By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
CELEBRATING two years of 8am Saturday morning starts, the Berwick Springs parkrun group hit record number of runners for their themed ‘tutu for 2’ birthday run.
Event director Roger Lancaster said the timed 5k run was just an excuse to get people out and exercising.
“It’s free to join and run and we’ve watched participants increase their fitness level over the years and even run in their first half marathon and 10k run,” Mr Lancaster said.
The group had 276 runners on Saturday 10 October, the highest number in the past 18 months.
“Parkrun was started in the UK 11 years ago and the slogan is ‘free weekly timed 5k run’,” he said.
“Berwick Springs was the seventh group to start up in Melbourne and now there’s a parkrun in Endeavour Hills and Pakenham.”
The birthday celebrations were helped along by the Narre Warren South CFA who donated their catering van for a pancake breakfast.
Mr Lancaster said the ‘tutu for 2’ birthday was a hit and a fantastic morning.
“We get an average of about 155 people every Saturday and even get 60 when it’s raining, we have a very committed bunch of runners and it’s great to see word of mouth spreading the parkrun,” he said.
Over the past year, 1320 different runners have participated in the Berwick Springs event.
