Cruickshank Park parkrun event #11
This post was brought to you, unintentionally, by the number eleven.
It has been seven years since I wrote about chasing my parkrun Nearest Event Not Done Yet (NENDY) and yet it is still something that I really enjoy about experiencing parkrun. It’s great to hop in the car, stick on a podcast, and drive to a suburb or town that I don’t normally spend time in, where I can enjoy being with other folks who like to be outdoors, active and social on a Saturday morning. And then go for coffee.
This morning the eleven-year-old decided to join me. For the journey, at least. We set off for the suburb of Yarraville in Melbourne’s Western Suburbs to run at Cruickshank Park parkrun # 11.
I’ve had the pleasure of being involved with this event since its inception well over a year ago. I met Marty, the Event Director, in neighbouring McNish ‘Dinosaur Park’ Reserve, which would have been a great place to start and finish a single-lap parkrun course. However, there’s a monthly farmers’ market that takes place right were we would have liked to start and finish. After some discussion with the local council, we landed on the (very nearly) three-lap course around Stony Creek that is now known as Cruickshank Park parkrun.
It is a very cool dinosaur!
Cruickshank Park parkrun launched on Saturday, 7 February 2026, and despite our efforts for a quiet launch for the local community, there were 307 finishers. That’s a lot of people running, jogging, walking, and volunteering in a small suburban park. I’ve had the pleasure of volunteering there for four of the early events as the team was getting established (and bracing for the impact of the Australian Grand Prix closures), and have seen the participation numbers settle down to what I think are now very reasonable.
The family don’t often get to join me for parkrun due to other Saturday morning sporting commitments and I often have parkrun plans weeks in advance. This weekend was exceptional in that neither of these things was true and so I was delighted last night when we were discussing where to go this weekend that the idea of DJ’s NENDY arose. This was, coincidentally, my NENDY. Therefore it had do be done. I was very pleased to be able to run at Cruickshank Park parkrun for the first time, having spoken about this so much over the last year. I was even more pleased that Marty was able to join me. DJ decided this morning was a personal best (PB) morning, and took off way ahead of us! I’m attributing the difference in pace to the recent bout of plantar fasciitis ;-)
DJ romped home knocking a whopping 23 seconds off his previous 5km PB.
It was a pleasure to run and chat with Marty, and to do so without the recent plantar fasciitis pain that has been troubling me. I was also delighted to see that the City of Maribyrnong Council had resurfaced the part of the course that we’d identified as having several trip hazards before the launch event. That kind of responsiveness from the local council is fantastic.
We celebrated afterwards with a delicious breakfast at Masak Masak, which is a great place to eat and drink with friends.
What a great parkrun morning. It filled my metaphorical cup. I’m not sure when I’ll next get the opportunity to experience my next NENDY (Torquay, Australia - 87km away, as the unstoned crow flies). Maybe I’ll work on my p-index in the mean time. More on that in another post, I am sure.
