It’s our third birthday!

“Happy birthday to us… Happy birthday to us… Happy birthday dear Goats… Happy birthday to us!”

We are three!

Today, Wednesday 6 May* is Lonely Goat Running Club’s third birthday and we wish each and every one of you a very happy birthday.

You – yes you, dear reader – make Lonely Goat what it is: An open, inclusive community that welcomes all runners who run alone through choice or necessity. We support and inspire each other to achieve our goals together.

Whether you’ve been with us since day one, or have only just found us; whether you are a frequent poster on our social media channels, or dip in and out occasionally; whether you wear club kit on every run, or prefer to go incognito; whether you’re a racing snake, or like to do your own thing; it doesn’t matter – we think you’re great.

It is the rich, varied, multitude of members that make Lonely Goat the running club that it is. It’s been an exciting three years and we can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Together, we’ve achieved some great things over the past 1,096 days. These are some of our proudest moments:

• We have more members affiliated with England Athletics than any other running club, making us the largest in the UK;
• We have 4,258 parkrunners, more than any of the other 6,779 clubs globally (growing from just a handful at our first ever parkrun);
• Lonely Goats have run over 150,000 parkruns, which is almost 50,000 more than any other club;
• On the 4th January 2020, Lonely Goat members set a record of attending 421 different parkruns, all over the world, on one day;
• There have been five different versions of the club vest, with the current kit now being made from Repreve, a fabric made from recycled plastic – just one step on our journey to being the most ethical, sustainable club we can be;
• More than 20,000 people are now out there wearing club kit, which means spotting a fellow Goat in the wild is no longer such a rare occurrence;
• We have posted club kit to 15 different countries, making us a truly international club;
• We are the winner of the Best Running Club at the Women’s Running Awards in 2019.

Thank you – and happy birthday! We hope you have a lovely day.

*If you’re wondering how we decided on this date, it is the anniversary of the first appearance of Lonely Goat Running Club at Poole parkrun on Saturday 6 May 2017 – the public unveiling of a brand new club.