West Belfast man Jim Clinton admits he will need to find room for a new tattoo when he completes his 500th parkrun on Saturday morning.
The 61-year-old is set to become the first person on the island of Ireland to reach the milestone.
Jim already has two tattoos to commemorate his parkrun achievements over the past 11 years, including one on his left calf celebrating his 250th successful run.
And on Saturday he will complete another 5k at the Waterworks in Belfast.
"Saturday will be my 500th, and I will be the first person in Ireland to do it," Jim told Belfast Live.
"My first parkrun was in January 2011, and I should have hit the 500-mark sooner but for Covid. I should have done it by October 2020 but the runs were cancelled for a number of months.
"They only returned six months ago, and I am now one away from 500.
"I have two tattoos already, one on each calf. I will have to add another one for the 500th run which I'm not looking forward to!"
Jim does most of his parkruns at the Waterworks and Falls Park, but he has also ran in Scotland, England and Ireland.
Such is his commitment to the cause, he has even broken up family holidays to stay on course.
"I have only missed a handful of runs during the past 10 or 11 years," he added.
"Even if I was on holiday, I would fly home for the parkrun on the Friday and then fly back to my holidays on the Saturday.
"At one stage there was a guy Colin Haddock who was one behind me, so there was a rivalry there. It is a fun rivalry, I don't take it serious.
"But at that stage I couldn't miss one, so I flew home from Spain two years in a row to keep up my runs."
The Belfast man has become such a hit that he is now popularly known as 'Parkrun Jim'.
"My wife is even known as Mrs Parkrun," Jim joked.
"She is well used to talking about parkruns, and when we're out and about people say hello. Half the time I don't know who the people are, but I know they do the parkrun.
"I am now known as 'ParkrunJim'. It seems to be going about social media, so it is good fun."
Jim started up running to lose some weight and improve his physical and mental health, and it wasn't long before he started taking part in the weekly parkruns.
He is now a major advocate of the popular event and believes it is an important part of community life.
"It gets people out the door. You can run it, walk it, push a pram, walk the dog. There are so many ways to do it. And it gets the whole family involved," he added.
"And the organisers encourage you to stay afterwards for a cup of tea and biscuit, and just chat to people. So a half-an-hour or hour-long run can turn into a two-hour get-together. It is great.
"I didn't start running until I was 50, just the year before I got into parkruns. I did no sport at all.
"I started running and jogging to lose weight. I was 16-and-a-half stone at the time. And I have just stuck at it.
"I have never missed a parkrun just because I don't feel like it. There is always a reason for it.
"My health has improved dramatically. I find if I miss one, it affects me. So I don't miss it. And I now hover between 13 and 13-and-a-half stone. I don't go above it."
Jim added: "I have done a few other running events like 10ks, half marathons and have done in the region of 30 marathons and one ultra-marathon.
"It is a massive part of my life and I am so glad I took up running 11 years ago.. I now run six days a week and take every Friday off."
Jim's 500th parkrun will be at the Waterworks on Saturday.
That was the location for the first-ever event of its kind in Ireland back in November, 2010.
"I wouldn't want to do it anywhere else other than the Waterworks," Jim said.
"The fella who brought it into Ireland is a man called Matt Shields, and he will be there on Saturday with his wife Ruth who are now credited with helping establish 130-140 parkruns in Ireland.
"Hopefully there will be extra cakes and buns. There will be a lot of family there on Saturday which will be nice."
As for his 5k time, Jim says he doesn't worry to much about racing against the clock anymore.
He said: "I focused on time at the start and got it down to about 20 minutes, but now I tend to run with people who need a bit of encouragement.
"So I try and jog around in about 30 minutes."
