When Grace Chambers ran her first parkrun, it was the result of a dare. Now, nine years later, and at 97 years old, she has reached the sought-after milestone of 250 runs. Chambers first took part after her daughter Michele registered her for the free, weekly timed events that take place in parks and public spaces in several countries around the globe.
Chambers was previously a keen climber but after having surgery on her leg in 2016 doctors signed her off from climbing that summer.
“I was incensed, saying ‘what do you mean?’,” Chambers said. She recalled her daughter saying “Mum, sure you could do a wee parkrun instead” and daring her to complete one before her birthday.
“I had never heard of parkrun,” Chambers said. But she went along to her first run, in Belfast’s Ormeau Park, on 17 September that year – and she hasn’t looked back since.
“My daughter registered me and got me my card and off I went to Ormeau Park,” she said. “I discovered parkrun by accident.”
The green 250 T-shirt is one of the more difficult to bag, behind only the 500 and 1,000. Photograph: Ormeau parkrun
She completed her first 5km parkrun in 44 minutes and 54 seconds, and the next week she ran her personal best of 38:09. “It’s taken me almost nine years to get to 250,” Chambers said. “I have now completed 251 parkruns, and 245 of those have been at Ormeau Park.”
She added: “What I like is that the friends I made. Every week I look forward to seeing all the people I know and catching up on their news.”
There is little that will put Chambers off from attending her weekly run. She doesn’t normally run on Christmas Day – when parkrun has a special event – as she spends the day at her niece’s house and there is no parkrun nearby, but she does always try to run the second special event of the year, on New Year’s Day.
Even a heart procedure last month didn’t make her miss more than one run. “I do parkrun in all weathers,” she said. “I look forward to it every week. I only miss it if I am physically unable to do it. I had a heart procedure on Wednesday 16 July, I missed Saturday the 19th – the surgeon told me not to do it. I did, however, show up on 26 July, much to everyone’s surprise.
“I had four parkruns to do to reach my 250th and I was determined to do it. My surgeon even showed up for my 250th – I think he can be very pleased with his work. I told him I wanted to put it to the test.
“I did parkrun in 1 hour 6 minutes the week before the TAVI [transcatheter aortic valve implantation] – for my 250th I did it in 51 minutes, so I think he did a good job.”
Chambers with the volunteer team. Photograph: Ormeau parkrun
Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinton-Hewitt in October 2004, with just 13 runners and five volunteers for the first event in west London’s Bushy Park. Now there are more than 11 million registered parkrunners, and more than 450,000 people across 23 countries take part each weekend.
Runners can buy a different coloured T-shirt for each milestone they achieve – with the green 250 shirt one of the more difficult to bag, behind only 500 and 1,000 runs.
When Chambers ran her 250th parkrun this month she had a crowd of supporters to cheer her over the finish line – as well as the local television news.
“I’m thankful that I’ve done it and very pleased for all my friends in Ormeau Park who have helped me and that it’s put Ormeau parkrun on the map,” she said.
“The support on the day was unbelievable. It was a glorious day – a gift from God. I did a great time which I was very pleased with and having all the support at the finish line was very special. It was a bit overwhelming having the TV cameras there, but the publicity was great for Ormeau parkrun.”
Chambers doesn’t plan to stop here – she has set herself a new target of running 300 parkruns.
“I would also love to be the first centenarian to do parkun at Ormeau,” she said. “For me it’s very important to have a goal and something to work towards.”
