There’s nothing like the launch of a new parkrun to draw a crowd – of parkrunners. The launch of Perry Lakes parkrun last Saturday was no exception despite a temporary return of winter temperatures and rain. What better way to start the weekend than to huddle with your tribe, teeth gritted against the cold, rolling your eyes at the lunacy of wearing shorts and singlets in the rain, knowing that by 9 am you’ll be delighted that you made the effort? Well, 272 people thought it was a good idea in Floreat on Sep 30.
I’ve been to a few launches, but this one was particularly close to my heart as my Nomads on the Run squad trains at Perry Lakes every Monday morning. We stick to the paths mind you, so this was a new adventure as the route offers up an opportunity to go off-road and negotiate softer, yet more challenging, surfaces.
Perry Lakes is a beautiful 80-hectare reserve with two lakes teaming with birds, a grass oval beloved of dog exercisers, and asphalt and concrete paths under tree canopies that, in summer, offer a welcome respite from the sun. There are also clean public toilets (a Nomad obsession) and a water fountain or two. Really, it’s yet another gem that Perth offers walkers and runners (and dogs). In fact, Perry Lakes was the location of the 2016 World Masters Athletics Cross Country Championships.
On Saturday, the Mayor of the Town of Cambridge, Kerri Shannon, was there to say a few words, welcoming parkrun to the neighbourhood. In his run briefing, Event Director Jon Storey, (who has run over 300 parkruns), mentioned swooping magpies and unleashed dogs as potential hazards on the route but really, as a Perry Lakes regular, I think the biggest danger is tripping over one’s own feet on the cross-country sections. Obviously, for normal people, this is no danger at all, but for the minority group ‘Runners Prone to Tripping’ of which I am a fully signed up member with the scars and hospital bills to prove it, the prospect of negotiating an uneven surface was daunting.
The route is two laps of the park. It starts on a wide asphalt path – traffic-free on weekends – then after about 900m turns onto a cross-country section, around 400m long, which is a little more demanding in terms of foot placement and balance. I did however not fall so yay for me – twice!
The next section is on a concrete-turns-into-asphalt path with a return to grass – clipped and even grass as it’s part of the dog exercise area – at around 1.8km. At 2.1km, there’s a change in surface again as runners enter another tufty grass, cross-country section before a return to asphalt and a u-turn, marking the almost halfway point and the start of the second lap. I’d estimate that about 2km of the flat 5km course is off-road, of which only 1.2-1.3km is on uneven grass.
As expected, I found the tufty grass tough to run on which is kind of funny for someone whose home parkrun requires 800m of negotiating sand, rocks, seaweed, and hyper-active dogs. I did manage it more speedily on the second lap which makes me think that mastering this cross-country lark might be a question of practice – unlike plodding along on sand, which after more than 80 parkruns, is still most certainly the boss of me.
The volunteers as always were well organised and encouraging with several familiar faces from the Perth parkrun family. Many in attendance were, like me, visiting from other parkruns, but 56 people turned up to walk or run their first ever parkrun. Welcome to the tribe first-timers. Saturday morning just got awesome.
If you’re new to parkrun, or wondering how it works, head here.
