A total of 870 eager runners and walkers lined up at the Roodepoort parkrun’s starting line, ready to start their weekly five kilometre run.
During the event, a number of runners and walkers completed milestone runs. Four junior runners – Bonganimaswazi Tshabalala, Eythan Botha, Leah Meyer and Reese Coetzee – completed their 10th run to become part of the ’10’ Club.
Adéle de Waal, Anne Riley, Daryl Wright, Elsa Beukes, Gerda Toxopeus, Mark Hay, Mitch van der Merwe, Shaun Riley and Tanya Kinsley completed their 50th runs and Beverley Jason, Jenny Jacobs and Richard Miller completed their 100th.
The first male runner to cross the finish line was the two-time national men’s 5 000m champion, Shadrack Hoff, who finished in a time of 18 minutes and 37 seconds. This is quite a bit slower than his personal best, which is also the new course record, of 16 minutes and nine seconds.
The first female runner who crossed the finish line was Tersia van Straaten. She finished in a time of 26 minutes 24 seconds, just missing out on the opportunity to beat her personal best time of 25 minutes and nine seconds.
The parkrun takes place every Saturday at Len Rutter Park at 8am, and is run solely by volunteers. Adéle Enslin, the event manager, explained, “Volunteers help us with timekeeping, scanning barcodes and marshalling (to ensure runners stay on course). There is also a tail-walker for every event. If every Roodepoort parkrunner volunteered once every 4 months, we would be most grateful and we would not have challenges with no volunteers.”
If you are able to volunteer to assist, please send your details to roodepoortoffice@parkrun.com or roodepoorthelpers@parkrun.com to be added to the roster.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
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