It is all or nothing for the parkrun community
The nine-time winner of the Comrades Marathon and winner of the first-ever Roodepoort parkrun, held at Florida's Len Rutter Park, has strong opinions about the government's handling of the pandemic.
Across the world many sports have taken to gradually phasing in the return of their competitions, mainly sacrificing the attendance of supporters.
What happens then when participants, supporters and officials are all one and the same? The parkrun community, which thrives on its large interactions with shared levels of involvement, is taking a firm stance in its response to the coronavirus delays.
“We will never go back in pieces,” says the man responsible for bringing the parkrun phenomenon to South Africa, Bruce Fordyce. “It is our mission to include everybody and we would never do it in drips and drabs. We would never exclude anybody,” continues Bruce, regarding their all-or-nothing approach.
The nine-time winner of the Comrades Marathon and winner of the first-ever Roodepoort parkrun, held at Florida’s Len Rutter Park, has strong opinions about the government’s handling of the pandemic. “It is the biggest disgrace I’ve seen and the misery it has brought to this country cannot be quantified,” he fumed. That said, he is positive about the future of parkrun, saying, “We haven’t lost a single sponsor and our numbers have increased since the beginning of lockdown”.
The liberating freedom of an early-morning run is highly addictive as proved by the global growth of parkrun. Now in 22 countries across the globe, South Africa has 225 locations making it one of the most active in the world. Bruce is looking forward to a return and expects a massive surge when the time comes, stating, “It’s free and the community atmosphere is a great place to get fit. We will come back strong and as a whole.”
