'Community, camaraderie and coffee': Albury Wodonga parkrun turns 10

A quick breakfast and getting the three kids up and out the door by 7am is no mean feat for the Jindera couple as they hit the road to Albury.

Saturday, March 9, marks 10 years of that routine, albeit with some alterations, for the founders of Albury Wodonga parkrun as the weekly event celebrates its 10^th birthday.

"For the past 10 years I've been so scared of sleeping in on a Saturday morning, but we haven't done that," Mrs Biggs laughed.

After attending a parkrun in Newcastle, Mrs Biggs thought the concept, a no cost five-kilometre run or walk, could work on the Border.

On March 8, 2014, that became a reality as 88 runners fronted for the first event at Noreuil Park.

But while the physical benefits of getting out for a run are obvious, Mrs Biggs said it has come second to the Border community of more than 10,000 people.

"The social and the mental health benefits far outweigh the physical benefits. Anyone can go out and do a run or a walk on their own, but it's about getting people together," she said.

"We were 25 when we first started and we've introduced three children over that time. Our mini run directors.

"It's definitely a community and things like bringing your children has made it sense of family and that ties in with the parkrun ethos around inclusiveness.

"We've opened up our Facebook page for people to send in how it's impacted them and a lot of it is around that connection to either their family or the community.

"It's given our family a reason to do something together.

"We've got a lot of older runners and for them, that's probably their only social outing for the week and a reason for them to get out and be in the community."

While events are timed, it's far from the minds of most participants, of all ages and fitness levels.

"Not everyone runs, it's a walk as well, despite what the name suggests," Mrs Biggs said.

"When we started, our closest parkrun was Canberra, but since our inception, there's now one in Wodonga, Tallangatta, Yarrawonga, Bright, Yackandandah.

"People who have registered for parkrun under Albury Wodonga is now more than 10,000. It is big numbers and some of these are people that wouldn't ordinarily be getting out.

"There hasn't been a week over that 10 years where there hasn't been somebody attending parkrun for the first time."

The worldwide phenomenon started in October 2004 in London and there are now more than 9 million people registered.

Albury Wodonga parkrun regularly attracts more than 200 people each week, with its record attendance 379 on April 2, 2017.

Incredibly, the 80,000^th individual run for Albury Wodonga parkrun will be recorded on Saturday.

"It doesn't matter if one person turns up, we still run the event. If it's pouring rain, you will still get 50 or 60 here," Mr Biggs said.

"The tourist aspect is huge as well. We have lots of people that are parkrun tourists that define where they're going to go and visit by having a parkrun. We would average probably eight every week who are visitors."

Floods and COVID restrictions in recent years caused some headaches, including a course change to start at Kremur Street boat ramp, but Albury Wodonga parkrun survived and will host event 427 on Saturday.

"There's not much for free these days and it's every week at the same time, so it gives people access to an event or some form of outing or exercise that is routine," Mrs Biggs said.

"People might go to the gym and it's costing them money and they need that motivation, whereas here, it's kind of that accountability that people come along. It always will be a free event.

"Because we've been around now for 10 years, we are getting up to those bigger numbers of how many runs people have done.

"We can applaud the runners as much as we can, but it's also really about the volunteers. We have a volunteer and her husband runs, and she's not a runner, but she's here every week, and she does our timekeeping."

Chris Wilson has been involved since the first Albury Wodonga parkrun event and has gone on to clock up more than 170 starts, as well as 170 events as a volunteer.

"It's belonging and meeting all of these new people or people that you've might have known before and making reconnections," she said.

"I've got kids who I taught in the 1980s or 1990s that are now adults in their 40s and 50s that I can recognise.

"It's a really good thing to know that something's on at a certain time, and there's a group of people there, it's a bit of a commitment that you can make rather than making excuses that 'it's too hot, it's too cold, I can't be bothered'.

"Sarah and Curtis have been amazing with the commitment they've shown over 10 years in setting it up, establishing it and coming every Saturday and all the behind the scenes work that they had to do."

Nadia and Michael Mellor have also been there since year one and have entered more than 600 parkruns between them.

Ms Mellor, a clinical social worker and sex therapist of 40 years, said parkrun played a key role in her professional life.

"It was a great referral place for counsellors in the area," she said.

"I had a counselling practice and was a great way for me to say go down to parkrun, you have to get off your bum and get going'.

Ms Mellor said the 'community, camaraderie and the coffee afterwards' has always drawn her back.

"Even in the middle of winter when it's freezing cold, if you know that somebody else has actually been good enough to come and volunteer and put it on, there's a certain sense of obligation. It does get hard, but it still gets you out of bed,"

"We get some competitive people who try and beat their times, but it caters for the whole spectrum.

"It has survived COVID, floods and bushfires and we're still here. The course has been flooded out a number of times and it still keeps coming back because of the community spirit."

Mr Mellor said he enjoyed the friendly atmosphere at parkrun, but his competitiveness hasn't waned.

"There seems to be a lot more kids involved nowadays and all take off at the start and fall in a heap about halfway through," he laughed.

"There's a young boy who only looks about 12 and he runs it in about 17 minutes. He's seriously good."

Mrs Biggs said she had no plans to step away from the director's role and admitted the 10 years had flown by.

"Despite the fact that it is work and it's unpaid work, and it's something else to add into your life, we get just as much from it than the people who participate," she said.

"People say 'why do you keep doing that? Why do you keep coming back?' It's rewarding for us and that's exactly why anyone volunteers in the community.

"We can't have favourites, but I think our favourites are the older ladies that come together and walk and laugh and they'll volunteer as a group. That's what keeps us coming back.

"We also had Rom Hayes who was in his 80s and he was coming every week and he group of people that ended up just walking with Rom. Rom's a bit of a legacy here, unfortunately he passed away during COVID.

"He would still be here every week, despite his age, and I think to see him was really inspiring for a lot of people, particularly young, able people because would say 'if Rom can be here every week, so can I'."

Albury Wodonga parkrun is held every Saturday at 8am at Kremur Street boat ramp.

For more information, visit the Albury Wodonga parkrun website or email alburywodonga@parkrun.com.