NEWS, VIEWS, TRENDS and ORDINARY RUNNERS doing EXTRAORDINARY THINGS
An annual gathering of over-80s parkrunners celebrates the power of our sport. Brendan Maton runs with the octogenarians
IF YOU HADN’T NOTICED, the population of the UK is ageing. In England and Wales, there are now almost as many women over 80 as there are teenage girls. This trend is set to continue, which is why older runners deserve more coverage and praise.
And so to Bushy Park in south-west London, the birthplace of parkrun 19 years ago and now home to an annual get-together of runners aged 80 and over from around the world. It’s an element of the usual parkrun, with full support from the Bushy Park organisers.
Ahead of the customary 9am start, octogenarians and nonagenarians congregate around a simple placard held steady by Richard Pitcairn-Knowles and George Frogley. These two started organising the silver seam at this event seven years ago but never got around to naming it. Given the amount of prosecco served afterwards, I suggest it should be known as the Bushy Park Fizzical. That first gathering in 2016 attracted 15 runners. In 2019, there were 48. And this summer, a record 84 took part, each with the 80-plus bib on their running vests.
Those vests were representative of clubs up and down the country, such as Cheddar, Southport Waterloo, Langport Runners, Dromore, Weymouth & St Paul’s Harriers and the local Stragglers. Age is no barrier to competing. For some, getting to the Bushy Park Fizzical has meant teaming up with clubmates and family to travel hundreds of miles and find somewhere to stay overnight.
Frogley’s wife and daughters also deserve praise for helping with the promotion and organisation, as well as looking after the table of cupcakes and prosecco on the day.
I’ve heard enough megaphoned introductions up and down the country to know that parkrun is not a race. But I also know that for some of us, this noble, communal mantra gets drowned out by the competitive urge. On this humid summer morning, circling around the over-80s placard, I wonder whether competitiveness still matters to this group. Do the over-90s claim bragging rights for staying in the game?
Pitcairn-Knowles is in that echelon. At 90, this is his 479th parkrun and he’s keen to reach the 500 milestone. But he’s more into the collective spirit than the competitive desire. ‘We’re all old, but we’re taking part,’ he says.
In 2018, aged 85, Pitcairn-Knowles won gold in the 5000m at the World Masters Championships in Malaga, in a time of 34:21. But when lockdown put the kibosh on collective sports, his enthusiasm for running waned. Add a heart condition and y
