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Kia ora, welcome to The Cleine Line. I'm Jamie Cleine, Mayor of Buller,
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and this podcast is a place for honest conversations about local government,
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life on the coast, and everything in between.
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This isn't the official council line, it's my personal take,
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with no spin, no script, just open reflections on what's happening in our communities,
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around the council table, and yeah, sometimes from the halls of parliament too.
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In today's episode, we're talking about something that's really taken off across
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the world, and it's now thriving right here in Westport too.
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We're going to talk Parkrun.
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Now, you may have heard the name but don't know the story, but Parkrun is one
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of those brilliant ideas that started small and ended up building into a global community.
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So the Parkrun story all began back in 2004 in a place called Bushy Park, London.
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A man named Paul Sinton Hewitt and a group of 13 runners met for a timed 5km run.
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No entry fees, no medals, no fuss.
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Just people showing up on a Saturday morning to run together.
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What made it different was its simplicity and inclusiveness.
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You register once online, print a barcode, and then you can turn up at any park
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run anywhere in the world.
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Your time is recorded, you get your results emailed or texted to you,
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and the whole thing is run by a group of dedicated volunteers.
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From that one event in London, Parkrun is now spread to over 2,000 locations
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across 22 countries with millions of registered runners.
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New Zealand was the first country outside of the UK to host Parkrun when,
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back in 2012, Lower Hutt Parkrun began near Wellington.
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Since then, it's grown steadily, and today, there are more than 40 parkrun events
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happening every Saturday across the country from Whangarei to Invercargill.
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Now, here in Aotearoa, parkrun is about more than running.
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It's about walking, volunteering, meeting people, and supporting wellbeing.
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You certainly don't have to be a runner. People often walk with their dogs,
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push prams, and bring the kids along. It's great that it's open,
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it's free, and it's every week rain or shine.
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Westport is now part of this global movement with our own Lost Lagoon Park Run.
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Now this kicked off about 14 weeks ago and already we've seen locals and visitors
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joining in, making it a real community hub on a Saturday morning.
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To find out more about the inspiration behind bringing the Lost Lagoon Park
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Run to life, I caught up with two of the local legends who'd made it happen.
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First, I spoke with Gary Bowden, who works locally in the mental health field.
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Working in the mental health space, a big advocate for physical activity being
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a part of maintaining well-being.
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And the whole kind of ethos of Parkrun really fits with that in terms of the
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community connection as well as the movement.
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It ticks lots of boxes in terms of people's well-being.
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In terms of Parkrun itself and getting established, you know,
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you're part of a national or international body, I guess. So there's a few hoops
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you have to go through to make sure it's consistent and safe.
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Yeah, that's right. Parkrun themselves, it is a global brand. It's 20 years old now.
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And they, quite rightly, they have quite strict with what they require with setting up an event.
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So it did take some time to do, largely around ensuring people's safety.
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Hence, all the options for tracks couldn't be near any roads, for example.
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That's one of the big sort of deal breakers. It can't cross any roads.
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But when we test run the lagoon we
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we love the location here and it actually
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works out quite nice with it being three laps as well which
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gives people the option of not they can come and do one two or
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three laps but it makes it social as well there's a
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bit of a gathering i hear after park run some days definitely yep
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there's a big emphasis on the connection side of it
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so we've partnered with one of our local cafes PR's
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and yeah we we encourage people to
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come along if they fancy and have a coffee and a catch up and particularly our
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parkrun tourists they love when they come and visit us to come along and meet
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the locals and have a coffee and talk parkrun afterwards so we've met some really
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good people from around the country who have traveled far and wide to come and
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join us so it's really great connecting with those people.
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Another key player in bringing the Lost Lagoon Parkrun to life was local man
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Paul Cannell who had experience in parkruns in other parts of New Zealand.
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So I was involved in it previously on the Kapiti coast where I lived before
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I shifted down here and I used to really enjoy going on a Saturday morning.
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I could see the benefits of it.
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I really liked that it was a sort of an all inclusive event.
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It wasn't an event for elite athletes.
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You know, there was everybody who was coming to.
