December 12, 2016
The South Burnett will get its own parkrun group in 2017 after two trial runs on the South Burnett Rail Trail proved the concept has a lot of local support.
The most recent trial run, held at Wondai on Sunday morning, attracted about 30 participants.
The group ran or walked a 5km course along the Rail Trail between Wondai and Tingoora, kicking off at 7:00am and finishing at about 8:30am.
At the end of the run, their times were recorded in the automated parkrun system so they can see if they can better them in the future.
“parkrun” is the latest fitness craze sweeping Australia.
Groups hold timed 5km runs each week in pleasant surroundings.
The family-friendly events are run under the banner of parkrun Australia and are aimed at people of all abilities, from walkers to Olympians.
The experience elsewhere is that the events quickly become social occasions for regular participants.
Groups have popped up all over Australia since the concept was launched on the Gold Coast in January 2011.
There are now 200 groups in Australia, and more than 270,000 registered worldwide taking part.
In the South Burnett, the move to form a local parkrun group has been led by Cr Ros Heit and the Kingaroy Nutters Running Group.
A committee was set up in October to look at the concept, and Cr Heit suggested the Rail Trail could be an ideal venue because parkruns must not cross roads.
The course chosen for the Wondai run meets that criteria, and two trial runs have shown it’s a good running surface too.
Cr Heit said each parkrun needs five volunteers to hand out tags, supervise, record finishing times and enter each run’s data into the parkrun system.
“If we have 30 people in the organising committee, that means each of them would only have to volunteer 90 minutes of their time every fifth week to keep things running smoothly,” she said.
“It looks like we have that many people already, so we’re going to officially launch the Wondai parkrun in January next year, and I hope even more people get involved with it.”
You can register your interest in taking part on the Wondai parkrun’s Facebook page
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I must have missed the opening of the rail trail, I thought it was still a work site
Pete … no, that will be in early 2017 – maybe March? But parts of the old rail line are completed and the “keep out” signs have been removed from these stretches. It was a short stretch like this near Wondai that the parkrun group used.
The signs and concrete blocks are still in place on the section/s they used, Burns Rd
We should have said “we believe” it was a short stretch like this near Wondai that the parkrun group used for their trial. We also believe that Sunday’s run was to test how the new timing equipment would work and how many volunteers they would require when regular parkrun events begin to be held.
This is from Kathy Duff’s Nov report: “Are these road crossings and safety markers in place on the section used? Or are these known as safety gates? Why are there “Access Prohibited” signs and concrete blocks at these gates, could be used as a obstacle course, I guess. The completion of the rail trail will be delayed for up to three months and possibly longer. There will be sections able to be used when the road crossings and safety markers are in place.”