Mount Ainslie parkrun

Thank you awesome folks! Our future volunteer roster is a thing of beauty heading into this weekend. 🙌

There are roles looking for vollies in the coming weeks. Follow the link below and check out our roster and see if there's a role waiting for your name!

https://www.parkrun.com.au/mountainslie/futureroster/

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Robbie, Alasdair, Liam, and Liz. These four people have completed two hundred or more parkruns at Mount Ainslie. This is a select group. More people have walked upon the moon.

Liz and her trusty dog Finn joined the list today. Event Director Kate and today’s Run Director Giles are only a few Saturdays away from joining the club.

As Alasdair pointed out, while these are just more or less arbitrary numbers, and the various challenges and tee-shirts and streaks and alphabet collections could be viewed as “gamification” of parkrun, it is something that gets people out and about and active on a regular basis.

Even on a cold but clear winter morning in Canberra where the sun barely showed itself to the volunteers scanning tokens at the finish line and still hadn’t passed beyond 3º by ten o’clock when the last couple of parkrunners finished their coffees in nearby Poppy’s Cafe at the Australian War Memorial.

Every parkrun finisher is taking a step on a path of fitness, health, community, and personal commitment. It’s a local piece of a global movement stretching back to a handful of runners at Bushy Park in England more than twenty years ago.

We love our Saturdays, we love our parkrunners, and we celebrate the numbers.

Andrew and Erin completed ten volunteer days.

Ellie notched up ten parkruns. William made 25. Lucy hit fifty. Nicholas and Andy both moved into black tee-shirt territory at a hundred apiece.

And – here’s glory – Ada completed four hundred parkruns.

Cheers all round!

We saw 203 finishers today, an extremely good number for a winter’s trail here on our dusty red bushland course. 21 personal bests, top age percentages of 78.42% for Bronwyn in the junior women’s 10 age group, and Tim was the hardest male runner at 74.76% in the veteran 65-69 category.

First home was Duncan on 18:59 and Emily was First Lady on 19:58.

Cindy had 473 parkruns and Chris 371. In fact, we had 19 finishers in the green-shirt 250+ brigade: Cindy, Anita, Ada, Chris, Julian, Tim, Kate, Robbie, Virginia, Liam, Sandeep, Micah, Cameron, Zoe, Bridget, Alasdair, Daniela, Rebecca, and Rebekah.

At the other end of the bellcurve, we had Sebastian, Mia, Nyah, Lo, Elif, Ellen, Jane, and Marco stepping out for their first parkruns. Thank you for choosing Mount Ainslie to begin your amazing careers!

Visitors from Switzerland, Victoria, Lismore, Bendigo, Sydney, Melbourne, Sunshine Coast, Wagga Wagga, and Goulburn.

Giles, aided by Bunty the Wonder Dog, led a crew of fifteen volunteers: Kate, Alasdair, Andrew, Duncan, Ee, Erin, Tameeka, Sam, George, Jet, Sandeep, Liam, Peter, and Arthur. Check out their smiling faces in our attached photo gallery.

We’re looking for volunteers over the coming weeks. Put on a hi-viz vest and keep the event running; we’re always grateful for the help.

Reminders that dogs need to be on a short, hand-held leash, children under ten within easy reach of a responsible adult, everyone well-behaved and enthusiastic.

Keep an eye on our rough trail. We’ve had a few accidents recently, and even the most experienced regulars can fall victim to a rock or a hole in our track. There is not a single centimetre of paving or concrete or tarmac on our course; we’re a trail run, and we have hills and dips and trees and kangaroos to make life interesting.

Keep to the marked parking spaces. There are plenty of spots at the Australian War Memorial, including the underground carpark. We hope the Campbell High School overflow carpark is within a whisker of being officially opened after a couple of years of being a dusty free-for-all.

Thanks for those running, walking, jogging, and promenading. Thanks for the vollies and visitors, our esteemed barkrunners, and even a few spectators. Our aim is that everyone participates with a smile on the face and a song in the heart, and comes back to do it all again next week.

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Handy links
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https://www.parkrun.com.au/mountainslie/results/385/
https://www.parkrun.com.au/mountainslie/futureroster/
https://parkrace.net/au/mountainslie/diehards

Yes, it’s minus 4 degrees, but that doesn’t stop parkrun! A huge thank you in advance to our amazing volunteers who will be braving this chilly weather.

