Rietvlei launches parkrun
Runners can now look forward to a 5km free parkrun held at Rietvlei every Saturday morning.
ALBERTON – Rietvlei’s parkrun, JHB South is a fun, free event organised by volunteers for the benefit of everyone to run every Saturday morning at 08:00. On November 30 the first race was run.
The course is 5 000m long. This has been accurately measured by a professional measuring wheel. The course is in Rietvlei Farm, Alberton and is run entirely on trial paths. Some sections of the course may accumulate mud, leaves and puddles after rain. Dependent on availability, marshals will be at key sections of the course, or signs will be in place.
Please remember that the parkrun uses shared paths. For the continued success of the event, please give way to other park users.
The run is made as safe as possible, so runners, spectators and helpers are asked to take care about the following:
*Please consider volunteering to help occasionally – this event survives only because of your generosity – please visit the volunteer page for more information.
*Take care near roads and car parks – some vehicles drive very fast. Please congregate away from the cars and be careful in particular if you have children. If you’re driving to the run, please drive carefully, even if you’re late!
*When running, take care on uneven surfaces – whether on grass or on tarmac. Watch out for cyclists, other runners, pedestrians, children, dogs, wildlife, park animals, vehicles, park maintenance work, falling branches, bollards, posts and other obstacles around the course.
*Please make sure you’re fit enough to run 5km. Health advice about running can be found on the excellent Runners’ Medical Resource web site.
*If you see a runner with a serious problem, please stop to assist him/her and get help as soon as possible.
*Runners wishing to run with a dog are welcome, but please keep the dog on a short lead or harness and under control throughout the event. Please also review the parkrun support page article about running with a dog at parkrun events.
*While rare, Lyme Disease is present in areas where deer live, and occasionally passed to human’s through infected ticks. See NHS Choices web site for more about Lyme Disease, and how to deal with ticks.
All parkrun events use Age Grading to help athletes compare results. Age Grading takes your time and uses the world record time for your sex and age group to produce a score (a percentage). This score allows you to compare your personal performance against other people’s performances even though they might be a different age and a different sex to you – the higher the score the better the performance. The scores can also be compared across different race distances – to allow you to, for example, compare a 5km time against a marathon.
For more information, please see the Running For Fitness web site.
Each run also gains you 500 Discovery Vitality points. Discovery Vitality, Adidas and Blue Label are all sponsors of the run.
