University of Western Australia Parkrun, A UniSport MyWay program

Using the UniSport MyWay funding, the University of Western Australia Parkrun was set up.

Parkrun is a free, weekly, timed five kilometre run, weekly on Saturday mornings at 8am. There are currently 452 parkrun locations in Australia, with approximately 40 in Perth. A total of 800,000 people have collectively run over twelve million parkruns over the 12 years it has existed in Australia.

During the first UWA Parkrun event a Western Australia attendance record of 566 runners was set, absolutely smashing the previous record of 429! At this event, there were 71 first timers who have never completed a parkrun before, which is believed to be a record as well.

While numbers have quieted down from the success of the first week, there is consistently between 100 and 180 runners each week consisting of UWA students, local community members and ‘parkrun tourists’.

Overall the program has been an outstanding success. UWA invites everyone in the area to attend a parkrun as they continue each Saturday into the future.

You can find out more about this program on the UWA Parkrun Facebook page.

UniSport MyWay program has received funding from the Australian Government through Sport Australia and UniSport would like to acknowledge and thank them for their support.