Starting in the UK, a parkrun T-shirt is travelling the world and made its way to Tauranga for Bethlehem’s weekly parkrun at Gordon Carmichael Reserve.

Parkrun is a free community event where you can run, walk, jog, volunteer or spectate every Saturday morning at 8am.

It involves a 5km course and is held in locations around the world. There are currently 53 locations just in New Zealand.

Owner of the travelling T-shirt, John Richards, has completed 520 parkruns at 49 different places.

“With all the crap going on in the world, one thing that connects us all who love parkrun is that on a Saturday morning, a bunch of people from all over the place run 5km.”

The world roaming parkrun shirt has visited more than 11 different countries around the world. Photo supplied.

Richards said participants do it for all sorts of reasons.

“Fun, training, mental health, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about enjoying yourselves.”

In 2023 after he completed a parkrun in Woodbank, UK he thought it would be a cool idea to get his parkrun shirt travelling around all the different UK parkruns gathering signatures of those who have participated.

The movement quickly gained traction and the T-shirt travelled to many countries around the world, including Wales, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Germany and Scotland before making its way to New Zealand.

It first arrived in Rotorua, before moving on to Tauranga and then heading for the South Island.

After the T-shirt’s travels in New Zealand, there’s hope it will be taken to Singapore or South Africa to continue its global travels.

Parkrun has grown since its first event in Teddington, UK on October 2, 2004. It’s now happening every Saturday across 23 different countries and more than 2000 locations, of which three are in Tauranga.

There’s the Gordon Carmichael Reserve parkrun in Bethlehem, Tauranga parkrun at Kopurererua Valley Reserve, and the Gordon Spratt Reserve parkrun in Pāpāmoa.

Gordon Carmichael Reserve parkrun run director Lesley Warner-Bird with the T-shirt. Photo / Supplied

Lesley Warner-Bird is one of the run directors of the Gordon Carmichael Reserve parkrun.

She is looking for someone who can take the T-shirt to South Africa or Singapore to continue its international journey.

When the T-shirt finally arrived in Bethlehem on Saturday, November 9, the run participants took photos and signed the shirt before it was taken to Whākatane and then to the South Island, to Queenstown and Wānaka.

“It’s been travelling for 18 months now,” said Warner-Bird.

She said the Gordon Carmichael Reserve parkrun usually has around 100 people participating.

One of the volunteers of the Gordon Carmichael Reserve parkrun on Saturday, November 9. Photo / Supplied

“Parkrun is very inclusive, so if anyone feels like joining us, we have the event every Saturday at 8am.”

For more information about parkrun visit the website at www.parkrun.co.nz