Parkrunner earns prestigious blue T-shirt

It’s taken him more than 10 years of running, but two weeks ago, Bill Davis completed his 500th parkrun at Uvongo to become the first Uvongo parkrunner to attain his blue 500 T-shirt.

He is also the first KZN parkrunner to achieve membership of the illustrious ‘Blue Club’ and is one of less than 50 South African parkrunners who have earned their blue 500 T-shirts.

Uvongo parkrun is part of a global movement that sees countless free 5km walks or runs being held in park-like venues in more than 20 countries on Saturday mornings. It takes place at St Michael’s Beach every Saturday at 08:00.

When Margate Round Table first proposed to start a parkrun in this area, Bill was interested to hear that all walkers and runners, no matter how fast or slow, would be welcome to take part. Although he’d never taken an interest in running, he’d done a bit of competitive cycling and had always enjoyed walking, so this new movement appealed to him.

On May 11, 2013, he was among the 26 parkrunners who took part in the first Uvongo parkrun. He happily strolled that first event, finishing in a relaxed 58 minutes, 16 seconds. Little did he know what an addiction parkrun would become.

Soon, he was clocking up the formal parkrun milestones – 50, 100, then 250 parkruns – and chasing down his personal best (PB) times. His PB in Uvongo is 26 minutes 23 seconds, less than a minute slower than his best ever time of 25:29 achieved at Newfarm, Brisbane, in 2016. His average overall time is 35:07, and he is often pleased to be first in the 70 to 74 age category.

On his 2500km journey to earn his blue 500 shirt, he has tried out parkruns in 106 locations, including 20 in Australia. Through this, he has met a host of wonderful fellow parkrun enthusiasts and has made friends all over South Africa.

Gaining his green T-shirt after completing 250 parkruns was a major achievement for him, but at that time, a blue T-shirt seemed elusive. However, he made it a goal to complete 500 parkruns. Covid didn’t help. For nearly two years, the pandemic shut parkrun down.

Finally, completing his 500th parkrun last week (at Uvongo’s 520th event) was cause for celebration. However, he is quick to point out that he could not have done it alone. He thanks the wonderful Uvongo volunteers and parkrunners, his wife, Judi, the larger parkrun community and everyone else who shared his 500 journey.

He is particularly grateful to the volunteers.

“A huge shout-out to our wonderful volunteers who wait in the cold, the heat, the rain and even hail for us to finish every week. Without volunteers, parkrun would never happen,” Bill said.

Now, he is looking forward to doing his next 500 with his parkrun friends.

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