Many people in the Carlisle area know Deryck Hutchinson. If they don’t know his name, they recognise the running man.

Six days a week, all around the city, Deryck is difficult to miss with his pink kit and pink hair.

Even those who are used to seeing him might be surprised by the extent of his healthy obsession.

Deryck has run 67 marathons and 265 half marathons.

He has also completed 105 other races, ranging from five miles to 20 miles. That’s a very grand total of 437 races, and counting.

“I still enjoy running as much as ever,” he says. “You see the countryside. You’re getting fresh air. I feel a lot better after a run. It’s better than sitting in a pub.”

The walls of Deryck’s flat near Carlisle city centre are covered in memories. Ten display boards are filled with medals he’s received for finishing races.

There is also an empty board, ready to be filled. Deryck reckons that will take two or three years.

Some races give each finisher a mug or a trophy. Dozens of these live in a kitchen cupboard.

Back in his living room, the gaps between the display boards are crammed with photos and drawings of cities where Deryck has run.

The countries include Italy, Hungary, Norway, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

His favourite is Italy. Deryck has completed the Venice Marathon twice. His favourite race was Milan.

“I liked running past the gold-coloured cathedral,” he says. “That was spectacular.”

Closer to home, Deryck has done the Cumbrian Run 12 times. He has completed the same number of London Marathons.

Deryck works casual shifts at Carlisle’s Royal Mail sorting office.

He also volunteers at the Oxfam shop in the city centre, and has raised money for various charities.

He trains six days a week. His longest run is on Sundays, when he goes between 13 and 25 miles.

Deryck reckons that in races and in training, he has run about 130,000 miles: the equivalent of five-and-a-quarter times around the world.

Some days he runs alone. Once a week he trains with local clubs DH Runners and Sands Centre runners. Deryck also trains at the Sands gym.

He has never been the fastest runner. These days, he takes between two hours and two-and-a-quarter hours to complete a half marathon.

A full marathon - 26.2 miles - takes him between four-and-a-half and five-and-a-half hours.

But Deryck is a stayer. Of those 437 races, he has finished every one.

“I’m proud of that,” he says. “I just carry on. You’ve got to be dedicated and determined to finish the race. It doesn’t matter how long you take.”

The thought of the medal waiting at the finish line is an incentive: the chance to add to those walls of memories.

Not that he can’t remember the races anyway, being blessed with a remarkable mind.

“I’ve always been able to remember things. It’s like having a database in your brain.

“I can get in the car and go to wherever I’m going to without a satnav. I look at an atlas once or twice and it’s memorised.

“I know all the postcodes in the UK. All the motorways in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.”

He took up running in 1985, to lose weight. He was 14st 2lb. Now he’s 11st.

“I feel a lot healthier,” he says. “I eat healthily.”

As well as fitness and memories, running has also given him friends.

“There’s a group of about 30 to 40 people from Chippenham who I sometimes see abroad. I also see a chap from Birmingham and one from Chorley and another from Wolverhampton and a woman from Glasgow.

“When I was at Tallin, Estonia, the night after the marathon we went to a pub then had a meal and did karaoke. Maybe I’ll go on The X Factor or The Voice next!”

Back home Deryck says he is widely known as “Pinky” or “Pinky Deryck”, thanks to his pink running gear and hair.

At home he has pink carpets, cushions and walls. Even his toaster, kettle and microwave are pink.

“Pink has always been my favourite colour. My hair has been that colour for about five years.”

There’s plenty of crowd support for him in local races, which helps to spur him on.

And he remembers the Midnight Sun Marathon in the Norwegian city of Tromso.

Runners’ names were written on their bibs and strangers shouted support.

That race started at 8.30pm and Deryck finished at 1.15am.

“Tromso has 24-hour daylight in June. It gives you a funny feeling, like coming out of a nightclub and finding daylight.”

Other exotic memories include running under the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and seeing Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Venice.

For anyone thinking of taking up running, Deryck advises: “Start training slowly and work up. Join a club.

“You have good and bad days when you run. You can’t expect every day to run smoothly.”

Deryck has been lucky with injuries, suffering little more than the occasional hamstring strain.

He says that people are surprised when they realise how many races he’s run.

Does he know anyone who has run more?

“I did ask a chap, five years ago gone May. He said he’d done 262 half marathons.

“He said he knew someone who had done 300 but I haven’t heard anything else about that.”

Deryck’s target is to run 100 marathons and 300 half marathons.

In typically methodical fashion, he reckons that reaching those tallies would take him in the region of 16 to 18 years.

That’s if he maintains his current average of two full marathons a year, and four or five half marathons.

And after reaching those targets? “I’ll carry on if I can.”

There will be more medals to add to those on the display boards: the Isle of Man, Sheffield, St Ives, Venice. A metallic map of Britain and beyond.

This year Deryck has run two marathons: in Blackpool and in Tallin.

His most recent half marathon was in Lancaster two weeks ago.

The next will be Inskip, Lancashire, in January.

“I’m just glad to have done them all,” says Deryck, looking at his walls, and back through the years.