Running on a wedding day is normally a sign something has gone very wrong — but not when you are running together, at a parkrun event.
The five-kilometre, free, timed run, held across Australia and the world on Saturday mornings, is a popular place to make new friends and in some cases meet a partner.
And it is becoming a popular place to mark wedding days too.
Renee Peirce and husband Ned married at sunrise earlier this year before a group of about 60 guests joined them for a jog at the Lake Macquarie parkrun.
"We met at parkrun, we both enjoy running, so we thought it was fitting," she said.
"We're both morning people so we decided to have a morning wedding and run five k's in the middle of it.
"A lot of the guests ran with us, we had champagne at halfway and then we ran back.
"A lot of my friends said it was one of the longest weddings they've ever been to — but also the most fun they've ever had, so that's a good report."
Breaking tradition
Kylie and Kiel Bigeni married last Saturday after starting their day at Port Macquarie parkrun.
"We come to parkrun pretty much every week, we don't miss one unless there's a pretty good excuse so we thought it would be a nice way to start the day," Ms Bigeni said.
They met at parkrun just over a year ago, when Kylie, who was run director that Saturday, chased Kiel for an unreturned finish token.
They soon went for coffee, moved in together, and got engaged on Christmas Eve.
Running together on the morning of their wedding raised some concerns about breaking tradition.
"My best man was a bit rattled by that … he was like 'Nah, you guys can't see each other'," Mr Bigeni said.
"We've done things pretty non-traditionally from the start, and it's my second marriage so I think we throw some of those traditions out the window and just do what suits us," Ms Bigeni said.
"We love hanging out so I don't want to go the whole day, like this is the biggest day of our lives, we don't want to spend the whole day apart and only see each other for the last bit."
Bringing people together through running
Parkrun Australia CEO Tim Oberg said it is hard to put a number on how many weddings parkrun has been a part of, but he has heard more than 20 stories.
The first one he knows about happened all the way back in 2012.
"The couple, Tom and Lana Do Canto, met at St Peters parkrun in Sydney," he said.
"Tom was running and Lana was volunteering, Tom's actually one of the top middle-distance runners in the country, so as expected he was first across the line and Lana was there handing out the finish tokens.
"As she handed him that number one token, their eyes met and it was love at first sight — four months later they were married."
The couple now have two children.
In Maitland, in the NSW Hunter Valley, Mel Hoffman combined her recent wedding parkrun with a parkrun milestone.
"Mel Cressy ran her 200th parkrun on the day, so a huge achievement, when you think about it that's actually four years of parkrunning if you've never missed one," Mr Oberg said.
"So 200th parkrun in the morning, married Sebastian later that afternoon, with a wedding party that were almost exclusively parkrunners and even the celebrant was a parkrunner."
Mr Oberg said he is astounded and overwhelmed at the role parkrun has played in so many relationships.
"It's a wonderful thing and anything we can be doing to bring people and communities together is great," he said.
"I think most people who parkrun regularly would argue that the run is the least important part of parkrun, the most important thing we do is bring people together."
