Parkrun fan keen to run all south west courses

A runner has his sights set on doing every Parkrun event in the south west after completing every course in Devon and Cornwall.

Adam Holland has taken part in 296 events across 83 locations including a special run in Bushy Park, south-west London, on Saturday to mark Parkrun's 20th anniversary.

Launched on 2 October 2004, Parkruns are run by volunteers to provide people the chance to run 5km (3.1-mile) courses in the UK.

Mr Holland, an avid runner who lives in Okehampton, west Devon, is taking on his 555th marathon on Sunday, and said he loves doing Parkruns because of how accessible they are.

Mr Holland, who is known by his nickname Tango on social media, said he has done all the Parkruns in Devon and Cornwall, with events at the Eden Project and Haldon Forest among his favourites.

Mr Holland said he now wants to complete all the Parkruns based in other parts of the south west.

"I'm trying to make my way out in the other direction because there's 81 in the south west in total and I've done 43 of those," he said.

At the first Parkrun - known then as the Bushy Park Time Trial - 13 people turned up to tackle the course.

In the 20 years since then, Parkrun has grown to 1,287 events in 23 countries with about 10 million registered users.

Mr Holland said getting to see different places and meet new people, as well as the fact the runs are free, has been key to its success.

He added: "They've done such an amazing job over the past 20 years to keep this going and making it get bigger and bigger every year."

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