WHEN Neil Tiley lines up with other athletes today it will be his 333rd park run.

And it takes place on the third day of the third month.

So the father of three from Freshbrook chose to run the momentous race at the at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, because the 5k course is three laps - meaning it will be all the threes.

Neil, who was one of the first athletes to take part in the Swindon park run at Lydiard, decided to see if he could line everything up a few weeks ago when he realised his 333rd outing was approaching.

“Over the Christmas period I was looking through dates and I was thinking: ‘If I could do every single park run it is going to work out,’” he told the Advertiser.

Neil, who works for Swindon Borough Council in the chapel at Kingsdown crematorium, rediscovered his love of running when he received an email asking for volunteers to set up Swindon park run at Lydiard in 2010. He turned up for the second event to find there were more volunteers than runners.

It had been years since he had done any serious running, apart from some cross-country races when he was at school.

And for a long time his main hobby was cycle racing. “I used to think of myself as an above average cyclist at the time. I never, ever thought of myself as a runner,” he said.

But in March 2010, after seeing the run at Lydiard, he decided to start running and today will mark the eighth anniversary of his first event.

Since then he’s taken part in runs and races all around the region and even further afield, including the London Marathon. He has also won the over-60s section of the Wiltshire Off-road League. “If it wasn’t for park run then I wouldn’t have been doing all these things,” he said.

He ran his 50th in September 2012 and in 2013 joined the Slinn Allstars.

He has twice braved the Pewsey Terminator, which takes runners on a tough course including hill climbs and river crossings. And later this month he is tackling the Grizzly down in Devon – a gruelling 20-mile race that takes them through waist-high bogs, up and down steep cliff paths and over sections of pebble beach. And last year he did Runvember, joining Wootton Bassett Hounds to help him keep going.

Neil plans to keep on enjoying his running and his eventual goal is to reach 500 park runs.

“It’s more than running. It’s the social afterwards and the camaraderie,” he explained.

For runners wanting to join in, both Swindon and Cirencester park runs start at 9am.