Today marked parkrun event number 324 for Kapiti. I came up from Wellington to participate and I’m making the most of visiting parkruns further afield before daylight savings ends. I’m grateful that some of the smaller events are able to operate now and it brings some parkrun normality back to my Saturday mornings. It’s great to catch up with people that you normally only see at parkrun. The weather was perfect and with recent work on the track made for a faster start and finish. There were a few other visitors and 4 first timers – welcome! With no milestones to celebrate today we were off to a quick start. I always enjoy the turnaround point, not only because you’re halfway there but because you get to see everyone on the way back. There is lots of encouragement and friendly nods which helps to keep each foot going in front of the other. Once I got to the finish line everyone was debriefing about how they found it and I had a chat to one of the first timers – I hope you enjoyed it and that we see you back again! As always, big thanks to the volunteers without whom the event wouldn’t run. I look forward to coming back soon.

Olivia

 

This week 60 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 4 were first timers and 7 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 5 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 11 volunteers:

Sarah BEGBIE • John GLYNN-BEGBIE • Lucy LAWLOR • Olivia FOUNTAIN • Alan ORANGE • Adam LAWLOR • Michael PEARCE • Pat TAYLOR • Lorena THOMAS • Martin HILL • Jeroen MATTHEUS

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Kapiti Coast parkrun Results Page.

The female record is held by Hannah OLDROYD who recorded a time of 18:19 on 17th February 2018 (event number 157).
The male record is held by Paul MARTELLETTI who recorded a time of 15:30 on 1st January 2020 (event number 257).
The Age Grade course record is held by Michele ALLISON who recorded 92.16% (22:20) on 19th June 2021 (event number 314).

Kapiti Coast parkrun started on 24th January 2015. Since then 2,774 participants have completed 25,562 parkruns covering a total distance of 127,810 km, including 3,788 new Personal Bests. A total of 391 individuals have volunteered 3,245 times.

After what felt like months without my weekly Saturday morning Parkrun fix, I was so excited to hear that Kapiti Parkrun was returning on February 26! Imagine how gutted I was when I sustained an injury and my physio advised me not to run for at least 4 weeks (and like all runners, I always heed my physio’s advice…)

Rather than skip the event and sleep in, I decided to walk the course and take the opportunity to catch up with some long lost friends. This was my first time walking Parkrun and I’m so glad I did, as it gave me a completely different perspective on the event.

As always, the social chat before the start was relaxed and friendly. It’s amazing how easily you can speak to a stranger when you have running in common. But instead of checking my watch, setting my Garmin and being charged up ready to race, I approached the start today totally relaxed. Letting the speedsters go first and just chilling at the back of the back of the pack made for a nice change too; there’s nothings as stressful as gunning for a PB and getting stuck behind a dog/buggy/child at the gate and losing precious minutes!

As I walked the track, I was able to fully appreciate what a stunning course we have here in Kapiti. The sun was sparkling on the river, the trees were moving ever so slightly in the breeze, and the cicadas were chirping; all things I fail to notice when I’m focused on pace, cadence and form. As the frontrunners started passing me on their return leg, at first I thought ‘but I’m only a quarter of the way into the course, I’m usually close to the turn around by now!’, then I noticed the friendly exchanges happening. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t ‘going well’, ‘looking good’, running strong’ or ‘catching him/her’, the supportive things we usually call out to our fellow runners. Instead, I got just as many friendly supportive comments just for being there. “Good to see you Jo” was something I heard over and over again, always accompanied by a friendly smile and even the odd high five.

And then I realised; we may be a community brought together by a love of running, but we are held together by a shared bond of friendship and camaraderie. I salute Parkrun for providing me with me a place where I belong, for great friendships, endless and unconditional support, and lots of fun!

Hopefully next time I grace the start line it’ll be as a runner again, but either way, Parkrun is an important part of my life. Just don’t slow me down at the gate!

Jo

PHOTO CAPTION: Jo being celebrated for getting her 50 parkrun shirt in 2021.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jo and her friend, Paula, taking part in Parkrun.

This week 57 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 10 were first timers and 5 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 4 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 13 volunteers:

Sarah BEGBIE • Jeff STARK • John GLYNN-BEGBIE • Lucy LAWLOR • Caty SPENCER • Mollie SPENCER • Gary CRILLEY • Adam LAWLOR • Joanna HUMPHRIES • Michelle HOLMES • Graeme CROMPTON • Bruce WILSON • Gabi BERTO

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Kapiti Coast parkrun Results Page.

