By Max Davies
THE Kilmore Racecourse Walking Track is now home to a new weekly exercise group as parkrun has rolled into town and is open to anyone who wants to take part.
Already established in many locations across Victoria, including one in the works for Seymour, parkrun is organised entirely by volunteers and is a free weekly walk, run or jog that is timed and open to people of all ages and abilities.
Beginning at 8am every Saturday, the racecourse parkrun saw its first event on May 27 and has had between 50 and 100 people take part each week – using 3.2 kilometres of the brand-new gravel walking track.
Volunteer Ben Boyd said despite the name, parkrun was an inclusive event that welcomed anyone who was interested.
“One of the beautiful things about parkrun is that its name is a little bit deceptive, it’s not all about running the fastest time,” he said.
“It’s about creating a community of people that just want to get out and enjoy the path together, so we very much encourage people to come and walk. We love having prams, and we’re getting heaps of kids too which is really cool.
“We also have our runners that come out and try get a personal best running time, which is fabulous, but it’s very much an inclusive course and an inclusive program that we run so we that we can make sure that everyone has a go.”
Mr Boyd said anyone interested in volunteering to help organise the event was more than welcome to get in touch, which a range of roles available including run director, event day course check, timekeeper, and track walkers.
“All the roles are very simple, and we make sure that people have been shown how to do it and just talk them through the process, there’s no daunting roles,” he said.
“We have the parkrun walker role, where we have people go out and their purpose is just to walk the parkrun track and just chat with people and make them feel welcome.”
The Kilmore Racecourse parkrun starts at 8am every Saturday at the Bendigo Bank arbour, located at the corner of Union and East streets.
Anyone interested in volunteering is encouraged to contact the Kilmore organisers by emailing kilmoreracecoursewalkingtrack@parkrun.com.
For more information and to register as a participant, visit www.parkrun.com.au.
