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I've been thinking of doing that one, dont know If I can get the miles in either though.So, signing up for my first ever marathon in April
It's the Canberra marathon which is apparently pretty good for beginners as its nice and cool as well as pretty flat.
Anyone here run one in the past? Wondering if 14 weeks is enough time to prepare given I generall run around 40km a week at the moment
Weekday slog a good reason for a free run
Nick Galvin
February 6, 2012
Weekend warriors parkrun participants at Sydney Park. Photo: Dallas Kilponen
LIKE so many great ideas its brilliance lies in its simplicity: a free five-kilometre timed run every Saturday morning in a local park run by volunteers open to all-comers.
Called parkrun, it began seven years ago when founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt started running with a bunch of mates in a South London park. The idea snowballed and now an average of 16,000 runners lace up their shoes at 119 events each week. Most are in Britain, but runs are springing up all around the world from Poland to South Africa and now Sydney.
The Australian national organiser, Tim Oberg, is thrilled the first Sydney event - in Sydney Park, St Peters - is up and running.
''It's an all-inclusive, no barrier, walk or run by the community, for the community,'' he said. ''First and foremost it's free. Cost is a huge barrier to participation in sport for a lot of people.
''Consistency is also key to community building. Every Saturday morning you get to see friends, go to the park with your family and catch up afterwards. It becomes part of people's routine.''
St Peters is the fifth parkrun in Australia and Mr Oberg has ambitious expansion plans.
''I'm hoping we'll launch more or less one event around the country each month,'' he said, adding a second Sydney event will begin shortly.
Each local run is staffed by volunteers such as Paul Wilcock, who set up the St Peters event after hearing about parkrun online. Mr Wilcock only started running about a year ago to lose weight and just ''kept on going''. ''I wanted other people to share the benefits running has had for me,'' he said.
Funding for the non-profit organisation comes from sponsors and local council grants and not a little from Mr Sinton-Hewitt's pocket.
Key to parkrun's success is the timing technology. Runners register online and then print a barcode. The code is then scanned at the end of each run and matched with the runner's finishing time. By midday, all the results are online so runners can compare their performance against themselves and others.
Despite heavy rain and competition from the Sun Run fun run, 60 runners toed the starting line in St Peters for the latest run.
Among them was Joel Fuller from Petersham, a ''sporadic regular runner''. He said he planned to make parkrun a regular part of his weekends. ''It's a great initiative and it's five kilometres so anyone can do it,'' he said. ''It's the new coffee and the old cigarette.''
