Peterborough school girl completes 250 full park runs before 14th birthday
This comes after the Parkrun community recently celebrated its 1 millionth event across the world and is credited with improving the lives and health of thousands of people.
Peterborough schoolgirl, Dora Lewis is set to become one of the youngest-ever people to complete 250 full 5K Parkruns at Ferry Meadows’ 600th event.
Dora, 13 from Peterborough will complete her 250th full Parkrun at the 600th Peterborough Parkrun event hosted at Ferry Meadows on Saturday 18th July. The community-led event takes place every Saturday and covers a distance of 5km and is open to all ages 4+, regularly attracting over 500 runners from the surrounding area and beyond. Dora has been completing Parkruns since the age of 7 and would have completed even sooner if it didn’t have to take an 18 month break due to covid. 250 Parkruns is the equivalent of running 5km every Saturday for 5 years in a row and as such is very rare for a 13-year-old to have achieved this.
Dora has taken inspiration from many places and wanted the chance to pay tribute to people across the running community who have helped her “find her tribe”:
· Her fabulous coaches and friends at Yaxley Runners who have supported her and cheered her along the way at park runs, Frostbites and the Peterborough Grand Prix running series
· The wonderful PE staff at Stanground Academy, Peterborough (which she attends) who encouraged her to take part in cross country championships at a city and county level
· The sixth form of Queen Katharine Academy whom she runs with every year for Anna’s Hope 5K run at the Great Eastern run raising thousands of pounds for an excellent cause
· Most of all the excellent volunteers who show up every weekend to make Parkrun possible for thousands of runners across the country – without them these events would not ever take place and the world would be sadder for it
This comes after the Parkrun community recently celebrated its 1 millionth event across the world and is credited with improving the lives and health of thousands of people. Dora’s favourite events are the Christmas and New Year special runs or anytime the track is slightly flooded, and everyone runs through any way! Her advice is to absolutely come and give it a go – you will be welcomed into a great community who will encourage every step of the way.