Every Saturday at parkrun is a celebration of accomplishments, personal bests, challenges, and milestones all in a supportive encouraging community. However, Some Saturdays stand out more than others, especially when the event coincides with a birthday!
This Saturday Kathy a seasoned member of the Burgess parkrun banana-bringing crew celebrated her 60th birthday. To mark the occasion she brought delightful satsumas and wore a vibrant orange jacket ensuring that her celebration was as sweet as the fruits she shared. Thank you Kathy for everything you do to make Burgess parkrun such a welcoming and inclusive space for all.
It was also the birthday of Martin Hider. Martin started his running journey back in August 2017 and has become a regular attendee known for his explosive starts and pursuit of getting quicker and quicker. I frequently bump into Martin, before work, out doing our weekly runs. Combined with his regular updates on his Instagram and YouTube Martin’s running journey is a rollercoaster ride of frustrations, heartbreaks and incredible successes.
This year has been exceptional for Martin with an eyewatering 18min 40sec personal best at Burgess parkrun back in September. This was accompanied by a 10k personal best, at the London Vitality 10000 an unexpected half-marathon personal best at the hilly Olympic Park and lastly, at Milton Keynes a marathon personal best too! His achievements resemble that of Sifan Hassan, who won medals at three of these distances at this year’s Paris Olympics, why choose to hit one distance when the possibilities are endless? Martin is going for gold in the same distances next year and I’ll be cheering him on!
Do check the 2025 calendar to see if your birthday falls on a Saturday, coming to your local parkrun can be a great way to start the day’s celebrations.
My next parkrun is going to be celebrating someone else’s birthday, Jesus Christ! Not every event holds a Christmas Day parkrun so do check in advance if you’re thinking of attending one in the UK.
Stay well, stay safe and for those that celebrate Happy Christmas!
Wow Martin’s running is awesome! Lovely to read about some of your fellow Burgess regulars. Thanks for sharing. Oh and Kennington Juniors pic is delightful. 😄
Brilliant ending to the year
Love it!
Thank you for this write up about Martin’s running journey. He is definitely a Burgess legend; I follow his running on Strava and I absolutely admire his dedication for Burgess. He also celebrated his 250th parkrun this year - amazingly all of them at Burgess xx
Good to celebrate the achievement of others