Mile 3: Park Run - World Record

Saturday 9th March 2013

The spirit of free running has captured the hearts and minds of Marlay Park with it’s inaugural ParkRun, breaking a world record in the process. A community of 370 runners and walkers undeterred by the damp and misty morning included club runners, first timers and representatives from the sponsor Dun Laoghaire Rathdown. The 5km path and trail run was marked and marshalled to a very high standard despite this being a free event. “This is the best we have ever seen” said Matt Shields, the jubilant Country Manager for Ireland who was excited to see this first time event going straight to the top of the leader board for new signups and the biggest ever on-the-day turnout for a new event.
“It is a great run to test complete beginners and competitive club runners,” commented local man Killian Byrne (40) who lost 5 ½ stone in last year’s Operation Transformation. “I run about 40 miles per week now so this will be a great inclusion to my weekly targets.”
The patter of tiny feet effortlessly reeling me in at the halfway mark belonged to eight year old Ella O’Donohoe from Glencormick accompanied by her dad Brian. Although Ella prefers the shorter 60 metre sprint distances she showed superb stamina and composure over the 5km distance, held back only by her father’s insistence. With the finishing line in sight though she kicked into top gear over the final 200 metres, leaving us gasping in awe at this young talent.
What really impressed me about this event was the simplicity of it all. A total of 17 volunteers gave a few hours of their time and when everything was packed away it took only two men to carry all the props, leaving the concert field exactly as they found it only a few hours before. “We arrived at 8:45am to set up and an hour and a half later we are ready to go home,” said Declan Ryan DSD coach and volunteer. “Any minor teething problems should be sorted reasonably quickly and looking at the great turnout today I think the any problems we have are very positive ones.”
The event relies on the excellent facilities already in place at Marlay Park. Toilets and coffee shops seemed to flow without any major holdups while some minor parking issues are being addressed for future events.
The simple but sophisticated barcode and token system is then hooked up to the online community and within hours you can crunch statistics to your heart’s content, drilling down into different fields to see how you match up to your cohorts across the globe. Unlike the usual .pdf or .xls format which you have to manipulate to get results, this makes it super easy and a real bonus to the event.
Park Run appears to have the capacity to draw the crowds on a regular basis while most people will only participate once or twice per month. This still leaves plenty of scope for active individuals to take part in the numerous other well run charity events and community events throughout the year.