Cupcakes and cheers as Ebotse parkrun turns six years old

The event continues to grow in popularity.

Caxton Radio Benoni’s Paul Rotherham is a frequent runner of the Ebotse Parkrun and has 77 parkruns to his name.

If you’re a regular participant at the Ebotse parkrun you will know that the weekly, 5km, timed run or walk event is the place to be to get your exercise fix on a Saturday morning.

The popular parkrun celebrated six years of existence on the morning of June 16 with the running of its 310th event on a chilly winter’s morning.

Starting from the CR Swart Park, next to the Rynfield Dam, the 5km route moves through the Ebotse Golf and Country Estate with participants greeted by the glistening waters of the dam, the glorious greens and fairways of the links course and jovial, prancing springboks.

On Saturday, 704 parkrunners (55 first timers), including the familiar faces of Comrades Marathon women’s down run record holder Frith van der Merwe and Caxton Radio Benoni’s very own Paul Rotherham, ran or walked the 5km distance.

Comrades Marathon women’s down run record holder Frith van der Merwe prefers to run the shorter distances these days. She is seen running at the Ebotse Parkrun’s sixth birthday on June 16.

Finishers were treated to an abundance of tasty cupcakes at the end.

According to statistics obtained from parkrun.co.za:

19 046 parkrunners have run or walked at the Ebotse parkrun since its inauguration in 2012, covering an overall total of 736 045km in those half a dozen years.
The Ebotse parkrun men’s record is held by Siyabonga Mabena who stormed to a fast time of 15 minutes and 47 seconds at event number 232 on December 10, 2016.
Chante Dixon is the women’s record holder with a time of 19 minutes and 23 seconds, set at event number 284 on December 16, 2017.

Iain Morshead, founder of the Ebotse parkrun, told the City Times about that first parkrun back in 2012.

Founder of the Ebotse parkrun, Iain Morshead.

“It was a day pretty much like today.

“It was quite cold and there were probably about 50 people out and it was awesome,” he said.

“It was just great to see people gathering, like this morning.

“When I came through this morning I was really touched to see a group of people hugging each other.

“It was great to see that because if it wasn’t for parkrun those people would probably have been in bed whereas now they’re having a great social outing.”

Gary Jackson, run director of the Ebotse parkrun, who ensures that the event goes off smoothly each and every Saturday no matter the weather, had particular praise for the volunteers who make the event work once a week.

“I cannot thank the volunteers enough for making our parkrun successful.

The Ebotse parkrun volunteers, who ensure that the event goes well each week, with some of the donated cupcakes to celebrate six years of the parkrun.