Bruce Fordyce. | Twitter/@BruceFordycerun
It’s time to reflect on what has been an amazing year for parkrun South Africa! To reflect, but also to look forward to an exciting 2025.
This year we have seen tens of thousands of people registering for parkrun, and our parkrun registrations have now soared to over 1.5 million. Saturday morning participant figures have climbed above 35 000 on several occasions now. It is also exciting to see how many veteran parkrunners are achieving their 500 parkrun milestones.
A few months ago this was a rare occurrence but now, it seems, there is a queue developing. We have also had a record number of volunteers this year. These wonderful volunteers have helped us to put on more events than ever before.
Of course the highlight of the year was a couple of months ago when we celebrated our one millionth walker, runner and volunteer at our events. No one could have imagined this in November 2011 when 29 people arrived for our very first parkrun.
On a global scale we were delighted that the 10 millionth parkrun barcode registration occurred in South Africa.
These achievements would not have been possible without the invaluable support of our generous sponsors and our colleagues within parkrun team. We have also signed a memorandum of agreement with the National Department of Health and we anticipate working with the department on some exciting projects next year.
So, we’re not resting on our laurels. We want to continue bringing the magic of parkrun to as many people as possible. There is a long list of parkruns waiting to receive their start dates early next year. In addition we are hoping to see the return of a couple of old faithful parkruns in the New Year.
So as the year comes to its conclusion we would like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has contributed to parkrun South Africa this year, and we look forward to an even more happier and healthier 2025!
BRUCE FORDYCE | President, parkrun South Africa
The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media or IOL.
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