Parkrun celebrates turning two

Vicky Parker has found a new liking for running thanks to the St George parkrun which turned two of Saturday.

FUN RUN: Vicky Parker on her 50th park run with her son.

THE last thing Vicky Parker ever wanted to do on a Saturday morning was putting on her joggers and run.

Two years later and she is a changed woman thanks to the free weekly St George parkrun event.

Participating in about 53 parkruns, only about six of them not in St George, Parker has noticed a vast improvement in her mental health and fitness.

“I’m not the fastest person on the course and when I first joined, I was only able to walk the course,” Parker said.

“However now I can now jog it.

“No one likes getting up early on the weekend but over the past two years I have actually found myself looking forward to getting up early.

“And my kids get really excited as well which makes me excited.

“Also after parkrun I find the rest of Saturday to be extremely productive as well.”

Tapping into her competitive nature, Parker finds the best thing about her parkrun experience is you compete against yourself.

It doesn’t matter where you come in the scheme of things, it’s all about improving on your time each week and aiming for those personal bests.

“Even when I jog pass people on the course they will often give me that little extra motivation to keep going and say that I can do it,” she said.

“It’s a great atmosphere and people are supportive. “

Improving her fitness and reaching milestones herself, on Saturday it was the actual parkrun that reached a milestone, celebrating their second birthday.

In those two years the parkrun has hosted 104 events, had 436 runners, 2096 runs, 465 personal best times and a massive total distance of 10,480km run.

Parker, Garry Felthcher and Luke Lobegeiger are three runners who have reached 50 parkruns in that time, with the leader Ang Garner almost there.

The run also had eight families who volunteer or run, and even encompasses a retired doctor wanting to keep fit.

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