Saturday morning, November 22, at Len Rutter Park presented the perfect conditions for a parkrun, and it showed in the numbers with 454 runners lining up to take part in Roodepoort’s most popular weekend event.

As usual, when the parkrun falls on the 22nd of a month, many runners sported colourful tutus.

This week saw another excellent push for first place with James Bantom achieving a new personal best time, finishing the race in an astounding 18:06. Parkrun volunteers were holding their breaths for a new track record when James finished his first lap in just eight minutes, but it was not to be.

Daniel Bowers finished nearly three minutes behind in second place in a time of 21:02, followed by Christopher du Plessis in 22:13.

Moekestsi Tsoeliane and Charlie Strydom rounded out the top five in 22:25 and 22:35, respectively.

The first woman to cross the finish line, Phyllis de Fouw, did so in eighth place in a time of 22:57.

She was followed by Christina Karadimitriadis in 10th position with 23:46.

Several runners achieved milestones, including Jenny Donald, who completed her 400th parkrun on the day.

Vanessa Harmen crossed the parkrun finish line for the 250th time, and Eugene Lubbe completed his 200th race.

Morgan Jones did his 150th while Yseera Jhetam and Rodney Adams finished their 100th races.