Hermanus parkrun turns four

PHOTOS: Taylum Meyer

Our beautiful Hermanus parkrun, which takes place in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley every Saturday morning at 08:00, celebrated its fourth birthday on 26 October. The walkers (some with their dogs) were blessed with a stunning, clear morning and a fairly dry route after Friday’s heavy rain.

ABOVE: The ‘Councillor Bus’ was the name given to a group of five Overstrand Municipality councillors who took part in Hermanus parkrun’s fourth birthday. From left are Ronald Nutt, Christine May, David Botha, Hannie Morgan and Grant Cohen.

A total of 186 people ran, jogged or walked the 5 km course – 39 were first timers and 19 recorded new personal bests.

Hermanus parkrun also welcomed five international participants, one of whom, Karen Andrew from the UK, has done parkruns in at least four different countries (there are 222 parkrun locations worldwide).

The first Hermanus parkrun took place on 31 October 2015. A few pioneers of that first run were also at the fourth birthday celebration on Saturday: Diane Hunter, David Botha, Marianne McHendrie, Carol Wallis, Peter Wallis and Douglas Nowers.

David Botha, better known as Councillor Botha, is a registered parkrunner and was accompanied on Saturday by four of his fellow councillors from the Overstrand Municipality, namely Grant Cohen, Christine May, Ronald Nutt and Hannie Morgan. They were fondly referred to as the ‘Councillor Bus’.

The Hermanus parkrun’s most senior participant, ‘Oom’ Willie Loedolff, completed 100 volunteer days as the tailend-walker, and photographer Alan Paulick completed 175 days.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 26)