What does it take to turn a Saturday morning idea into a movement that half a million Australians now call part of their weekly routine?

In this episode, Catherine sits down with Tim Oberg, the founder of parkrun Australia, for a warm, candid and often surprising look back at how it all began, including the true story of how a rescued street dog from Montenegro named Clarence was the reason Tim discovered parkrun in the first place (dogs used to get their own barcodes — yes, really).

Tim, a former national junior weightlifting champion who "actively avoided" endurance running for most of his life, talks about the email that started it all, the coffee meeting with parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt, and arriving in Australia in 2011 with nothing but a licensing agreement, three stopwatches and no idea what he was about to build.

From the first 110 finishers at Main Beach to parkruns now running inside Australian prisons, on Hamilton Island, and in the country's smallest regional towns, Tim shares:

• The real reason parkrun works so well in the modern world - his theory of the lost "third space"
• The candid, funny truth about working with parkrun's famously blunt founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt
• How he borrowed a idea from Flight Centre's "Family Village Tribe" model to scale parkrun across the country
• A moving tribute to the late Professor Richard Scolyer and fellow parkrun advocate Lisa Millar
• Why he walked away from parkrun in 2022 after 11 years — and the new mission driving him now: getting a million Australian kids moving before Brisbane hosts the 2032 Olympics, through his Healthy Kids Project and RAD Run Club

This is a founder's story about community, purpose, and knowing when it's time for the next chapter.

Find out more about Tim's current work: radrun.club

🎧 Listen now — and if this episode moves you, share it with someone who needs their own "third space."

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