Runners lace up for Bellarine parkrun

FOR seven years Ocean Grove has held its 5km parkrun, a space where people can come together in a non-competitive environment.

Over the years, the course has stayed the same, however the age of participants has varied with more young people lacing up the runners for the weekly event.

Local parkrun organiser Tina Johnston said that each week, young children came down to participate, along with people who are in their 80s.

“Over the years I have found that we seem to be getting more

younger people, children of parents who have been running for a while, and the children are starting to come as well.”

On average, the parkrun attracts around 80 people each week, with numbers fluctuating over the warmer months including the last holiday which brought in 230 runners.

A worldwide organisation, there are free parkrun events taking place globally, designed to encourage people to participate in a friendly exercise environment that is not results orientated.

“It’s something that you do for yourself, but in doing that, you make lots of good friends, you get outside in the fresh air and it’s fun,” Ms Johnston said.

One of the goals some avid parkrunners set themselves is to compete a park run that starts with every single letter of the alphabet.

“They will travel Australia wide to achieve that and the good thing about Ocean Grove, we’re the only ‘O’ in Victoria, we do have a lot of visitors who are welcomed with open arms.

“We’ve had people from England who are travelling here, they come from America and the same for us, our people go overseas, they do the same thing.”

The Ocean Grove parkrun takes place every Saturday at 8am with all ages and abilities welcome, setting off from the Barwon Estuary Picnic Information.

For more information, head to the Ocean Grove parkrun Facebook page or parkrun.com.au/oceangrove/