'We Want To Get People Running'

With runners around the world uniting every Saturday morning for parkrun, Gill and Bruce Fordyce tell how they’ve brought the fun here

- Libby Allen

Gill and Bruce Fordyce began parkrun SA in November 2011. The first ever parkrun launched in Bushy Park, London, in 2004 – with just 13 participants – and it’s now a worldwide movement, with parkruns listed in 14 countries, and hundreds of thousands of runners involved. parkrun is a volunteer-driven, weekly, timed 5km community running event with easy guidelines: runs are fun, free, and accessible to everyone.

Gill Fordyce

Gill, 59, is COO of parkrun SA. She lives in Joburg with her husband Bruce, and their son Jonathan. They also have another son, Nicholas, and a daughter, Cara.

We first came across parkrun in 2011 in London, where Bruce was running the London Marathon. He’d given a talk in Reading a few nights before and, while there, we met parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt, who persuaded us to try the Bushy Park run. I wasn’t a runner, but I felt the magic instantly. I was so chuffed to finish the 5km in under an hour – and Bruce ran his fastest parkrun there.

Paul convinced us to get parkrun off the ground in South Africa.

It took a bit of time, as we were starting the Athletics Foundation Trust, an academy for talented disadvantaged athletes at Tukssport High School. Bruce had received an anonymous R100 million donation to start it, so it was our priority until it launched.

We looked at loads of venues for our first event and landed on Delta Park in Victory Park.