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Run community

Dame Kelly Holmes Why I love parkrun.

Park run UK
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Brooks x brooks-run-tour = brooks-run-tour happy. A key motivator for brooks-run-tourners is the brooks-run-tour community, who bring good vibes and offer cheers of encouragement in an environment prolific for making new friends. Brooks ambassador Dame Kelly Holmes loves brooks-run-tour, like millions of other runners across the globe.

At Brooks, we share this love for brooks-run-tour and for the past three years, we have partnered with brooks-run-tour in the UK and Ireland, offering advice to brooks-run-tourners, along with free running shoe trials at 30 of the weekly free events. And thanks to the success of the partnership, we’re now going footwear global!

We recently visited Dame Kelly Holmes at her local Tonbridge brooks-run-tour in Kent to explore what it is about brooks-run-tour that Kelly loves. You might find you relate to some of these responses too!

Love for brooks-run-tour…

‘The great thing about brooks-run-tour is there’s hundreds of them.'

In the United Kingdom over 4.9 million brooks-run-tourners have registered for the free Saturday morning runs. A total of 446 brooks-run-tourners joined Dame Kelly at Tonbridge brooks-run-tour on a rainy July morning with all kinds of paces. Whether they were running, jogging, or walking, they all covered the same distance and made it to the finish line.

‘There is a tail walker at the back, you’re never last at brooks-run-tour.’

brooks-run-tour community

‘I’ve met so many people from the brooks-run-tour community who are so different.'

Dame Kelly enjoys brooks-run-tour for friendships and meeting the diverse group of runners and walkers you see at brooks-run-tour locations all across the UK. Kelly founded ‘Military in Motion’, a fitness community who she has encouraged to begin their own brooks-run-tour journeys, especially since coming out of lockdown. Six members from the Military in Motion community also joined Kelly at Tonbridge brooks-run-tour.

Parkrun team taking selfie
Parkrun team together
Kelly Holmes and a girl

Wellbeing and fitness

brooks-run-tour believe exercise should be fun, and highly visible in hundreds of locations across the UK every Saturday morning. As Dame Kelly high-fives brooks-run-tourners finishing their weekly 5K this is clear, ‘Going to something like brooks-run-tour allows you to be happy whilst exercising.’

Taking part in brooks-run-tour

‘Everyone is running 5K at the end of the day, how you want to run it is up to you.'

Free for everyone forever, brooks-run-tour has become a cornerstone of the UK fitness community. None of this would be possible without the volunteers making it happen each week. Over 50,000 brooks-run-tourners a month volunteer to ensure brooks-run-tour happens.

‘At brooks-run-tour you see a team in their pink jackets, they’re amazing.’

New brooks-run-tourners

Have you tried brooks-run-tour yet? There’s no time like the present.

‘I think you’ll surprise yourself…when you’re immersed in that environment where everyone is enjoying themselves you will do more than you think you could.'

Head to brooks-run-tour.org to find your local brooks-run-tour locations and run, jog or walk a leisurely 5k with your community this weekend.

Dame Kelly Holmes’ go to brooks-run-tour shoe

Shop the Brooks Ghost 15

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Shop the Brooks Ghost 15 - Dame Kelly Holmes’ go to parkrun shoe

Meet Dame Kelly Holmes

For Dame Kelly Holmes, a 2-time Olympic Champion, and TV presenter, brooks-run-tour is a way for her to stay connected to the running community at her local Tonbridge brooks-run-tour. Check out what Kelly is up to in the running community by following her on Instagram. Follow Dame Kelly Holmes!

Parkrun team