We’d like to invite you to an organizing meeting to launch an exciting new running event in Guelph: parkrun.
- Tuesday, Feb. 26, 8–9:30 pm
- 123 Woolwich Street, Suite 101 (main floor)
- Bring your ideas, and any friends who are interested
- RSVP here, so we can judge how many are coming
Some background
parkrun is not a race, although it is a timed 5K run, so you can run it as a race, but you don’t have to. And it’s not a one-time run either. Rather, it’s a permanent, weekly, free event that is very broad-based and inclusive, occurring every Saturday at 9 am. Ambitious, eh?
The idea was invented in the UK, where there are over 600 events weekly. You can learn more about the parkrun phenomenon here. The concept has now spread to several continents, with about 25 parkruns now up and running in Canada (mostly within the last two years), and a national website.
Bringing parkrun to Guelph
We want to put Guelph on the parkrun map. We think the broadest possible definition of the “Guelph running community” could easily support a parkrunhere, both in terms of participants, and volunteers to run the event without saddling any individual or group with the whole burden.
The key thing about parkrun from an organizer’s point of view is that there’s very little of the regular “race” infrastructure, which makes it possible to hold a weekly event with almost no cost and just a handful of volunteers. For the participants, parkrun is free, with one-time self-registration online, and it includes runners, walkers, strollers, even dogs (obedient ones, on leash). Within an hour or two of the event, all participants receive their results by email. Pretty incredible!
An international phenomenon
We’ve run in several parkrun events in the UK, one as large as 600 runners, and also the newly established parkrun in Kitchener, which had about 50 participants. They are very inspiring, for all levels of runners.You probably have other questions: we’ll answer them at the meeting!
It’s not about us
Finally, although this initiative is being floated by the Guelph Victors, we want it to be bigger than us, and ultimately, a separate organization, one that draws from the entire local running community. We have initial approval from the city for parkrun (they were very receptive), but we want all the big decisions (route, launch date, fundraising, volunteer positions, etc.) to be made by the organizing committee — i.e. we want your participation and input.
Please come on Tuesday, Feb. 26, and even if you can’t, let us know if you’re interested so we can stay in touch. Help make parkrun Guelph a reality!
— Brad Morley, Art Kilgour, Tim Uuksulainen