On Saturday, Louise Patterson celebrated her 100th parkrun, a hard-earned milestone that came after almost 10 years of taking part in the free weekly timed event. Louise completed her first parkrun in July 2013, at Telford parkrun, where she did her first 12 parkruns, and where she has completed 60 runs in total. 

(Left to right): Daniel Campbell-Miles, Louise Patterson, Heather Campbell-Miles, Oliver Stokes, Harry Stokes, John Stokes, Neil Fairbrother

Since then, Louise has taken part in parkruns at 16 other locations, including events as far away as Roundhay, Edinburgh and Belfast, as well as closer to home, such as Shrewsbury, Chasewater and Trentham Gardens. She also has a trip booked for later in June to complete a parkrun in Poland. As well as running, Louise has been a regular volunteer at parkrun over the years, and is also in the volunteer 25 club.

In recent times, Louise has adopted Isabel Trail parkrun in Stafford as her “home” run, and chose this event to run her milestone event, marking it not just by running, but also by volunteering, as she gave the First Timers Welcome on the morning. To help her celebrate the occasion, she was joined by a number of fellow Newport & District Running Club members, and ran wearing a “100 and Fabulous!” sash, a “100” tiara, and a badminton racquet that had been modified with a crocheted cover to let everyone know that she was running her 100th parkrun!