ONE OF Harlow parkruns’ most admired and respected participants has just completed her 500th parkrun.

Catherine Penketh was joined by family and friends to mark quite an achievement on Saturday morning in the town park.

Her first parkrun was on November 24th, 2012 at Gunpowder Park in Waltham Abbey.

Catherine was a founding member of Harlow parkrun core team and is the event director at Harlow junior parkrun. She was a parkrun ambassador for many years and provided support for teams setting up new parkruns and existing event core teams.

She has clocked up 427 volunteer credits and is here today celebrating 500 parkruns.

She’d figured out when her 500th would be as soon as she completed her 250th and if pesky Covid hadn’t got in her way, she would have achieved it a while ago.

She started parkrun in 2012 and since then, she’s completed Harlow parkrun 150 times and parkrun at 150 different locations. Including travelling to Poland, Ireland, Wales and Jersey, where, after completing parkrun, she was swimming in the sea by 10:30 and back at home on her sofa by 18:00. The only evidence of the days adventure was a bit of sunburn.

On a Sunday morning she is usually found in the showground cheering on the younger athletes of Harlow at junior parkrun. Most impressively, she has learnt most of their names!

If you spot Catherine running up any hills today, give her some encouragement as she ran 16 miles yesterday as part of her marathon training, having unexpectedly won a place in the Harlow running club ballot after giving up more of her time to volunteer at the marathon, something she has done multiple times.

Catherine added: “I’m so grateful to be part of the parkrun community. It is a special place that welcomes everyone from the speedsters to those who want a more leisurely stroll and everyone in between.

“If you haven’t tried either yet… Harlow parkrun and Harlow junior parkrun will be happy to have you along!”