Running. It might not be for everyone, but as the weather warms up, so too are those muscles.
Google Trends data shows a spike in Queenslanders searching for parkrun around January.
Yarrabilba parkrun events director Pete Burns sees this trend too, with an increase in runners for the first six or seven weeks of the year, before a drop off.
She said more runners are coming along now.
“Everyone wants to feel better as they come into spring,” Mrs Burns said.
Yarrabilba started its parkrun in 2014, with more than 600 events since.
There would have been more, but the parkrun was shut down for 9nine months during COVID.
Organisers saw interest in the area and so the Saturday morning ritual started.
“Every year in May we celebrate our birthday,” Mrs Burns said.
There are themes for this run every year, with previous themes including pirate and op shop chic.
This year’s theme was midday, midnight, with runners free to interpret the theme in whatever way they wanted.
“Long-termers will put a lot of effort in,” Mrs Burns said.
One long-term runner, Viv, celebrated her 600th parkrun in September.
Viv has completed more than 13 years of weekly parkruns, with 470 events at Yarrabilba.
Her theme for the parkrun was spring.
At 80 years old, not only has Viv done 600 parkruns, but also some half marathons.
Mrs Burns said the Yarrabilba parkrun community was an encouraging environment and felt like a family.
While Yarrabilba does have its own group of regulars every week, the parkrun is one of three that start with Y in Australia, meaning lots of visitors too.
“We get a lot of tourists who want to do the parkrun alphabet,” Mrs Burns said.
On average, there are about 88 runners each week of all ages.
“Lately we’ve been pulling in around 100,” Mrs Burns said.
The biggest event Yarrabilba parkrun had was 176 runners before COVID.
parkrun is open to everyone but, to be registered, runners have to be at least 4 years old.
Until children are 11 years old, they need an adult to run with them.
Mrs Burns said some people even bring their babies to parkrun.
Yarrabilba parkrun is at Darlington Parklands every Saturday morning at 7am.
“Every parkrun event is on a course that is measured out and has to be approved by parkrun,” Mrs Burns said.
She would also love to see a junior parkrun somewhere in the Logan area.
Mrs Burns has been event director for the past 10 years at Yarrabilba.
She started parkrun with the encouragement of her nurse and was asked by the first event director if she wanted to take up the role.
“I did it because I liked the community,” Mrs Burns said.
parkrun is a 5km event where participants can walk, jog or run the predetermined course.
There are 550 parkruns around Australia, with the first being held in 2011 at Main Beach on the Gold Coast.
The concept originally started in the United Kingdom in 2004.
Search interest is measured on a relative scale and does not represent total search volume.
*This content is part of a paid partnership with Google to promote Google Trends. It uses Google Trends data to explore interest in parkrun.
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