Lucy Keating, 500 up!

Congratulations to Lucy Keating on becoming the first Claremont Road Runner to complete 500 parkruns – a fantastic achievement! Here is her parkrun tale:

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that parkrun has changed my life since I made that first cold January shuffle round the Town Moor back in 2011. Although I had been running fairly regularly at the time, that first parkrun revealed my hitherto well-hidden competitive streak, and catapulted me into a new world of stats-tracking, PB-chasing, footwear-obsessing, Garmin-wearing and, most alarmingly, quiet Friday nights in with a cup of tea.

My 500 runs have taken me to 39 venues in six different countries: from Thurso in the North to Munich in the South, and from Barry Island in the West to Wroclaw in the East. I’ve been well beaten by children, pensioners, hungover stag do attendees and Olympic athletes. My proudest achievement was finishing first female at Margate after cycling there from London the previous day and spending the night in the pub; my worst moment was when I failed to find the start of Windy Nook parkrun (still convinced it doesn’t really exist). Although my PB is now many years and six Prime Ministers ago, I’m nonetheless delighted to have kept up an unblemished record of being promoted to a superior age category every five years.

Most importantly, parkrun has always cheered me up when I’ve needed it: I’ve made lots of new friends, and can of course also strongly recommend volunteering if you like to start the weekend with several hundred strangers thanking you. It meant a lot to me to run my 500th at Claremont’s ‘home’ Leazes parkrun.

Thank you so much to the countless volunteers and fellow runners who have accompanied me on the way, and here’s to the next 500!”