‘Event-tualising’ Physical Leisure Activity: How Gauteng Parkrunners Brought the Parkrun Home during COVID-19

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On the 27th of March 2020, South Africa entered hard lockdown (alert level 5) following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the banning of all physical activity outside a place of residence. As a result, official parkrun events were immediately suspended. In June 2020, the country moved to alert level 3, no longer curbing the use of public spaces for leisure, entertainment, and physical activity, albeit with restrictions. However, group sports leisure, such as parkruns remained prohibited. Thus, parkrun, a highly successful global movement where individuals gather on Saturday mornings for a timed 2 or 5km run, jog, or walk, with family and friends, was severely affected by COVID-19 prevention measures. In mitigation, parkrun officials launched, in June 2020, the (not)parkrun to enable individuals to log (on the parkrun website) their own 5km activity, irrespective of time, day or route. In this regard, parkrun enabled parkrunners to bring the event ‘home’, that is, to informally claim public space and time for their physical leisure. By analysing participation figures and feedback posted on the national parkrun blog and social media pages, this research shows how the (not)parkrun enabled Gauteng parkrunners to ‘event-tualise’ their runs to counter act the de-eventualisation of the parkrun by lockdown regulations.