On Saturday 24th September at Rex Smeal park over 60 locals signed up to run, walk or jog a 5km or 10 kms course and all in the name of charity and a little fitness on the side. 

Sarah McConnell from Inspire Fitness has been organising these fun runs right through this year and the numbers just keep getting bigger and bigger and of course the funds raised for her chosen charity also get more and more benefit.  The whole idea of the fun run is to have fun. 

Sure you can take it seriously and try to break the course records and with sponsors like the Sheraton Mirage and Pure Massage & Beauty, Fitness Paradise, there are always lots of prizes to be won but the majority of the participants have a great time with friends and family!

The runners set off at 7am and everyone was safely back at the park within an hour and 13 minutes with blind competitor David Wane  beating his last event time by 5 minutes !  There's Mums with prams and there's even some organised teams from the local fitness clubs who use it as a benchmark for how well their fitness regimes are progressing but the laughing and the chatting and the fun never stops. 

This months winners in the 10k and with a course record was Laurie Green with the time of 38m 57sec and the 5k was won by Levi Craigmile from Canada, with another course record time of 21min 16 sec.

Sarah is just about to have her second child but she says it's not going to stop her and her team from organizing the next fun run scheduled for early December.

"It was another fun day and it was so great to see more people coming down to not only have fun and exercise, but to also raise money for the Breast Cancer Foundation, so a big pat on the back to all the runners, walkers, dogs and kids that participated today and donated there money for the charity. We raised close to $600 with the ever growing number of 57 competitors up from 50 in the July Fun Run. I do have to say a massive thank you to all the sponsors like Radio Port Douglas, The Newsport daily and tourismportdouglas.com.au  for helping promote the event to the wider audience.

"Thanks must also go to the Sheraton, Pure Massage and Beauty and Fitness paradise for providing spot prizes to the competitors, and also a big thank you to the helpers that sat on the water tables out on the course as well as the girls helping with the registration. Thank you!

Sarah says she may even run in the next one, "and I will even try and drag my husband into as he is getting a bit too comfortable doing the timing of the runners!"  Keep an eye out for the confirmed date on the Newsport Daily Events calendar.