Nine-time Comrades winner Bruce Fordyce officially opened the parkrun at the starting point in the garden. Parkrun is an international initiative and, in South Africa, George is the 29th town to launch a parkrun - certainly one of the most beautiful in the country.
George's Chief Organiser Chantelle Liddell said apart from Bryanston in Johannesburg, George had the biggest turnout at a launch in South Africa and the most registrations in one week in the world (two weeks running!). Thus far the total registrations comes to 658 and is still growing. Fordyce, who was accompanied by his wife Gill, jokingly warned the runners, "You can easily get hooked on doing the parkrun. It is incurable and worse than any drug."
Parkrun will be staged every Saturday at exactly 08:00 at the Garden Route Botanical Garden and will follow the same route. All that is needed is for participants to register and acquire a barcode, which can be used to scan and keep a tally of the kilometres run per month.
The trail included two brand-new steel bridges, which were sponsored by George businesses. Liddell thanked the volunteers and donors for their support. It was well signposted and there were volunteers to point people in the right direction.
Membership
Liddell said, "We believe that the parkrun will help revive the garden's membership and boost the botanical garden's finances, which is very necessary. We will be supporting the membership drive through Facebook. With so many feet and positive energy we can't help but turn the financial situation around."
Nine different athletics clubs took part and Barry Doyle was placed first in the men's placings with Annie Willem first in wo-men's placings. Saturday's full results and a complete event history can be found on the George parkrun results page.
Everyone who wants to register as a parkrunner, can go to www.parkrun.co.za.
Donors
The trail was established with the help of many volunteers. The organisers thanked volunteers as well as businesses for their contributions, as follows: Buce Fordyce; Gill Fordyce; Chantelle Liddell; Garden Route Botanical Garden trustees Robin Clark, Ken Gie, Colin Ralston; Dayne De Wet, the manager of the garden; administrative official Kristen Hoek; Wallie Geyesa, Bertie Jordaan, David Nikelo, Marschel Jacobs, Isaac Marlow and Jackson Nkampini who cleared the paths; Councillor Chris Neethling; Jacques Mouton; Neville Myburgh; Quintin Myburgh; Paul Kitson; Tony Conlon; Andrew Langeveld; André Tulleken; Hein Koen; Herman Fourie; Ters Gilomee; Michael Rohwer; Peter Saffers and EDENfm.
Volunteers: Ilse Nel, Estelle Stander, Amanda Myburgh, Louise Kitson, Helena Swanepoel, Lettie Squire-Christie, Petra Schreuder, Tertius Nel and Adele Lubbe.
At the starting line. Chantelle Liddell and Bruce Fordyce explain the nitty gritty of Saturday's first parkrun, which started and ended in the Garden Route Botanical Garden. Photo: Ken Gie
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