Remember to allow extra time for parking and follow all ACT government parking regulations. Briefing starts at 7.53am.

See you soon parkrunners!

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Our vollie roster is in fantastic shape heading into this weekend. We thank everyone who has stepped forward to volunteer their time with us. We would love one more person to join the gang and take on the photographer role.

Please reach out to us via Facebook or send an email to [email protected]

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https://www.parkrun.com.au/mountainslie/futureroster/

Event #384 run report

(Thanks to guest report writer Nic for today's update)

Canberra turned on a beautiful winter morning for Mount Ainslie parkrun Event #384, with bright sunshine greeting participants as they arrived. While the skies were clear, the crisp air served as a reminder that winter is still firmly with us. Undeterred, walkers, joggers, runners and volunteers embraced another fantastic Saturday at Mount Ainslie.

As everyone gathered before the Run Director’s briefing, there was the familiar atmosphere that makes parkrun such a special way to start the weekend. Friends caught up, first-timers were welcomed, visitors introduced themselves and volunteers prepared for another successful event. Before long, participants were making their way around our picturesque bushland course, enjoying the fresh winter sunshine and the rewarding challenge that Mount Ainslie is known for.

This week we were delighted to welcome visitors from Braidwood, Darwin, Melbourne, Sydney (Cooks River parkrun) and Perth. Whether Mount Ainslie was your planned destination or simply another stop on your parkrun adventures, thank you for choosing to spend your Saturday morning with us. We hope you enjoyed our unique course and experienced the warm community spirit that makes our event so special.

A very warm welcome also goes to everyone who completed their first-ever parkrun this week. Every parkrunner remembers the excitement of crossing that first finish line, and we’re delighted you chose Mount Ainslie to begin your parkrun journey. We hope it’s the first of many enjoyable Saturday mornings spent walking, jogging, running or volunteering with the parkrun family.

Milestones are always a highlight of the morning, and this week we were thrilled to celebrate a very special achievement. Congratulations to Alasdair on completing his 250th parkrun at Mount Ainslie! Reaching 250 runs at our event is an outstanding accomplishment and he's just the second person ever to reach that milestone. It represents years of dedication, perseverance and countless kilometres shared with our parkrun community. Congratulations also to everyone who celebrated their own personal achievements this week, whether it was a personal best, another finish line crossed or simply turning up and giving it a go.

Of course, none of this would be possible without our incredible volunteers, who generously give their time to ensure parkrun can take place each and every week. From preparing the course before sunrise to welcoming newcomers, marshalling the course, recording finish times, scanning barcodes and packing everything away afterwards, every volunteer plays an important role in creating a safe, welcoming and enjoyable event.

A sincere thank you to Run Director Arthur Potter and this week’s outstanding volunteer team:

Arthur Potter – Run Director and First Timers Welcome
Kate Potter and Alasdair Sinclair – Pre-event Setup
Kate Potter – Event Day Course Check
Chris Andersen – Timekeeper
Sam Flynn – Finish Tokens
Fabian Heyde, Alicia Humphrey, Oliver Mill and Matthew Cunneen – Barcode Scanning
Ivan Neville – Marshal
Samuel Esmore – Photographer
Judy Zhu – Tail Walker
Sandeep Chandra – Volunteer Coordinator
Liam Camilleri – Communications Person
Jen Wheeler, Elizabeth Davin and George O’Kane – First Aid helpers
Peter Mackay – Post-event Close Down
Nic Thomas – Report Writer
Kate Ringvall – parkwalker

Whether you were volunteering, chasing a personal best, visiting from interstate, walking with friends or completing your very first parkrun, thank you for contributing to another wonderful Saturday morning at Mount Ainslie. The smiles at the finish line, encouragement shared around the course and conversations over coffee afterwards are a reminder that parkrun is about so much more than times and results—it’s about community, connection and enjoying the outdoors together.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Mount Ainslie parkrun Event #384. We hope you enjoyed your morning and look forward to welcoming you back next Saturday for another fantastic start to the weekend.

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Handy links
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https://www.parkrun.com.au/mountainslie/results/384/
https://www.parkrun.com.au/mountainslie/futureroster/

3rd of Photos event #384 25-07-2026

2nd of Photos event #384 25-07-2026