GETTING THERE
Today was the turn of North Lakes Parkrun. I set my
alarm for 6:00 and was out the door by 6:20. It took me 35 minutes to get there
along the Gateway motorway using good old trusty Paul (New Zealand accented
GPS) and I must say, it was so easy to find. Lakeview Drive gives as the name
suggests, a view of the lake and the finishing tent stood out.
PARKING
I parked on the road but
there is a small shopping centre opposite the start point and I saw many people
park there. It didn’t look like parking was a problem.
TOILETS
There is a small toilet
block right next to the kids’ playground which is fairly new. The facilities
weren’t that clean but that must have been from the previous day. I am sure
council staff would be around sometime today to give them a bit of a clean up.
THE COURSE
I haven’t actually been to the lakes at North Lakes
before and I was very impressed. This is a relatively new suburb and there has
been an explosion of property developments taking place in this area. It
certainly is booming. The streets are well planned out and the park around the
lake is beautiful. Thought has been put into these grounds and it shows.
You start on the grassed area above the small
amphitheater and the race director had placed markers along the start
demarcating expected finishing times which I thought was really quite
professional. You then run onto the concrete path that skirts the lake and you
run past well-designed gardens and treed areas. The loop is about 1.67kms and
at some stages, you also run on boardwalks.
The route is a little bit undulating, but nothing to be
of any concern for the speedy ones. There was one point where I ran along a
wooden walkway and on either side of me was an expanse of purple flowers
growing in the water. It was really pretty. (Please don’t tell me they are
weeds) On the stretch back to the start, you run past a long building, the
small playground and past the tent.
What I didn’t really like was that I had to do this
loop three times. Fortunately, the beautiful scenery, albeit man-made,
were a pleasant distraction. The second loop seemed to take forever, but I was able to
mentally tick off landmarks along the way on my third loop which was
encouraging.
I saw a number of members of the public along the
route. One man in particular was walking two dogs and seemed to make a point of
taking up almost the entire width of the path as if to make a point. Not that
this really mattered since the path is nice and wide.
This parkrun attracts some incredible runners and
quite a large crowd, which is an indication of how good this run is. This week,
third, fourth and fifth places went to the veteran men, one of whom was 60-64.
He ran 17:47 which is spectacular. There was a complete spectrum of runners
including numerous dog walkers, pram pushers, young through to the more
mature.
VOLUNTEERS
I was so impressed with how
well organized this event was. The run director had a simple PA system and communicated
the announcements well. He had a meeting with all the new runners where he
explained the course and the bar code system which was simple but beneficial.
He congratulated the runners who had reached their 50 run milestone as well as
a young lad who had reached his 10th.
I saw a marshal standing at
the first turn as well as the photographer, a timekeeper, a couple of sweepers
and a lady scanning the barcodes. The queue to scan the barcodes got a tad long
because there was only one person on the desk. I don’t think it is always the
case and it wasn’t a big deal. The Facebook page always thanks the wonderful
volunteers after the run and there are quite a few requests for a scanner and a
photographer.
I saw quite a few people
chatting together before the run. The elite runners all seemed to know each
other and there was a really nice sense of community. The Bootcamp training
happening across the lawn added to the healthy atmosphere.
PHOTOS
The photos were quickly
loaded up onto the Facebook page and there is a healthy record of most of the
weekly events. It was easy to find my picture as the vantage point for taking
pictures is really beautiful.
THE ALL IMPORTANT COFFEE AFTERWARDS
The Parkrun page advertises
Westfield North Lakes as the place to go for coffee. I know that this is the
case as it has been recently upgraded however, I needed to dash off so I wasn’t
able to take advantage of this.
OVERALL
This is obviously a popular event judging by the
numbers running each week. The number of participants on average seems to be
climbing, particularly seeing the colder months tend to get fewer runners out
at 7:00 in the morning. I am not a great fan of the triple loop, but it is
certainly a fast event and it is really pretty. Having only one scanner was a
minor problem, but this is not always the case. I really liked this event. Well
done North Lakes. The Gary rating for this event is a warm 8.5/10.
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