At the age of 82, Maureen Shirvell could be forgiven for putting her feet up this weekend.
Instead, the Keswick grandmother will be pulling on her running shoes and heading down to Fitz Park for her weekly five kilometre parkrun.
Her 252nd, to be precise – because Maureen became the first Keswick parkrunner to complete 250 runs.
Her amazing milestone was reached eight years after she took part in the inaugural run, and just 20 after she first started running at the tender age of 62.
“It happened quite out of the blue,” recalled her partner Mike Hirst. “We were walking on Ben Nevis when a couple of fell runners went past in the direction of the glen below.
“Suddenly Maureen took off after them – and she’s never stopped running since.”
According to Mike, Maureen had been a keen cyclist when she was younger, but stopped when she had her two sons.
She then worked for many years as a care home supervisor in York before moving to Cumbria in her sixties.
“She always said she’d wished she’d been a runner when she was younger, but it never happened,” Mike said. “She’s certainly made up for it since.
“As well as the parkrun on a Saturday she goes out most days and runs five or six kilometres just to keep in training. She’s amazing.”
A keen baker, Maureen has become famous for providing park runners with cakes after the run on New Year’s Day. And last weekend, more than 40 runners gathered at Café West to celebrate her achievement with an impromptu party.
“She’s got no plans to stop any time soon,” Mike said. “Come rain or shine she’ll be there on the starting line on Saturday morning.”
The first parkrun was held on a blustery day in October 2004 at Bushy Park, Teddington, with 13 runners taking part. One of those – Paul Sinton-Hewitt – was to become the founder of the event.
It has now become an international phenomenon. There are now parkrun events each Saturday and Sunday in 20 countries around the world. All are organised and marshalled by volunteers.
The first parkrun outside the UK was launched in Zimbabwe in 2007.
