Parkrun Milestone – 25 Events
Today Antigone participated in her 25th official* parkrun event. We have attended Coburg parkrun most Saturdays since returning to Melbourne.
Exceptions were attending Castlemaine parkrun during Maldon Folk Festival and Inverloch parkrun last weekend while spending a rehearsal weekend there with our Zampoñista friends.
While travelling from Broome to Melbourne, I considered parkrun locations when planning our Friday night destinations. We attended a parkrun in Albany WA (7 Oct) and another in Port Augusta SA (21 Oct), both with our travelling helper Flora from Germany.
We had always attended parkrun with a third person assisting, using both a walker and a wheelchair depending on whether Antigone was walking or being pushed. Our first day back home in Coburg, the parkrun team organised a volunteer to accompany and assist us. The next week in Castlemaine we attended without a helper. Managing both a walker and a wheelchair was quite a challenge, even with a multi-lap course, as the lengths of Antigone’s walking stints are varied and unpredictable.
Since then, somehow, we figured out that Antigone could walk using an empty wheelchair instead of a walker. That’s what we have done since early November, and it’s been fine without an extra helper.
After returning from our long trip, I sent parkrun Australia a link to our parkrun blog post. They liked it and decided to write a blog post about us for their blog (27 Nov 2023), part of which is shown below.
Early in 2023, Aldi had wheelchairs on sale. We didn’t need one, but I bought one anyway, in case we might need one in the future. After arriving back from 5-months travelling on a Friday afternoon, I opened the Aldi package for the first time for parkrun the next morning (28 Oct). Although it is heavy, its big wheels make it easier to push than Winnie, the walker wheelchair we’d had on our travels. Like Winnie, it gets speed wobbles at quite low speeds, so is quite a bone-rattler. And we had one scare when a front wheel fell off. Fortunately, there was no injury. A nylock nut had come undone. It mustn’t have been done up tightly enough for the nylon to grip and prevent it from vibrating loose.
We’ve been investigating proper running wheelchairs. We’ve tried three (Hippocampe Marathon, Josi-Go and xRover) including doing parkruns with them.
With all of these we enjoyed a break from bone-rattling speed wobbles. The prices are like buying a used car, so we want to be sure to choose the best one for us. We dismissed the Josi-Go because of its width: much wider than Antigone, too wide to roll through our front door, and its width obscures visibility when packed in our VW Golf.
The xRover is versatile in that it converts easily between running wheelchair and bike trailer, so we could ride to parkrun rather than driving, but it is also costs the most.
The Hippocampe Marathon is the best to run with, and the least costly of the three. We hope to get one of them, and we’ll continue driving to parkrun. Until we get a running wheelchair, we’ll make do with our Aldi bone-rattler.
People are often surprised when I mention the Coburg waterfall, even people who live nearby, so I’ll include a photo of it. It looks impressive after big rains.
Other historical points of interest along the Coburg parkrun course and coffee / breakfast gatherings include:
- Coburg Lake is a location which was quarried for the bluestone to build Pentridge Prison in the mid-1800s, quarried by the prisoners. The weir was built in 1915.
- Coburg Lake was a popular swimming place flocked to by people from all over Melbourne in the early 1900s. At its peak, features included diving boards, wading pools and a kiosk.
- The Coburg Lake Reserve was landscaped during the 1930s depression by works program workers employed by Coburg Council.
- Coburg parkrun course passes under two historical bluestone bridges: Newlands Rd and Murray Rd.
- Coburg Lake Reserve is across Murray Rd from Coburg Penitentiary, Melbourne’s major prison from the 1850s to the 1990s. The site has been recently redeveloped and includes housing, a shopping centre and multiplex cinema, a hotel and tours of historic buildings.
- Many Coburg parkrunners meet for coffees or breakfast at the Boot Factory cafe – in a building that ‘was once part of the Coburg Penitentiary where well-behaved prisoners worked making shoes and boots for the prison guards’.
Occasionally, another parkrun participant offers to help push Antigone for a while, like Jen, pictured below pushing Antigone near Coburg Lake. Offers of help are rare, but always welcome. In contrast, words of encouragement and appreciation are plentiful from the wonderful supportive parkrun community. These too are always well received.
Having completed 25 events, soon Antigone will be proudly wearing a purple parkrun ‘25’ shirt on Saturday mornings.
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*The actual number is 30.
Antigone attended Broome ‘Town Beach’ parkrun twice (1 & 8 July 2023) unregistered before ‘getting hooked’ and registering.
She participated at Port Augusta (21 Oct 2023) with our helper Flora, but did not show her barcode.
Also, years ago, she and my mother participated in two events without registering:
- Torquay (near Mum’s timeshare holiday unit at Anglesea), and
- Karkarook, 8 Feb 2020 (in Kingston, near Mum’s home in Beaumaris)
