Rockhampton parkrun sets new record, milestone runners revealed
A new attendance record has been set at Rockhampton parkrun after a massive weekend. To mark the occasion, we honour those there who have now completed at least 200 of the weekly events.
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For Ian Dunbier, parkrun is all about community.
And the Rockhampton community continues to embrace the weekly 5km timed event held at the city’s botanic gardens each Saturday morning.
A record 448 people attended last week, bettering the previous record of 442 set on January 13 last year.
Rockhampton was one of 22 parkruns across the country that broke all-time attendance records last Saturday.
Dunbier is coming up to his fifth year as director of the Rockhampton parkrun.
He took the reins from Craig McCormack who was at the helm for the four years from the inaugural event in March 2016.
Dunbier said he loved to see people of all ages and abilities taking part, and got particular satisfaction from seeing the number of children taking part.
He has completed 163 parkruns and volunteered at 277 more.
“Parkrun is now a global entity,” he said.
“It’s great for people to get not only physical exercise but mental exercise.
“Even though it has the word ‘run’ in the title, probably a third of our participants actually walk.”
Dunbier said January was typically a big month for parkrun with people factoring it into their New Year’s resolutions to get fit and healthy.
But he said everyone had their own motivation, and he just loved to see people getting out and doing it.
Many participants have inspiring stories, such as Bernadette Wallace who completed her 300th last week, 46 of them while undergoing cancer treatment last year.
A total of 2500 parkruns are held around the world, with more than 500 across Australia.
Dunbier has done them in Japan, New Zealand and across the country.
He plans to keep that trend going when he heads to Tasmania in February and Germany in April.
Rockhampton parkrun starts at 7am each Saturday.
200+ parkrun participants in Rockhampton’s record-breaking field
Mark Harris - 406
Kalee West - 383
Dominic Fletcher - 355
Dot Lennane - 339
Tim Griffin - 337
John Weir - 336
Lyn J Lewis - 335
Bruce Young - 334
Peter M Lewis - 321
Justin Lane - 308
Cheryl Bookallil - 304
Sue Deakin - 303
J Kerree Green - 300
Bernadette Wallace - 300
Paul Wiltshire - 294
Rhys Williams - 294
David French - 291
Kym Treacy - 282
Michael McCarthy - 277
Shiralee Teal - 275
Cheryl Green - 274
Bruce Manly - 273
Catherine Dass - 270
Angela Heffer - 269
Karen Ferguson - 267
Paul Williams - 263
Wendy Silvester - 256
Belinda Ryan - 255
Helen McLeod - 255
Matthew Vickers - 253
Helen Wiltshire - 250
Kylie Walsh - 249
Michaela McWilliam - 249
Lisa Eising - 243
Caroline Richardson - 241
Candice Fraser - 241
Natalie Vickers - 236
Lachlan Boto - 234
Ray Pimm - 231
Micaiah Lane - 230
Emma Green - 230
Ken Weier - 224
Mark Coombe - 222
Nicholas Rewald - 215
Trevor Robertson - 215
Garry Womsley - 214
Brendan Hooper - 213
Pete Smith - 206
Allan Harwood - 205
Casey Boto - 204
Elisha Lane - 202
Amanda Knipler - 200
Kath Hodda - 200
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