The Port Alfred parkrun
Port Alfred parkrun
One of the events at the Port Alfred Easter Festival is the Port Alfred parkrun. With a slogan that reads, ‘Free, for everyone, forever’, you just know that a parkrun will always be all about fun.
You can run, walk, sprint, or ramble. Some people do it as a purely social exercise, while others do it for additional training. Some runners are super-focussed and want to aim for their Personal Best time every single parkrun. In contrast, others just chat away with friends, getting some sunshine and fresh air. It’s a great vibe.
The Port Alfred Easter Festival parkrun details:
30 March, 8am
Easter parkrun
Causeway Street, Port Alfred
The Port Alfred parkrun website –
https://www.parkrun.co.za/portalfred/
If you’re really into fitness, you could do a lazy triathlon at the Port Alfred Easter Festival, as there is a parkrun, a swim and a cycle, all on Saturday morning.
Origins
How did parkrun come about? It’s a great question that took us to the global parkrun website. On this website, there is a section on the history of parkrun. This extract is from the website:
“Our first-ever event was in Bushy Park, Teddington, UK, where 13 intrepid parkrunners met on 2 October 2004. It took nearly two years before parkrun spread beyond Bushy. Wimbledon was the chosen venue and we had to prove to ourselves that we could manage more than a single event at a time.
This started the ‘cookie cutter’ approach to events that would allow parkrun to expand. To begin with, we collated all results on paper, and the finish tokens were washers from the local hardware store! Eventually, we ramped up the technology, and so the parkrun registration and barcode result system was born.
Now, many hundreds of thousands of parkrunners are processed, websites updated and millions of emails sent each week. The parkrun community is growing all the time – but it’s all still based on the simple, basic principles formed from the start: weekly, free, for everyone, forever.
So come join in the fun at the Port Alfred parkrun, and maybe you’ll be inspired to do the Cycle and the Swim as well. Then, on Saturday evening, settle down with a few beers at the Bands At The Beach Music Festival at Guido’s.
