Claire Doak admits she is obsessed by parkrun.
She’s just quit her job to go travelling so she can complete more of the weekly 5k events abroad.
The 43-year-old from Glenrothes is a parkrun tourist – someone who runs in as many different locations as they can.
Parkrun tourists also take on specific challenges, such as the parkrun alphabet, visiting locations from A to Z, or doing all 71 Scotland parkruns.
Claire admits: “I’m a proper fanatic! I’ve got massive maps on my wall, I’ve got stickers, I’ve got spreadsheets to organise where I’m going.”
What is parkrun?
The first parkrun was held 20 years ago today in Bushy Park, London, attended by 13 runners.
Today parkruns are held in more than 2,300 places across the world, with more than 9 million registered parkrunners.
Fans hold the timed events, which can be run or walked, in such-esteem that there is a huge community of parkrun tourists like Claire.
She says: “It’s not even about the run. If I get under 30 minutes I’m happy but it’s not about getting fast times or getting PBs (personal best times).
“It’s about the social side, meeting up with friends, going for breakfast afterwards, making a day or a weekend of it.”
Claire, a member of the Kirkcaldy Wizards running club, started taking part in parkrun regularly at her home event in Kirkcaldy.
Just before the pandemic hit friends had told her about parkrun tourism and she was intrigued.
“We started a group chat planning where we were going to go once Covid restrictions were lifted.
“We tried to tick off all the parkruns in Scotland for a start.”
Claire, who was until recently a PCV (bus) driving instructor, even bought a campervan to travel to events further afield.
She’s done Lews Castle, on the Isle of Lewis, and has just two of the Scottish parkruns to complete, those in Shetland and Orkney.
Doing the parkrun tourist alphabet
“They are really difficult to get to,” she says. “You have to get a ferry and it’s hours and hours away.”
But she thinks nothing of heading to the north of England for her weekly 5k.
“Me and a couple of friends normally jump in the car at 5am on a Saturday morning and head down to the north-east,” she says.
As there’s no parkrun starting with J in Scotland, Jesmond Dene, in Newcastle, and Jubilee, in County Durham, ticked that letter off.
Now Claire is on her second parkrun alphabet.
“I’ve just got O, Q and Y to go. For my second Q I need to go back to Belfast for Queen’s, because I’ve already done Queen’s in Glasgow.
“There isn’t an X but I’ve done three Zs. They were all in the Netherlands.”
How far afield has Claire gone as a parkrun tourist?
Germany is the furthest afield parkrun Claire has done so far – and the trip was specifically for parkrun.
She was recently part of a large group of “parkrun nutters” who chartered a ferry to Inis Meáin parkrun, on a tiny island off the west coast of Ireland.
But she had to pull out of a trip to Oulu in Finland – the world’s most northerly parkrun – due to a Reserve Army posting.
Claire is in the 215 (Scottish) Multi-role Medical Regiment and has just been sent to Kenya for two months.
She said: “I’ll be missing my fix when I’m in Kenya.”
But after her deployment she will be taking her dedication as a parkrun tourist to new extremes.
“I’m going to Australia for a few months,” she said.
“I’m taking a year out to go travelling – but it’s for parkrun!
What’s her favourite parkrun?
“I’m going to try to get as many parkruns in Australia as I possibly can.
“My friend and I are going chasing Qs, so I’m going all over Australia – Perth, Brisbane, Canberra.
“We’re going to New Zealand for Christmas to get all those Qs ticked off.”
Parkruns starting with Q are few and far – “like hen’s teeth!”, she says – so prized among parkrun tourists.
Claire has done 219 parkruns in 125 locations.
Her favourite one?
“All the island ones, the ones that are difficult to get to are my favourites because it’s all about the experience rather than the run itself.”
Reva to complete all the Scottish parkruns – again
Parkrun tourist Reva Farquharson had bagged every Scottish parkrun – making her a regionnaire – until a new event started last October.
She plans to regain the status later this month when she visits newcomer Whitekirk Hill parkrun in North Berwick.
What’s even more impressive is that she has completed many of her events while pregnant or while pushing one of her two children, Martha and Anya, in buggies.
Reva began collecting Scottish flags after hearing of the challenge from a friend.
“That was pre-children, of course!”, she says.
“At the time there were only around 30 parkruns in Scotland and I thought it would be doable.
“The furthest north was Alness, just north of Inverness. There weren’t any island parkruns then.”
How does Reva fit in parkrun tourism?
English teacher Reva, from Broughty Ferry, visits the local parkrun any time she is on holiday or on a weekend away.
She also travels with the parkrun Arabs, a group of Dundee United-supporting parkrun tourists.
She continued running until she was around seven months pregnant with Martha, 5.
And she returned to it when Martha was just a few weeks old, strapping her into her buggy and pushing her round.
Now Anya, 15 months, is the one in the buggy while Martha will come with her dad to cheer mum on.
Reva said: “I travelled to Shetland to do Bressay parkrun overnight on the ferry whilst pregnant.
“That was quite an interesting one!
“We’d booked it before I found out I was pregnant.
“Stornoway I did with my sister and I took Martha along with me.
Hen weekend parkrun in Copenhagen
“We went to Orkney on a family holiday two summers ago and I ran Kirkwall parkrun whilst there.
“For Skye I just got up really early and left Dundee at 5am.
Even when it was her hen weekend in Copenhagen, dedicated Reva packed her trainers and ran the parkrun there with her hens.
“I’ll probably feel relieved once I’ve completed Whitekirk Hill parkrun in North Berwick, but also a sense of achievement.”
“I think it’s the idea of community that I love about parkun. It gets everybody together and it pushes you.
“You always try a little bit harder.”
How to join parkrun
There are 12 parkruns in Courier country which all start at 9.30am every Saturday.
Register to walk, run or volunteer at the 5k event. Print off your barcode and take it with you to show at the finish line.
Pre-run briefings are given for first-timers and course visitors.
Local parkruns are: Camperdown (Dundee), Dunfermline, Faskally Forest, Forfar Loch, Kirkcaldy, Loch Leven, Lochore Meadows, Montrose, Perth, St Andrews, University of Stirling, West Links (Arbroath).
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