Parkrun is a free fitness event organised by volunteers that takes place all around the world, with people of all ages and fitness levels completing a timed 5km course at whatever pace they like – walk, amble, jog or running flat out.

Prams and strollers are a common accompaniment, and some groups even allow dogs on a leash to come along too, but Urunga doesn’t, owing to the narrowness of the path and the potential distraction of rabbits, said event director Nathan White.

Nathan led the push to bring parkrun to Urunga after he moved to town with his family to take up a teaching job in Macksville at the beginning of last year and found the nearest group was in Coffs Harbour.

“We’d been doing it every week in Yamba, so we wanted to start one here,” Nathan said.

“We’ve been operating in Urunga since October 14.

“The first run we had 91 people turn up and numbers since then have been fluctuating between 30 and 50.”

It’s a whole-of-family thing for Nathan and his wife Rachel. Their 12-year-old son Ricky and five-year-old daughter Sophie have already notched up 26 parkrun events each, and 3-year-old Indee comes along too, sometimes on her own feet and sometimes in a stroller.

Sourcing funding to start the group was the hardest part, Nathan said, so he wanted to thank local businesses that have supported Urunga parkrun, including Anchors Wharf, Cutz Both Ways, Hickeys Garage, Urunga Chamber of Commerce, Amcal Chemist, Mid Coast Physiotherapist and Cardow and partners Real Estate.

The next hardest thing was establishing a reliable pool of volunteers to take on the various roles at each event.

The most critical, in terms of ensuring accuracy of records, are the barcode scanner and the timekeeper, but at least seven volunteers are needed at each event to help prepare the course, give the welcome and explanation, to take photos, and to act as marshalls.

Urunga parkrun is held every Saturday at 7am, with people asked to arrive 10 minutes earlier.

The course starts near the playground adjacent to the Urunga boardwalk and the runners go south along the footpath for 225m, then turn at a yellow pole and head north along the same path for about 760m, past the Holiday Park and up a slight hill.

They do three laps to complete their 5km, and then the individual barcode that they received when they registered is scanned by a volunteer, their time is recorded and later it’s put on the website http://www.parkrun.com.au/urunga

Parkrun started in the United Kingdom in 2004 and since then it has grown to encompass 4 million registered parkrunners across 18 countries.

There are 262 parkrun groups in Australia and people frequently ‘visit’ other groups, particularly in holiday times, because their barcodes are perfectly portable.

At the Christmas and New Year’s Day events in Urunga, about two-thirds of the runners were drop-ins from places like Armidale, Newcastle, the Gold Coast and even Griffith.