parkrun Milestone 250

Introduction

On Saturday December 20th 2025 I finished my 250th parkrun. I paid almost no attention to the milestone. I had one eye on 50 parkruns in a calendar year. The week leading up to the milestone had more wonderful life experiences. My wife Julie had crossed into week 38 of her pregnancy. The excitement of welcoming our daughter into the world was rising. Julie’s parents and family were arriving in Dublin and they couldn’t wait to see her glowing. Julie’s mother had reached parkrun number 50 the week before a huge achievement. She began her parkrun journey walking then walk jogging, then jogging the full 5k (at Glen River of all places with it’s enormous hill that you need to summit twice) then running the Cork City 10k 2025 and finally running after parkrun PBs. If parkrun had a success story this was it. Julie’s mother is very much trying to keep active and strong. More important than that is the unbridled joy of the time spent parkrunning with her nieces on Saturday morning. They have become recent converts to parkrun.

The first mention of my 250 milestone parkrun came in the car park at Malahide parkrun. I wanted to take Edward with me in the buggy as a quiet celebration of my 250th parkrun. Edward had been with me in the buggy for more than 120 parkruns. The week previous Edward had for the first time at St.Annes parkrun begin yelling mid parkrun ‘Walkin’. I suspect his time in the buggy at parkrun maybe starting to reduce and while I can I want to savour the experience of him being this young. He already runs the 800 meters between our house and the creche. Edwards grandfather obliged me. Whenever possible Edward joins his grandfather in the playground if we’re all at parkrun. A bonding ritual I don’t take for granted. I never knew a grandfather. They passed before I was born and my father passed away 20 years ago. I’m keen for Edward to have time with his grandfather. They have already had moments that will live forever. For example Edwards love of the Gambler by Kenny Rogers. During one visit to Belrose farm Arthur (Edwards grandfather) was singing the gambler coming into the kitchen. Edward just about picked up ‘you gotta know’. He kept parroting it, we encouraged it and for two years now the Gambler is still top of my spotify wrapped.

As the conversation shifted joyously to my 250 parkruns I quelled any further attention by saying this is hardly a milestone for me I’ve raced 9 marathons they were tough that distance still scares the life out of me…I’ll need to be strong enough to do it again in 2026…5k this is as easy as breathing. I privately thought to myself any mention of racing at parkrun makes me an outlaw. Unfortunately the removal of stats from parkrun in February 2024 has never sat well with me. There is nothing wrong with recording pace and power publicly. I find course records inspirational and age grade records motivational. The official reason parkrun gave was that those records turned away potential new parkrunners. I want to see that evidence because my lived experience is those records were out of the way at the bottom of the page. You had to really dig to find them. New comers were usually looking for parking information, where to download the barcode or the start time.

I turned the conversation to the 50th parkrun conquered by Julie’s mother, Julie’s cousin Olivia who hit ten parkruns that morning in addition to finishing second at her recent company mile race, add that Edwards Auntie G is on a comeback from injury and if all that wasn’t enough Julie’s brother Ted would record his all time PB 20:44 later that morning. Reflecting later that day outside of my family I have talked my great friend Daithí onto parkrun. Daithí got absolutely hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Set to commence a new research role in March 2020 which he had been working towards for close to five years the pandemic completely killed the opportunity. Another opportunity in Galway was scuppered by a family bereavement. Daithí turned to parkrun with myself as soon as it reopened. Week by week his resilience grew back and he’ll be opening 2026 with 70 parkruns to his name. Hardly a week goes by where Daithí isn’t at UL parkrun. My main man at work Karl will finish the year with just shy of 20 parkwalks. Karl is adamant he won’t use the term parkrunner until he jogs a whole 5k. He’s getting faster every week. There is a stoic strength growing there. By comparison me plodding to 250 parkruns was a footnote. The family and friends above never saw themselves as runners. 5k was a mountain and now they’ve conquered that mountain. I can see pride and power emanating off them. They know what it’s like to be parkrun strong. I’m not a fan of the emphasis on weakness and vulnerability. Not that I don’t think they need attention but where are your strengths? Where do you emphasise them? Most of the team coaching I every got was correcting weaknesses to the almost complete exclusion of my strengths. I got to college before my boxing coaches Eoin and Ken spotted that I had stamina for 12 rounds in a 3 round competition. They didn’t care about my short arm length. They care how accurate those arms were when they let fly. They kept reminding me that I’d win the final round every time. The real parkrun celebration for me was going to be me once again running with my son.

Live a Little

Edward forged the magic moment that showed me I was living my best parkrun that morning. Edward decided to take advantage of the Christmas parkrun by catching up on his reading. Mid parkrun as we began our second lap he looked up at me and yelled “Do you want more?” as he raised the book towards me. As he opened the pages of Never Touch a Spider I got some bemused looks from other parkrunners as I ran past reading “you must never touch a …(pregnant pause for the child to fill in the blank)” Edward yelled “CENTIPEDE” “But if it doesn’t seem polite it’s time for you to … Edward “GO! GO! GO!”. I got off lightly that morning Edward has recently started yelling ‘Be Tough!’ at parkrun and just in case I’m giving the impression that Edward isn’t constantly encouraging more activity every time we venture upstairs it’s usually because Edward wants me to do pull ups while he counts in Irish.

Volunteering

At the time of writing I have volunteered on 147 occasions. I can’t recommend joining the ranks of the hi vis heroes enough. I often tell new parkrun groups that if I could I would go back and relive the formation of a parkrun again I wouldn’t hesitate nor change a thing. I qualify that by saying you’re about to go on a journey and make the best friends in the world. I forewarn everyone to stay away from all interactions with parkrun HQ and its founder. The lengthy email will demoralise you and founder is on record as saying volunteers are easily replaceable. All the fun, friendship and fellowship happens locally. Embrace it warmly