Parkrun participant hits a rare milestone
Murray Bridge’s Sam Mickan has reached an achievement few can claim, attending his 500th Parkrun event.
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At an event when you can achieve all kinds of things, a Murray Bridge runner has done something really special.
Parkrun events are held around the world every Saturday, with participants walking or running five kilometres in a supportive atmosphere.
Part of the fun is that participants can unlock achievements, many of them obscure: “alphabeteer” for attending an event starting with each letter of the alphabet, “palindrome” for finishing with a time which reads the same backwards and forwards, and “date bingo” for attending a Saturday event on every date of the year.
On Saturday in Murray Bridge, though, Sam Mickan became the first local to reach another special milestone: attending his 500th event.
He started at Mount Barker in 2014 and has since attended a run almost every week, including many in Murray Bridge since the first local event later that year.
He has run 2500 kilometres in that time – the distance from Murray Bridge to Sydney and back – and has attended every parkrun in South Australia.
“It’s the atmosphere, the people you meet,” he said when asked what had kept him coming back.
“It’s very welcoming … and the encouragement – it doesn’t matter if you’re the first one or the last one.”
He laughed when asked if the regular exercise had helped his fitness much.
“I’m not getting any quicker,” he said.
“Back when you start, you’re probably more competitive, but once you get into it and meet the people, it’s more (about) the atmosphere than anything, and it’s something to do on a Saturday morning.
“Everyone goes to footy, to tennis or whatever; I just go and do a parkrun.”
Sixty-two people turned out for a bit of exercise in the rain on Saturday morning.
Many wore blue, the colour of the milestone T-shirt parkrunners become eligible to wear when they reach 500.
Balloons waved in the breeze, a message was sprayed onto the gravel, and there were even little blue cupcakes for the finishers.
The beauty of an event like parkrun was: with enough determination, that could be almost any of us one day.
Mr Mickan’s advice to anyone who hadn’t attended a parkrun event before?
“You just have to get there, that’s all you have to do.”
The Narooma Wetlands Parkrun is held near Long Island Reserve, Murray Bridge and starts at 8am every Saturday.
- More information: Visit www.parkrun.com.au/naroomawetlands or follow Narooma Wetlands Parkrun on Facebook.
Disclosure: The author is a very occasional parkrun participant and has volunteered once or twice. He got a PB on Saturday, which was nice.
