Dress up for jolly good time at festive parkrun
THIS weekend it is time to wear your Santa suit, reindeer antlers, Christmas hat or just dress in red and run off the holiday kilos at the Christmas Eve parkrun at Port Elizabeth’s Hobie Beach.
The weekly parkrun is always a festive event but the Christmas run even more so as the organisers ask the participants to dress up to match the festive season spirit.
They also encourage runners to bring donations of longlife milk for Malabar Home for the Aged and stationery for the EP Child and Youth Care Centre.
The beach run directors have until recently been Werner de Lange and Tamarin Elli, but although you can look out for the always-festive De Lange on Christmas Eve, you may not spot Ellis.
“I will be stepping down from Hobie Beach with immediate effect as I will be focusing on getting Lady Slipper, Grassroof and any other potential parkruns up and running,” Ellis said earlier this month.
The parkrun is a free, weekly, timed 5km run which is open to all ages and abilities.
The Port Elizabeth route – the only one until Ellis gets a second track firmed up – is a flat 5km circuit starting from the palm trees at Shark Rock Pier, heading out to the beacon at the bottom of Admiralty Way and back.
While you might wish Rudolph and the reindeer would give you a lift along the last stretch, it’s a fun start to your weekend – and of course you can walk, you don’t need to run.
The PE Hobie Beach run is one of thousands around the world. Since parkrun started in 2004 with just 13 runners in England, millions have signed up all over the world.
Once you register you get a free barcode, which you print out on a piece of paper and hand in at the finish line, enabling your time to be recorded. You are welcome to run without a barcode, but then you won’t get a time.
Register at http://www.parkrun.co.za/register/ or find more information from the PE Hobie Beach parkrun Facebook page, or e-mail pehobiebeachoffice@parkrun.com