Roodepoort parkrun reaches the incredible 500 milestone
Marathon icon Bruce Fordyce was in attendance to honour the unique achievement.
Roodepoort parkrun celebrated its 500th event and to celebrate a decade’s worth of commitment to the free Saturday morning athletic outing, prizes and baked goods were served to salute the honour.
Roodepoort parkrun has now racked up 24 496 individual finishers who have completed the run through Len Rutter Park a collective 222 443 times. An average of 444 do so every week and they have been aided by 1 340 invaluable volunteers who help make parkrun the ever-growing community it is.
The 5km stroll was officially won by 17-year-old Siyamthanda Ngyibanjwa who crossed the line almost simultaneously with 14-year-old Thabang Mojapelo. Neither of the barefoot Braamfischerville boys was barcoded but both came in at just under the 18-minute mark. David Ashworth finished third in a time of 18 minutes and 12 seconds while Mlindeli Nyikima, also unbarcoded came home fourth.
Founder and marathon legend, Bruce Fordyce, graced the 500 celebrations, finishing in a time of 33 minutes and 44 seconds.
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Proud of the event he helped build, Fordyce said, “It was a wonderful winter’s morning with a crowd of 700 parkrunners gathered to celebrate the 500th run. Only a handful ran the first parkrun back in 2012. We would never have imagined such a crowd or that one day parkrun registrations would number over 1,3 million people. Congratulations to the whole team and here’s to the next 500 parkruns.”
