An impressive 100 for Colin at Castle parkrun

The parkrun community congratulated Colin and have urged other islanders to join their 5k event, held in the Castle Grounds every Saturday at 9.30am.

Colin was pleased to reach his big milestone at Lews Castle and urged others to give it a go.

He said: “It is great for exercise and it’s very sociable and enjoyable. There’s a lot of the same people there every week and there’s also a lot of visitors.

"You quite often get a yarn with the visitors, find out where they’ve from, what they are doing there. The organiser and the marshalls are great. They’re there every week and they make you feel so welcome. It’s great.”

A lifelong runner, Colin extolled the benefits of exercising: “I’ve always enjoyed it. I’ve never been particularly good, I’m an average club runner, and I’m very lucky that I can still do it. It certainly doesn’t do me any harm; it probably does me good.”

Although Colin still tries to do the Stornoway half marathon every year, he likes the relatively short distance of parkrun and the Castle route. “It’s not an easy route because there’s a lot of hills in it but it’s good exercise and running up beside the Creed is absolutely beautiful in any conditions.”

He had a message for anyone thinking about it. “Just go and enjoy it. They should come along, whether they are going to run it, walk it or run and walk it. You can do it as hard or as easy as you want. It’s all finished by 10.30 and you’ve got the rest of the day to do things. It gets you going.”

Lews Castle parkrun was held for the first time in January 2020 and has been held 157 times so far. It is part of a global movement that began 20 years ago in Bushy Park in London, where a group of friends decided to get together and run for fun and sociability.

It was set up locally by Mairi Maciver who was inspired by seeing friends on the mainland take part. Mairi contacted Parkrun Scotland who told her they had been hoping to hear from Lewis as they thought it was “a really great spot”.

Mairi said: “One of the nice things about Colin is he is so supportive, not only to the volunteers on the day but he’s also supportive to the other people who are taking part, so when he finishes, he’s one of these people that will hang around and congratulate people coming through the finish funnel and give them a cheer.

“It’s so nice to see, that there’s that kind of community spirit and he brings quite a bit of that community spirit to Lews Castle parkrun.

“We are also really delighted that he has managed to get his 100th parkrun at Lews Castle and it’s such an achievement because he’s there in all weathers. He is not a fair weather runner. He will turn up even on the worst of days just to bag his parkrun.

“And although Colin is a seasoned runner, it’s so important to get across that parkrun is actually for everybody. You don’t have to be a runner to come to parkrun, even though it’s called parkrun. There is no ‘race’ kind of mentality. You just do what you want yourself. So if you want to come and have a walk on a Saturday morning at 9.30, you can come and join us.”

For more information on Lews Castle parkrun, visit www.parkrun.org.uk/lewscastle/