Naish Park, Charlotte St, Balclutha, 9230
Type of Course – Out and back in two directions.
Shoes Required – Road
Things to Know
Toilets, children’s playground and aviary within the park near the start of the run. Limited parking within Naish Park, but ample on Charlotte St and nearby side roads.
Note 9am start in New Zealand Standard Time (winter).
Parking is free and there is space for motorhome parking.
Forgot your barcode? Email the RD to print for you.
Nearest showers at Balclutha Centennial Pool
Very low risk of cancellation
Not permanently marked
Cafe: Café 55, 55 Clyde St, Balclutha.
Location of start:
The event starts by the duck pond.
Getting there by public transport
There is no public transport available for this parkrun.
Getting there on foot
Walking south west from the town centre along the main street Clyde St, turn right into Argyle St and walk to the park entrance on the opposite side of Charlotte St.
Getting there by road
The entrance to Naish Park is off Charlotte St opposite the junction with Argyle St. Limited parking within Naish Park, but ample on Charlotte St and nearby side roads.
Stats
First run: May 28, 2016
Inaugural attendance: 52
Record attendance: 128 (01/01/2020)
Course records
Women: Hannah Oldroyd 17:54 (14/03/2020)
Men: Jonah Smith 16:50 (01/01/2019)
The Story Behind Balclutha parkrun…
Rod Deverson, event director
I’d run about 70 or 80 parkruns in the UK, mostly at Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam, then we moved here for the good life. We had a 5-year-old and Louise was pregnant with our second. I’m from New Zealand, Louise is from Wales and we ended up in Balclutha with no parkrun.
We would drive back and forth to Dunedin and it was getting a bit tiresome. We didn’t do it that many times, maybe half a dozen. It’s an hour each way and with the early start we were leaving home at 6.30am to go there for a 20 minute run around.
I joked with enough people that we should do it here and someone told me to stop talking about it and just do it.
It was interesting because I’d done one volunteer spot up until that point but it’s given me a perspective on those who don’t volunteer – that used to be me.
It was a matter of seeing if we would get away with it. I didn’t know what it involved but it was pretty smooth sailing to get started.
I remember a conversation about setting up the route, they weren’t sure about our start.
The first time I got to Naish Park I thought it was awesome. The right size of park for the town. There’s car parking, it was a path designed for exercise. The first time I ran to the bridge and back I thought it was awesome.
We have a turnaround cone and you run back and it seems like nothing but you get to the start line and go past all the volunteers, which is nice. It’s one of the best features on the course, everyone sees everyone.
Then you run down to the bridge. It’s a decent bridge, about 240m and the Clutha is the biggest river by volume – it has more water than the Waikato. The bridge looks cool.
People should come and run it because it’s tiny. It’s intimate and everyone knows everyone who is doing it. You can come for the Bushy Park experience in 2004 before it got mad and popular!
I like to think people think it’s nice to have a personal meet and welcome. Everyone who comes is really valued and catered for properly and I think that’s what makes us a good parkrun. We’re a small family parkrun.
On an ordinary day about a quarter of the field are women and kids under 15.
We’ve not got a whole lot of runners in Balclutha, there’s only a population of 4000. We’re not a university town or a tourist town.
I like running and we’ve a couple of people who are really fast. One was never going to do parkrun because it’s not competitive. He runs marathons really fast but parkrun has changed things for him. He just loves to come and run and switch off.
While in Balclutha…
Visit The Catlins.
Museums – South Otago Museum and Dollyworld
Walk around Lake Tuakitoto
Visit the exotic birds aviary in Naish Park