Revisiting my parkrun goals from the days before I met Brad.

There's a good chance if you're in this community (EXHAUST) that you know that parkrun exists, even if you've never been along to one. If you've known me for any length of time you'll likely know I've been mildly obsessed with these "free, weekly, timed 5km community events" for a wee while now.

This is a post (below) that I wrote somewhere in the 12 months before I met Brad, aka @new.things. We still do rather a lot of parkruns together and actually met at parkrun.

If you know a bit about parkrun you know that a big part of why it's "forever free" (as the Founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt stated) is because it relies heavily on the work of volunteers. A small number of people just like volunteering and never run or walk at parkrun. But most of us "give up our run" from time to time in order to contribute to the running of these weekly events.

I've shared this post below that I originally wrote for 'another platform'. It's kind of a strange one to share here on Hive because it's so specific but it's fascinating to look back on what I was doing at the time and observe the person I was then. I wrote it directly to a parkrun audience as a shout out for help and ideas.

Below the second set of three dots I've written an update of what I've now done up to this point in Jan 2025 as an interesting comparison over time.

Part 1 - Where I was pre-Brad.

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One of my 2018 parkrun goals is to do every volunteer role.

Partly because I get bored easily and constantly look for new experiences and opportunities to grow, and partly because I want to experience parkrun from every angle and perspective possible.

And here's where I need your help:

There are a few obscure vollie roles that not many locations have. If you're in Sydney (or nearby) and/or know these courses well, can you chime in here?

What I've done already:

• Timekeeper
• Barcode scanning
• Pre-event setup
• Token sorting
• Tail walker
• Marshall
• Photographer

What I obviously still need to do:

• Finish tokens (easy - just need to schedule this)
• Run Director (want/need to do all/ most other roles first)
• Funnel Manager (proving hard to find a location)
• Pacer (struggle to know which pr does pacing when)
• VI Guide (in training with Achilles - so can do soon!)

If you know Sydney parkruns well and know where they would LOVE someone to do any of the above roles in the coming 2-3 months, can you post below?

And... if you know of other vollie roles that are quite unique to a particular parkrun, and are also in Sydney, can you mention them below so I can add them to the list? (e.g. parking attendant?? first timers briefing??)

Finally, if you're a FRIEND of mine and you're RD'ing any time in the coming 2-3 months and would love to have me come and play with you at your parkrun, then talk to me! As an 'always going somewhere new tourist' I LOVE going where my friends are, and will happily return to somewhere I've run before so I can be a vollie with you.

Photo credit to the parkrun volunteer photographer of the day.

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It's so interesting to reflect back on this point in my parkrun journey; so much has changed since then. Not only did I leave Sydney and move 900km north to Brisbane to be with Brad, I also made a whole host of new friends.

And... I've now done far more volunteer roles and days of volunteering at a wide range of parkruns!

So all the vollie roles that I mentioned I wanted to do, I have now done. Namely:

• Finish tokens (which turns out to be easy at small parkruns and really hard at big ones!)

• Run Director (which I loved but was very involved)

• Funnel Manager (this one is necessary at any big parkrun; the one I did it at had many hundreds of people and crowds often need wrangling!)

• Pacer (this one proved to be pretty easy to find opportunities to do once I moved to Brisbane; I've now done it many times and generally enjoy it. I could do this one more often this year, come to think of it...)

• VI Guide (This is "Visually Impaired Guide" which is a bit of a strange name because I'm not visually impaired, I was guiding a visually impaired person! And it was awesome. I did it with a woman I'd met through Achilles, the organisation in Sydney, and other places, that trains sighted athletes to run with VI athletes. And then I was able to put my training to practise at a parkrun before I left Sydney!)

But I've also done:

• Car Park Marshal (very handy at the launch of new events when a locations knows they're going to get ridiculous numbers of people show up)

• Communications Person (I don't even remember exactly what I had to do for this but I think it was something to do with sharing the stats of the parkrun on their Facebook Page after the event was done for the day)

• Event Day Course Check (This one is needed at our local event here in Brisbane because it's run in the bush and sometimes trees and branches come down during storms and block the path)

• Finish Tokens Support (This is useful at very large events where the person handing out tokens is flat out just keeping up with people crossing the line. My job for this one is to support them by having the next lot of tokens ready or swap positions with them if they get too tired/overwhelmed)

• First Timers Welcome (This is actually my favourite role of the lot. I love public speaking and helping people feel welcome, answering any of their questions, calming anyone with jitters, etc. Often this role will be done by the Run Director at that parkrun so I don't get to do this one as often as I would like. But maybe I'll try to do it more often again this year...)

• Post-event close down (This just means helping to pack up. Many parkruns don't count it as a vollie role but when I received a vollie credit for helping when I could see it was needed it made me happy to be appreciated)

• Report Writer (This was similar to the Communications Person and I don't remember what's involved anymore because it's been so long since I did it. I think at small events, like our home parkrun, the Run Director just does it)

• Results Processor (This is another one that is often done by the RD, but at some very large parkruns they farm this job out to another person so the RD has less to do. It's an easy enough job if nothing goes awry during parkrun and it can be a really difficult job if something goes wrong with the Tokens person or the Timekeeper!)

• Token Sorting (Easy as pie, this is just sorting the tokens into numerical order. I've done it several times and could easily do it again, sometime, if the opportunity arises)

• Warm Up Leader (Actually, maybe THIS is my favourite vollie role! This job only exists at junior parkruns--2km parkruns for children aged 4-14 only--and involved jumping around like a smiley, enthusiastic nutter to get the kids "warmed up" before they take off like little pocket rockets and race each other!)

• Volunteer Coordinator (I can see from my parkrun app that I have done this twice. One time makes sense because I was on the Run Director team at that parkrun back in Sydney before I left but the other one, I don't know how it happened! This vollie's role is to get as many volunteers as possible onto the roster. This is another helpful role at very large parkrun events when the RD has so many other things to do)

Photo by the parkrun volunteer photographer of the day. This was my last day at North Sydney parkrun as part of the Run Director team before I moved to Brisbane!

So that brings me to a grand total of 23 different volunteer roles (if I include the role we call "other" which is the designation given to a volunteer who helps in some way that can't be assigned to any of the existing roles).

I could also do, at some point if I wish, the following roles that I've either never got around to or never had the opportunity to do:

• parkwalker (A newer role that is supposed to encourage walkers at parkrun. As I understand it, it's super useful in the UK but mostly redundant here in Australia so I haven't bothered. Happy to do if the opportunity presents itself and is going to be genuinely helpful in some way)

• Equipment Storage and Delivery (This often ends up being done by the RD. It's mostly irrelevant for us and our current parkrun lives)

• Number Checker (I don't know that I've ever seen this role done in Australia. Usually the Timekeeper and Finish Tokens people just, you know, talk to each other :P But I think it might be somehow useful if a parkrun has ridiculous numbers. Not sure I'm ever going to do this one!)

• Sign Language Support (This is one I'd love to do but it seems really unlikely that I'll ever do it. It requires learning Sign Language and then interpreting the run brief for those parkrunners who are hearing impaired. I think it's an extension of my love for public speaking. But again, am I ever going to learn AUSLAN? Who knows...)

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So, if you read this far I'm going to assume you're also a parkrunner! Or at least, really interested in the idea of attending a parkrun or starting one where you are. If so, tell me in the comments about your experience with parkrun volunteering.

Have you done any? If yes, did you enjoy it? If you've done a few roles like I have, do you have a favourite?