A Good Run

“WHEN THEY COME for me, I won’t be standing still.”

It’s a saying John Taylor has been reciting for decades and as the oldest parkrunner on the Sunshine Coast, it has never been more true.

Every Saturday morning, John joins more than 50,000 Australians, from children through to octogenarians, who lace up their shoes to run five kilometres along one of more than 330 parkrun routes across the country. It is a community unlike any other, which holds free fun fitness in the highest regard and among them, John is somewhat of a humble legend.

In February, the 85-year-old Mooloolaba resident became one of the oldest people in the world to clock up their 300th parkrun event.

At the age of 83, John became the oldest person in Australia to complete 250 parkruns, but met his successor in September last year when 87-year-old John Day from Cleveland took over the title.

“I didn’t like the thought that I was old and I’ve never been one to play the age card – even though you seem to be able to get away with murder when you are old,” John chuckles.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a PB [personal best time], but in the back of your mind, that’s what you are aiming for. Once you start, it’s easy to keep going and there’s always a little voice in my head that says, ‘it’s Saturday, it’s parkrun day’.”

John says he has met many inspirational, like-minded people through parkrun, including Norman Philips, who in January 2016 became the oldest parkrunner in the world to achieve their 100th parkrun when he completed the Brightwater course at the age of 92. John had completed his 150th event the week before and they celebrated with a run together.

John says joining parkrun in October 2012 rekindled his passion for running, which he first discovered in the mid-1970s when he was in his forties.

After running six days a week through to the early ’80s, John admits he stopped “finding a reason to get out of bed”. His health began to suffer, resulting in a triple bypass in 2006, which he says was his wake-up call to get active once again. “When parkrun came along I was sort of in the mood to take something like that on,” he says.

“While I’m normally running on my own, I don’t go quickly. The thing about parkrun is that before and after the run, you are with a whole group of friends you see every week at the events. You also never know who is going to join us from around the world as they are on holiday.”

John participated in the second parkrun event ever held on the Sunshine Coast, which was on the Kawana route, and has also indulged in a bit of “parkrun tourism” by joining various events across the Coast over the years, including Nambour, which is entirely on bush trails and is one of the toughest parkrun courses in the country.

While there are around 260 octogenarians who have participated in parkrun events around the country, John is one of the most consistent and he says it is motivation from his “bad spell” of health that keeps him going.

“I see the same thing happening to lots of people as they get older. They retire to the couch and they stop and things go down a slippery slope from there,” he says. “It can be frustrating that I can’t run like most of the people at parkrun because a muscle goes here or a nerve starts playing up there and then you spend some time taking it easy, walking more, and then getting your heart and lungs back up to capacity to improve your fitness again. But the alternative in unthinkable.”

At the time of print, more than 50,250 events had been held across the country attracting more than 503,700 runners since Tim Oberg launched the inaugural Australian parkrun event on April 4, 2011. This equates to a collective 31,051,185 kilometres run over a total time of 382 years, 256 days, three hours, 25 minutes and two seconds.

Because of the consistent format, runners often participate in parkrun events while on holidays – as many as 70 per cent of participants at the Noosa parkrun over the summer holidays were visitors.

Noosa parkrun co-founder and volunteer co-ordinator Sarah Deck says it is heartening to see such a mix of people turning up each week. “We have people across all demographics, from women who are finally doing something for themselves now their children are more independent and have plucked up the courage to give something a try, to those who exercise with the whole family and others who have gone through some kind of hardship like cancer and are now doing parkrun to maintain their health and wellbeing – it reduces me to tears when I hear stories like that,” Sarah says.

“There is also the mental health aspect, with those battling with anxiety and depression using parkrun as an amazing way to cope.”

Sarah says it’s a run and not a race, with times allocated to each runner recorded for them if they are driven to beat their own PBs and improve their fitness. “When you set yourself little goals and personal challenges, the point when you do get close to them or beat them is a great boost for you mentally,” she says.

“Being part of the movement for almost five years now, I have seen how much of a difference it makes to people’s lives. It’s not just about having the bikini body. You see their confidence grow, see their mental clarity improve. It’s just great to see people thriving, especially the people who thought they couldn’t do it in the first place.”

The events would not exist without the consistent effort put in by the many volunteers at each event and Sarah says they have never had any shortage of people volunteering to ensure seamless runs. “People can come along and be a part of it in whatever way that fulfils them,” she says.

With the number of parkrun routes continuing to grow across the wider region, the Tewantin personal trainer praises the Noosa and Sunshine Coast councils for supporting the movement, making it easy for groups to establish.