Long before he was winning European track and cross-country medals at under-23 level, a teenage Nick Griggs turned up to a Saturday morning parkrun in East Belfast and casually ran the fastest ever parkrun time on Irish soil.
It was October 15th, 2022, and the then 17-year-old Cookstown High School student tore around the Victoria Park parkrun in 14 minutes 15 seconds.
It wasn’t just a course best, it was the fastest parkrun ever recorded anywhere in Ireland.
Speaking to Belfast Live at the time, Griggs brushed it off with trademark understatement:
“It was kind of just another day at the office, you take what you can get obviously and it’s brilliant to break the record,” he said. “There was no need for me to push incredibly hard, I definitely could have gone quicker. It’s just good to know you’re in shape.”
He even admitted he didn’t realise the scale of it until afterwards.
“I thought it was a course record but apparently it’s the fastest parkrun in Ireland so that was a welcome surprise,” he told Belfast Live.
That easy confidence has carried him ever since. Griggs had already announced himself the previous summer with European Under-20 gold in the 3000m in Tallinn, Estonia, and his progress since has been remarkable.
In November 2024, he went one better by setting a new world parkrun record, running 13:45 and finally ticking off the goal he joked about back in 2022. A month later, he claimed silver in the Under-23 race at the European Cross Country Championships, before adding another European silver on the track in the 5000m during the summer of 2025.
It’s easy to forget that, on that cold, windy morning in East Belfast, Griggs was still just a teenager turning up for a bit of fun.
“I don’t know if I’ll do another one this year but I’d definitely like to come back and aim for under 14 minutes,” he said back then. “I think the world record is 13:48 so hopefully in the not-too-distant future that’s something I can aim for.”
Two years later, he did exactly that.
Image: Victoria Park parkrun