Parkrun

Broome has a new parkrun*, which started since we arrived here. I was running on the jetty one Saturday morning (1 July) soon after our arrival in Broome when I saw two people wearing parkrun vests. ‘Parkrun, in Broome?’ I asked, surprised, reasonably confident there was no parkrun event here. ‘Yes. It’s a new one, starting this morning at 7:00.’

Great, I thought. It was 6:15. I ran back to the caravan, woke Antigone, told her there was a new parkrun here and suggested we go. She embraced the idea and we did an accelerated morning routine. When Ying (Antigone’s morning helper) arrived for work at 6:50, I hurriedly explained that we were about to get into the car to drive to the parkrun assembly point for an event starting at 7:00. Ying is great. She also embraced this change of plans (instead of her normal work assisting Antigone with her morning routine).

The organisers were a little surprised to have 96 participants at their inaugural event which had only been advertised for a couple of days. The course consisted of five laps around the new ‘Town Beach’ precinct, including three laps out to the end of the jetty.

We brought Winnie the walker/wheelchair with us. Antigone walked some of the course and Ying and I pushed her on Winnie for the rest of the event. It was a lot of fun.

We discovered that Winnie is speed limited – to about 8km/h – faster than that and her wheels chatter. This is worsened by the textured pebble concrete that forms the path for much of Town Beach parkrun.

Afterwards, we chatted with Julia, the event organiser, and told her of this frustration with Winnie. If we wanted to come again, Julia offered to bring a wheelchair from her work which may roll better at running speeds. We embraced the offer for as long as she was able to bring it.

A great thing about Parkrun is getting to know people. The Thursday after our first parkrun, Antigone was in the Broome hospital for a night and the attending doctor, Dr Alex, took off his mask so we could see his moustache and recognise him from parkrun. He had been a volunteer at parkrun the previous week.

We enjoyed parkrun and have attended most of the 12 events so far in Broome. We used Julia’s wheelchair for a few weeks and it rolled much better than Winnie at running speeds, as well as dealing with pavement defects much better. In early August, we bought a new walker – Wilma. She is much better suited to Broome terrain than Winnie, with bigger wider wheels which roll well over cracks and speedhumps.

One week we were volunteers, in the ‘tail walker’ role. The main part of the ‘tail walker’ job is make sure you stay with the slowest participant. This was not hard for us, as we were often the slowest. More recently, Antigone starts the event by rolling rather than walking. This means she is not the slowest from the start and is in amongst other participants.

Reviewing these photos, the gradual warming of the weather is clear from the changes in people’s clothing. In September, the seasons changed – more hot days, higher humidity, and some foggy mornings (such as in the Chasing the Sun post). On 15 Sept, the fog lasted well after 7am. Water droplets on spider webs were beautiful and water condensing on blonde facial hairs gave us all beards.

Parkrun is something I have been a part of for about 6 years. I have attended about 130 events, including events in 25 locations. I love the community feel of it and how it gets people being regularly active.

After Antigone had her stroke in August 2021, cognitive effects meant she needed more support for daily activities. For a while I continued attending parkrun, talking her through her morning routine (eye drops, insulin, tablets and breakfast preparation) on the phone as I ran. Unfortunately, her support needs increased over time and I had to stop attending parkrun for a while. Then from June 2022, with NDIS support workers coming to help, I was able to attend again myself.

It is wonderful that Antigone has now embraced participating in parkrun. And also that our helper Ying (Evelyn) Li was able and enthusiatic to do it with us. We are keen to continue with parkrun when we leave Broome, on our travels and back in Melbourne.

*Parkrun is a 5km timed walk/run that takes place every Satuday morning at about 5000 locations around the world and about 500 location in Australia. Although timed, it is not a race. Participation and community are the key values.