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At any stage of their fitness journey and they could participate without any sort of prejudice or
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pressure so when i came to westport and
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and realized that there wasn't one here i was keen to be involved in trying
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to set one up and luckily i was able to connect in with with a few of the locals
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who um kind of had the had the same ideas and we were able to collaborate and
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and bring it together so one of the things i find interesting i come down you
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know when i can to either volunteer or participate,
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is the number of people that come.
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Nearly every Saturday there's someone visiting from out of town that's doing parkrun.
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Yeah, it's been great. There's a huge community nationwide and probably even
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worldwide that are part of the parkrun movement, I suppose you could call it.
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So although that wasn't really the intention of getting it started,
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it's been a sort of a nice add-on.
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I suppose it helps in terms of the overall image of the area and giving people
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a reason to come here and experience what we've got in the bulla.
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So the Lost Lagoon Park Run was born and for the past 14 weeks at about 7.45
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on a Saturday morning, between 40 and 60 runners assemble for the pre-event briefing.
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They then walk across the well-formed boardwalk across what we do call the Lost
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Lagoon to the official start line where they begin their 5km park run event.
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Now certainly from what I've seen, there is no typical park run field.
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There are some there, very serious, and they carve out the 5km in about 19 minutes.
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There are others that are there to walk with the pram or the children,
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and others that are just taking their time for a mid-level run with the dog.
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It's a really mixed field, and almost every Saturday, there is someone visiting
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from out of town. I caught up with Rob, visiting from Christchurch, here to see family.
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This is my fifth one, but I've done a lot of running, so I decided to do some
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of these to help keep fit in the mornings.
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Yeah, I track my times, but it's pretty slow today, so I don't know yet.
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I run to the tip head quite often when I come here, so I enjoy that.
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Yeah, but I know part of the run.
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I've run it all before. No, it's good. Great course, though.
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Another exciting part of the story is the partnership with Speed Freaks,
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a running organisation that supports people in recovery from addiction and mental
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health challenges through running and community.
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Now recently, the Speed Freaks brought a team from Christchurch to join the
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Lost Lagoon Park Run, led by their West Coast coordinator, Jessica.
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I'm based in Greymouth and I've just started working with the Speed Freaks,
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which are a running group that use running to support people recovering from
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mental health and addictions.
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Speed Freaks do have a partnership with Parkrun across the country because both
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services do focus on inclusion and participation,
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so we do like to turn up on Saturday mornings at different parkruns across the country.
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Team from Christchurch come over to support me in establishing the role here.
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Yesterday we had a run in Greymouth and I just thought it would be really nice
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to come and bring everyone up to Westport, see Parkrun, see the beautiful lagoon
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and just connect with the running community here.
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I guess for Parkrun it's as you say there's running or walking,
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there's physical benefits of that but But I think it's also,
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you're out of the house, you're with like-minded people, you get a real sense
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of connection, you meet new people.
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It's just a really good vibe and makes you feel good being here.
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There's a lot of support, but also there's no pressure. You can just turn up,
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do what you want at your own pace and have a good time.
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One of those visiting speed freaks from Christchurch was Brad,
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and he certainly enjoyed himself for his first time on the Lost Lagoon Park Run.
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I am part of the Speed Freaks Foundation Charity Trust in Christchurch. I'm a peer volunteer.
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First time doing it. Great course. Everybody come along. Can't recommend it enough.
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So that's Park Run. A simple idea that's turned into a global community movement.
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Now, alive and well right here in Westport with the Lost Lagoon.
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It's free, it's fun, and it's for everyone.
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If you're listening and haven't been along yet, why not give it a go?
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Saturdays, 8am, the Lost Lagoon. Whether you walk, run, or volunteer,
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you'll be part of something much, much bigger.
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This episode, I'm going to leave the last word to our visitor,
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Brad from Christchurch.
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I really couldn't have put it any better myself.
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It totally is, eh? Everyone hears about it, and they come along,
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and they're full in love with it, and they just keep on coming.
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You know, you can't start a day better than doing this, you know.
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That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening to The Cleine Line.
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This podcast is here to spark conversation, share a bit of insight and shine
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a light on the things that matter to Buller.
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But I also want to hear what matters to you.
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If there's an issue you'd like my thoughts on, someone in the community we should
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feature or a topic you think deserves some airtime, send me an email jamie@thecleineline.com.
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I'll be back next time with more updates, reflections, and what's been happening around the district.
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Until then, thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk again soon.