Harrogate Parkrun founder’s trek through ‘the toughest footrace on earth’

Last updated Jul 30, 2023

Adam Prentis, pictured at the Marathon des Sables in 2013.

Harrogate man Adam Prentis loves a project.

Whether it be helping to set up Harrogate’s Parkrun on the Stray or trekking through the Sahara Desert in a feat of endurance, he has a taste for the more difficult tasks.

A keen runner, Adam took up the sport quite late in life when he was 46 years old.

From there, he’s chaired his local running club, set up a community park run and even been selected for Britain in the triathlon and duathlon events.

“I like doing things that are difficult,” he says.

But what motivates him to take on such projects and how did he arrive at the idea of setting up Parkrun?

Starting out

While some athletes are born to run and take on feats of endurance such as marathons, Adam’s story is slightly different.

Born in Bramhope before moving to Harrogate in the year 2000, Adam was, by his own admission, not “particularly fit” before he took up running.

“I was a typical businessman of the 80s and 90s who did a lot of corporate lunching and all of the business type stuff. I wasn’t particularly fit.”

In 2009, Adam’s friend had the New York Marathon down on his bucket list.

He set about training for the marathon. The schedule was tough and left him with injuries.

“In my particular case through my life choices and lifestyle, I’d been sitting in a chair a lot for most of my working career or sitting in a car.

“It took about two years for everything to settle down.”

Despite the hurdles starting out, Adam came up with a schedule for the New York Marathon and completed in November 2009 – an achievement which he describes as “life affirming”.

Adam competing for Great Britain.

But, for Adam, the marathons did not stop there. He is constantly on the lookout for new challenges.

“They are projects. I think if they were easy, then everyone would do them.

“But, if they are hard then they take an awful lot of project planning, training and effort. They give you structure and I happen to like structure in my life.

“For a good training programme, you know what you’re doing every day and every week for a long period of time and then you execute at the end of it. That execution might go well or it might go badly.”

Adam has since gone on to run the five marathon majors in Berlin, Boston, London, Chicago and New York – which he went back to run again three times.

‘The toughest footrace on earth’

Perhaps one of Adam’s most remarkable projects was the Marathon des Sables in 2013.

The feat of endurance tasks participants with six marathons in six days through the unforgiving climate and terrain of the Sahara Desert.

“You have to be absolutely off your rocker to sign up for it, really.”

Adam first came across the event when he was looking for his next project in 2012.

He read a news article about the Marathon des Sables, which describes itself as the “toughest footrace on earth”, and that was enough to make him sign up.

The race is self supporting, meaning those taking part have to carry their own food, clothes and medical supplies for the week.

Adam flew in through Morocco for the event and took it on for his 50th birthday.

“It’s an incredibly arduous event over six days in extreme temperatures. Your body falls apart slowly over those six days if you get it wrong.

“For anyone who has done it, it remains a marker in their life.”

The experience drove him to other projects, such as climbing Mount Everest in 2019.

Adam and his mountaineer friend, Chris Brown, climbed the mountain to base camp before running a marathon back down to the finish line at Namche Bazar in Nepal.

“It’s like running around a quarry, there’s a lot of broken debris under your feet.

“It’s incredibly arduous as an event. Just getting to the start line is arduous, a lot of people don’t get to the start line because they get altitude sickness.”

Adam pictured running the Everest marathon from base camp.

The terrain, temperature and environment around the Everest marathon is too much for some to handle.

Climbing the mountain to base camp took the pair two weeks to complete.

Meanwhile, the overnight temperatures dropped to -18 degrees and the diet on Everest saw Adam suffer some muscle wastage.

“For most people, once they get to base camp and they are there and they haven’t suffered altitude sickness too badly, they want to get down as quickly as possible.”

In between his projects, Adam has competed for Great Britain at triathlon and duathlon in his age category.

In 2018, he finished second in the World Championships in duathlon at the age of 55.

But, one of Adam’s proudest projects lies closer to home and can be seen in practice every Saturday morning.

Founding Harrogate Parkrun

In 2011, Adam secured a trial in Harrogate for a Parkrun.

The idea came to him when he was stood watching his son play football one Saturday morning on the Stray.

He had not long been running, but saw an opportunity to create something that people of all ages and abilities could take part in.

“I thought that Harrogate could have a Parkrun, why have we not got a Parkrun? So I set about investigating it.”

A Parkrun in Harrogate from 2015.

Adam approached Harrogate Borough Council about using the land near Empress roundabout, which was only used for football and dog walking at the time.

The council offered him a trial licence for the event.

“They came round and watched it and thought it was wonderful. They gave us a licence to start and it’s about 12 and a half years old now.

“It’s phenomenal, it’s been a really great success.”

Parkrun takes place every Saturday morning and sees men and women from beginners to aspiring athletes take part.

The success of Harrogate also saw Adam set up the Fountains Abby parkrun near Ripon.

Both now see on average 400 people take part each week.

For Adam, part of the reason for setting up the initiative in the first place was to offer something for everyone to take part in.

‘Harrogate needs a running track’

Recently, Adam has been looking for his next project.

This year, he stood down as chairman of the Harrogate Harriers running club after four years in post.

While there, he helped oversee the club through covid and the development of the junior and senior runners.

Now, he has his eye on a legacy project for the town – a running track.

“If you know anything about sport in Harrogate, it is lacking a running track.

“It is one of the only major towns in the country that doesn’t have a running facility that is accessible.”

The town has two running tracks at the Army Foundation College and RAF Menwith Hill, but both are inaccessible to the general public.

For Adam, the lack of a facility is letting down potential athletes in the town who are forced to drive some 23 miles to York to train.

“I have a bee in my bonnet about it.

“Not because of my interest in running, particularly. But because we have an awful lot of football pitches and yet there aren’t a lot of Premier League stars coming out of Harrogate. We have cricket pitches everywhere, but there aren’t that many people who bat for England who come out of Harrogate.

“We have some really high national standard athletes in Harrogate and we do not have a facility that would be good for them to train on.”

Adam points out that a running track is not just about running, but also field athletics such as javelin, high jump and shot put.

He has tried for four years to make the project happen and get schools, landowners and the council on board to push it forward – but to no avail, so far.

But, despite the setbacks, it is still his ambition to try and get people interested in the idea and to create a facility for future generations.