It was nine years ago when the announcement that Yarrabilba would be the location for a future city in the City of Logan. With an expected population of up to 50,000 people and over 20,000 dwellings, the site was set to become a fast growing community.
It wasn’t long and in 2011 the development by LendLease began with some great plans expected for the 93.2 hectare stage.
As the houses were built, the people came and the community was really starting to grow. Although some of the development was slow, it didn’t stop a group of dedicated runners from putting together a new run in and around Darlington Parklands with it now known as Yarrabilba Parkrun.
On May 11, event directors and 119 runners celebrated the fifth birthday of the event in style with runners attending in costumes beginning with the letter P.
Event Director Pete Burns said there were pirates, parrots, princesses, peacocks, Popeye, Pink Ladies, a Purple People Eater, police, prisoners, peas, peanut butter, party food, lots of pink and purple clothes and the Run Director was a pink pig!
“Like every good birthday celebration, there was cake, and this year the Yarrabilba cake was made up of hundreds of cupcakes, styled in the Parkrun logo, all provided generously by a few of our regular runners.”
It was a great day weather wise for the runners and 18 entrants ran to a new personal best time while a number of new comers enjoyed their first time in Yarrabilba.
The events each week are run by volunteers and the total cost to run is free. From signing up online to going each weekend, there is no cost to get out there and set a time.
Some of the yearly stats from Yarrabilba Parkrun for 2019 are the current fastest time is 17.10 minutes, the events average 106 runners per weekend and they have done enough combined kilometres to have almost travelled around Australia twice.
Parkrun is worldwide phenomena said Pete.
“Starting in 2004 in Bushy Park in the UK, and now every Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people around the world run, jog or walk at a Parkrun close to them.
“If you want to find out more about Parkrun in general the website is www.parkrun.com.au and if you’d like to join Yarrabilba Parkrun, jump onto the Yarrabilba Facebook Page and send a message and one of the Event Team will happily answer any questions you might have.”
