Roodepoort parkrun, which has become one of the most attended weekly sporting events in the area, celebrated its 14th anniversary last week.

Second only to Delta parkrun in Blairgowrie, it was the second parkrun established in South Africa, with its first event held on April 28, 2012.

According to parkrun veteran Kip Norman, who took part in the first event at Len Rutter Park and still volunteers, parkrun South Africa CEO Bruce Fordyce started the movement locally and played a key role in establishing the Roodepoort event.

“Bruce Fordyce got David Ashworth and his wife Ann involved. Ann was the winner of the women’s race at the Comrades Marathon in 2018.

“David became the first event director of parkrun at Roodepoort, and in our inaugural race, we had a total of 42 participants.”

Norman said it took several months to map the course at Len Rutter Park and secure the necessary municipal approvals.

“There was some suspicion among the local running community initially because it was a free event,” he said, adding that it is now common to pay up to R100 to enter a 5km race.

“The only thing people had to do was to enter online, print their barcodes, and show up on the day. Even the results got emailed to them weekly. This was unheard of at the time.”

To mark the route in the early days, David and Ann placed red flags every 50m to ensure runners stayed on course.

“The first race was won by Bruce Fordyce, and the first female finisher was Tracy Rankin.

“We’ve had three Comrades winners taking part at Roodepoort parkrun over the years, being Bruce Fordyce, Ann Ashworth, and the legendary Alan Robb, the only person with more Comrades medals than Bruce Fordyce.”

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On January 20, 2018, the event recorded its highest turnout, with 1 449 finishes.

“We’ve had over 1 000 finishes per event on more than 15 occasions,” he added.

“Ann and David eventually left to start the Bryanston parkrun, handing the event director reins over to Phillip Gray, who later handed over to me.

“Pascal Simba took over from me, handing over to Peter McDonald. The post is currently filled by Debbie Pieterse.”

The smallest turnout was just four participants on April 20, 2013.

“Granted, it was in a torrential downpour,” Norman said, adding that the run went ahead after checking a weather app, which showed no lightning within a 15km radius.

Over the years, Roodepoort parkrun has built a strong sense of community.

“We’ve even had a bachelor’s party at parkrun one Saturday,” he said.

“There is no other sporting event that has brought the community together to such an extent as the parkrun has. It is also the ideal place for grassroots-level kids to get involved in the sport of running.”

Norman added that milestone T-shirts were initially given out for free, with the event director collecting them monthly from Fordyce.

“Unfortunately, with the exponential growth of parkrun over the years, giving away free T-shirts became unsustainable.”

He also praised the role of volunteers.

“They are the heartbeat of Roodepoort parkrun. There were four volunteers at the first parkrun, and over the years, between the different event directors, they’ve built up a core volunteer group, which is just as social and close-knit as can be.”