North West Queensland’s first parkrun is done and dusted.
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Parkrun is a free 5km run or walk that takes part at 7am every Saturday.
Organisers were hailing Cloncurry’s parkrun as the most remote in Queensland along with Weipa and while it was mostly locals with a handful of Mount Isans taking part (including the labouring editor of the North West Star) one runner came all the way from Kedron in Brisbane.
Sixty-two-year-old Michael Schultz was taking part in his 268th parkrun and he took three days to drive from Brisbane so he could keep up his astonishing record of having taking part in every parkrun in Queensland.
“I’ve done 76 so far, this is number 77,” Mr Schultz said.
I’ve done 76 (parkruns in different towns in Queensland) so far, Cloncurry is number 77
- Michael Schultz
“I wasn’t expecting to see a bit of rain up here.”
Mr Schultz said he started six years ago and was attracted to the challenge of doing them.
Co-organiser Belinda Imhof thanked the volunteers, council for allowing them to use Mary K park and the Dodds, the landholders who allowed them to use their bush tracks for the run.
“The way that parkrun works is that it is a 5km run (or walk), it’s free but you must have your barcode from the parkrun website to get your time registered,” Ms Imhof said.
“The course is all off-road.”
There were 63 entrants for the first Cloncurry parkrun.
The overcast conditions suited some who were happy the sun wasn’t beating down on them though others said the high humidity made life difficult.
Haylee Scanlan – who will be one of Cloncurry’s 12 Queen's Baton relayers for the Commonwealth Games next year 0 was first across the line in a time of 21.23
Second was Kit Rix in 24.33, third Bonnie Collins 24.43, fourth Richard Norris 25.02, Melissa Heath 25.18 and outgoing Cloncurry medic Dr Bryan Connor accompanied by his faithful pooch Loulou was sixth in a creditable 25.48.
The North West Star editor did not disgrace himself finishing eight in 27.25 and claims he would have been faster had he not started late to get a photo of the start line while he had to deal with a splinter in the final few hundred metres.
The second Cloncurry parkrun is on this Saturday at the same time. You can register at http://www.parkrun.com.au.