Runner, 91, stopped counting after completing 500th parkrun event

A 91-year-old man who has completed more than 500 parkruns said he has now stopped counting how many he has finished.

Bob Emmerson, from Walgrave, Northamptonshire, reached the milestone at a parkrun in Northampton last year.

The mass participation 5km event is celebrating its 20th anniversary after it was started by 13 participants in London.

Mr Emmerson said he started taking part when he was 79 at “parkrun number five at Northampton”.

The runner, who has had both of his hips resurfaced, has completed almost all of his parkruns at the Northampton event.

He has also taken part in others in Northamptonshire at Brixworth Country Park, Daventry and Kettering, plus ones in Darlington, County Durham, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, and Bushy Park in London, where the first parkrun took place.

He said: “I’m at about 535 [parkruns], I think, I’m not really counting now, I do a fair bit of of marshalling now.”

The event in Northampton will mark the 20th anniversary of parkrun and will also be Mr Emmerson’s son’s 100th race.

But he said he wanted to “pay tribute to the marshals”.

“Without the marshals we couldn’t have a parkrun,” he said.

He said one marshal at Northampton had helped at more than 500 runs, while another who had been at more than 400 had a section of the course named after him, now know as “Bryan’s corner”.

But Mr Emmerson’s own achievements have led to a level of fame.

He said: “My grandson got married in Richmond in Yorkshire and he put me down for the Darlington parkrun.

“When I got there they said ‘you must be Bob Emerson’. [My grandson] was impressed.”