastron in the Free State… There are 64 in Gauteng alone. Unless there is life-threatening lighting, floods or a pandemic lockdown, it takes place religiously every Saturday morning. Some parkruns draw hundreds of people, some a mere handful. You can find a parkrun near you on the map here.

Read more: A users’ guide to some of the Parkruns of Gauteng 

The beauty of parkrun is that it is free to enter, open to all ages, sizes, fitnesses, nationalities and dogs on leads. You can sprint it, jog it, walk it and probably even crawl it.

It combines an ancient sport with modern technology. Once you have your parkrun barcode, easily downloaded from the internet (register here), after each run, within hours you receive an email telling you of your time, overall position, position in your age group, PB and the number of parkruns you have run. What better way is there to start the weekend?

I started running parkruns in 2019 and wrote enthusiastically about its wonder the week before the first Covid lockdown in 2o20. I now have 116 to my credit and I echo Fordyce’s love of and enthusiasm of the movement. Recently I ran parkruns in England and the US, and was made to feel by the other runners as if I were at home from home. Which only goes to confirm that above all, it’s a global community event, a way to encounter different communities in different places, preserve parks and other public spaces and get to know our neighbours, near and far. 

I asked Fordyce what he thinks parkrun represents for South Africa. His response was short and simple: “The chance to help South Africans become a happier and healthier nation.”

Just do it, you may find that it will change your life. DM