The female record is held by Hannah OLDROYD who recorded a time of 18:19 on 17th February 2018 (event number 157).
The male record is held by Paul MARTELLETTI who recorded a time of 15:30 on 1st January 2020 (event number 257).
The Age Grade course record is held by Michele ALLISON who recorded 92.16% (22:20) on 19th June 2021 (event number 314).

Kapiti Coast parkrun started on 24th January 2015. Since then 2,770 participants have completed 25,502 parkruns covering a total distance of 127,510 km, including 3,781 new Personal Bests. A total of 390 individuals have volunteered 3,234 times.

On 22 January, a beautiful morning at the Otaihanga domain 74 runners/walkers completed the 322nd event, on the 7th anniversary of the kapiti parkrun.

While there were many regular faces missing today, we welcomed 10 first timers, hope you all enjoyed your experiences and return in the future, remember we were all first timers once.

A relocation of the start/finish area, was due to ongoing work following the December flooding,  I personally thought that this was an improvement. There were areas of rough surfaces on the track but still good enough to run on, and there were 5 PBS, congratulations to Jacob Anderson-Wallace, Michelle De La Ray, Gabi Berto, Holly Robinson, and Nicky Wallace.

This time last year, when celebrating the 6th birthday, who would ever have thought we would have such a disrupted year.

Thank you to the volunteers in making this event possible and the Kapiti park run providing the 2 large birthday cakes for everyone at the end of the run.

Linsay

The first weekend of the current school term is already here, which did not stop 84 parkrunners and 12 volunteers braving the cold conditions this morning. The track was very moist from the previous few days of bad weather and it is also the last day of July. The winter days are almost coming to a close and everyone had a great time during the event. Today was also the first time I tried the post-run coffee cart near the picnic table. The person who runs it is very multi-talented with different jobs on the side and is able to manage his time very well each week.

We are also disappointed that the Trans Tasman bubble is paused until Friday 17th September and it is likely to be extended. Our parkrun friends in the affected states with their lockdowns are disappointed with how this virus is spreading, devastating economies and putting livelihoods in jeopardy. A few weeks ago, we had an Australian visitor in one of our Wellington region parkruns who has done over 150 different parkruns said to some of us that he was fortunate to have made it back to Brisbane before the lockdown was enforced. Parkrun tourism is not easy and it takes a lot of commitment to achieve this goal.

There were 7 first timers, 2 of whom were doing their debut parkrun, although one of the two debut parkrunners has already completed their 25th volunteer achievement. The rest of the first timers were visitors from Hamilton, Palmerston North and the Greater Wellington region. 3 personal bests were recorded. 2 parkrunners have achieved their milestones today, one official and one unofficial. Congratulations to Allen COTTLE on reaching his 50th and Matt BURDEN on reaching his 150th. Allen has done the majority of his parkruns at Kapiti Coast and once each at Rotorua and Flaxmere. Matt has done all of his 150 parkruns at Kapiti Coast.

Another handy tool for other parkrunners is that they can obtain their parkrun achievements by downloading the 5K app on their phones, either on iOS or an Android. You can see all the achievements by typing your barcode number and even follow other parkrunners on the app, should you choose to. I was able to get 32 seconds on my time today, which is a step closer for me to complete the stopwatch bingo challenge. Hopefully by the end of this year that I can achieve the stopwatch bingo challenge and the position bingo challenge is far off for me. You will be amazed at how addicted you will be with this app. There is a screenshot below of what it looks like.

As most parkrunners were not aware of the unofficial tour guide book that was delivered by myself to this parkrun when I visited Invercargill the weekend before. It was great to see this book being looked at by attendees today and of course, it will be off to a new destination next week. Having a great community such as parkrun is a great way to build new friendships, travel for just a parkrun as part of their parkrun tourism challenge or even form a team to create a new event. The photo of this book is shown below and this can be purchased on the website - https://runswithabarcode.co.nz/. This book describes each parkrun, where the nearest showers/toilets are, how to get there by public transport, walking distance and also explains how the course was founded.

We cannot thank our volunteers enough for helping out today. The team was led by run director Bruce Wilson, The rest of the volunteers were as follows: Lorraine BOVEY, Randall WALKER, Mari DAVENPORT, Michelle HOLMES, Graeme CROMPTON, An WELLS, Bruce ALLEN, Jeff STARK, Dan JOE, John GLYNN-BEGBIE and Lucy LAWLOR.

Until next time, have a great weekend and welcome to the last month of winter. It has not been as cold as I thought it might be.

Many Thanks,

Dan Joe

parkrunner and parkrun tourist

Photo: Jeff Stark