07/06/2026
Many thanks for this run report from UK visitor, Jamie Giles.
Yokine parkrun #416 – Saturday 6 June 2026
A perfect autumn morning in the southern hemisphere, the sort England sometimes spends its whole year wishing for, with a thin mist hanging over Yokine Recreation Reserve and not a cloud inclined to disturb it. The reserve is a small triumph of municipal planning, all generous lawns and ovals marked out for sport of every description, and an abundance of both parking and lavatories that no honest appraisal of a parkrun should ever overlook. Yokine takes its name from the Noongar word for the native dog, or dingo, the reserve sitting close to what the old maps called Dog Swamp. There is a pleasing logic to a parkrun named, however distantly, after a dog, in a movement that has never met one it did not want to fit with a barcode, or at the very least keep its owner on a short lead.
The land was granted to one T.R.C. Walters in 1840 and stayed rural for the best part of a century, until the post-war housing boom filled out the suburbs around it. By the 1960s the City of Stirling had laid the grassed ovals that still anchor the place, home today to the Coolbinia footballers and the Coolbinia-West Perth cricketers, a nature playground, and the upgraded facilities I have already, perhaps excessively, praised.
The course is best thought of as two out and backs stitched together at the middle: one heading east, out to a turn near Wordsworth Avenue and back to the start, the other heading west, out around the far oval and home to the finish. Flat throughout, well shaded beneath the gum trees and assorted local flora, with start and finish on grass and the rest on surfaced path. The grassy buffers a nod, perhaps, to the Bushy Park origins of the whole enterprise, where grass and trees and a sociable lap have been doing the job since 2004.
For the alphabet tourist, Yokine is a rare and welcome Y, and I claimed it twice over today, once on the timing sheet and once, as you may by now have gathered, in the writing of this. I came 11th in 20:23, which, given a week of HIIT classes and running in the legs and a hard deadline to be back in Guildford, I was content with. If anything, the deadline was all the motivation I needed to push rather than dawdle.
At the front, Mitchell Crook led the field home in 18:17. Katie Williams was first woman in 20:21, a fine run from a junior in the JW11-14 bracket, and a personal best to go with it. The day's standout age grades both belonged to the 60-64s: Tim Weston, an extraordinary 88.86% for his 18:42, and Tara Taylor at 84.35% for 23:00. Kayee Tang and Elspeth Nicholls topped the appearances table on 563 and 556 parkruns respectively, Elspeth adding a personal best to her 556th, which rather puts the rest of us in our place.
In all, 289 runners, joggers and walkers completed the course, of whom 42 were first timers to Yokine and 12 were new to parkrun altogether: Kaleb Shaw, Hauauru Morgan, Amy Skene, Tim Wood, Chloe Wilcox, Mark Enrile, Manali Jain, Aisling Murphy, Grace Smith, Cindy Huynh, Nzanile Chilalama and Aideen Duffy. Welcome, all of you. There were 51 personal bests.
Milestones were well represented. Stefan Van Niekerk reached 25, Danny Tancevski and Bruce Dainton 50 apiece, and Toby Heaford a creditable 150. Pema Seldon volunteered for the very first time, which counts for as much as any running milestone in my book.
The 14 hi-vis heroes who made the morning happen deserve every thanks: Casey Causley (Run Director), Rod Ladyman (Timekeeper), Edmund O'Halloran (Finish Tokens), Daniel Hangi (Tail Walker), Charlotte Beard, Darryl Bruce and Linda Fenwick on barcode scanning, Pema Seldon, Caroline Versaci and Miles Versaci marshalling, Brian Garth Bennett on event-day course check, Colin Scholz and Henry Scholz welcoming the first timers, and your correspondent. Yokine has been at this since 25 November 2017, and in that time 10,576 people have completed 65,433 parkruns over 327,165 kilometres, with 851 volunteers giving their time on 4,220 occasions. The machine runs because people keep turning up to run it.
This was, of necessity, a flying visit. There was no coffee and no lingering over the morning's stories, only a quick dash back to Guildford to be with Miriam and the family ahead of her mother Kathy's memorial service. parkrun asks nothing of you on a morning like that. It offers an hour of ordinary, shared motion before the day turns to harder things, and lets you take from it what you need.
Onwards, next Saturday, to Bay East Garden in Singapore on the way home. Thank you, Yokine, for a flawless morning and a warm welcome.
See you down the road.
