By Mikayla van Loon
Thousands of hours of connection, fun and positivity have been experienced over the decade of Lillydale Lake’s parkrun.
Celebrating its 10th birthday on Saturday 27 April, event directors Elka Mallon and Sally Stepniewski said to reach 10 years of anything these days feels like a milestone worth enjoying.
In 2014 founding event director Matt Fullerton was on a holiday in Queensland where he stumbled on parkrun for the first time.
Returning to Lilydale, he established the town’s very own parkrun event which now sees sometimes 300 people running, or walking, five kilometres around the Lake every Saturday morning.
Both self-confessed non-runners, Elka and Sally said that didn’t matter when they joined parkrun because of the supportive, friendly environment created by the community.
“I started walking early in the mornings with a group of mums and then once I had some confidence, I then went to my first parkrun a couple months after it started at Lillydale Lake and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Elka said.
“I was walking around Lillydale Lake and I just happened to be there on a Saturday morning so I saw all these people of all different ages with little kids through to older people, just enjoying and cheering each other on and just being this really, really nice community,” Sally said.
“That positivity kept me coming back more and more.”
Parkrun’s philosophy has always been to cater to all abilities, goals and creating fun, active behaviour.
Sally said “the community spirit is so incredibly strong” and brings so many people together, “you’ll see kids in prams, you’ll see four and five year olds running. We even have some 80-year-olds who are out there giving it their best shot”.
This is just one of the many things, Elka said, that makes parkrun so special.
“One of the things I love about parkrun is you might get overtaken, and I may well get overtaken by a 10-year-old or a 70-year-old. There’s just such a diverse community there,” she said.
While 10 years ago, Lilydale’s parkrun event began drawing the attention of 60 regulars, just before heading into the pandemic lockdowns, Elka said those numbers were sitting around 300 weekly.
“Recently, the numbers have grown quite a bit again. So we’re back at around the 300 a week mark, which is great to have so many people out and getting active on a regular basis,” she said.
“The nice thing is it’s not just locals as well. Every week, we’ll always have someone from another location, whether it be Jells Park, whether it be from one of the ones in the UK, or New Zealand or interstate,” Sally said.
Across 10 years, there’s been 450 events, 749 volunteers and 8710 unique finishes from people taking part.
Sally said the volunteers who offer up their time each week to scan barcodes of runners and ensure parkrun goes smoothly, are of huge importance and add to the family that is Lillydale Lake parkrun.
A dress up has been used to mark anniversaries for the last few years and to celebrate 10 years, people are invited to join parkrun on 27 April wearing something beachy to match the theme ‘hang 10’.
“For some people, it’s just throwing on a Hawaiian shirt, and other people will go all out,” Elka said.
Of course too, there will be cake to mark the occasion.
And if thinking of heading to a parkrun event, Elka said you’d be embraced with open arms.
“Often it can be really daunting coming out of your comfort zone and going to an event like that for the first time but it is very welcoming.
“We encourage people of all age groups and abilities. It’s not a requirement that you run, you can walk. And we say one of the great things with parkrun is you never come last because we have a tail walker who is the last person to finish.”
More on parkrun can be found at parkrun.com.au/lillydalelake/
