Evergreen Peter, 85, has no plans to stop
Inspirational Adams aiming to carry on clocking up the parkrun miles
Running enthusiast Peter Adams continues to clock up the miles at the grand age of 85 - and he has no plans on allowing himself a well-earned rest anytime soon.
The former naval lieutenant is a regular at parkrun events across the area and completed his 71st national weekly 5k event at his nearby Fareham course on Saturday, recording a time of 34 minutes and nine seconds.
Adams, a keen runner since his days as a student at the Portsmouth Technology School in Hilsea, first took part in a parkrun at Havant's Staunton Country Park course nine years ago – then aged 76.
Since his first introduction to the global fun-run phenomenon, Adams has been present at events far and wide from Fareham to Ipswich, Kesgrave to Havant.
The evergreen Fareham resident in fact holds nine 80-84 age group records at differing courses, as well as 10 records in the 85-89 age bracket at various venues.
And he hopes his story Adams completes runs of around the 5k distance range bi-weekly - can inspire others to show old age should not prevent runners to carry on doing what they love.
‘It's a good social gathering (parkrun events), people are always very friendly and will always talk to you, so it's a good thing to be involved in,’ Adams said of the parkrun events he has had involvement in over the past past nine years.
‘I'm sure there are people who can (carry on running into later years) - obviously a lot of people are not invested in running - those who are running, I hope I could be inspirational in getting them to continue to run as long as they can.
‘I've never been a good runner but now get a good degree of success as I'm virtually last-man standing in my age group.
‘I'm very fortunate to be free of osteoarthritis but my fitness is not entirely down to luck. ‘I eat fairly sensibly, although I no longer work out at a gym, I exercise regularly and generally run twice a week. Parkruns are wonderful and have started many people getting into regular running.
‘I hope I may be an inspiration into getting more elderly runners to keep running. I shall continue running as long as I can.'
When Adams is not running, he regularly volunteers at the Cams Hall Estate course to offer a helping hand.