Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) events for walkers, runners and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 22 countries across five continents.
Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinton-Hewitt on 2 October 2004 at Bushy Park in London, England. The event was originally called the Bushy Park Time Trial. It grew into a network of similar events called the UK Time Trials, before adopting the name Parkrun in 2008 and expanding into other countries. The first event outside of the United Kingdom was launched in Zimbabwe in 2007, followed by Denmark in 2009, South Africa and Australia in 2011 and the United States in 2012. Sinton-Hewitt received a CBE for his services to grassroots sport in 2014. By October 2018 over 5 million runners were registered worldwide.
Events take place at a range of general locations including parks, stately homes, forests, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, beaches, promenades, prisons and nature reserves. A Parkrun milestone T-shirt is offered to volunteers and runners who have participated in a number of runs. Runners can travel to and complete any Parkrun; those that travel are termed "parkrun tourists" and can, if they wish, complete challenges.
History
Participants at Bushy Parkrun, the first event location
Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinton-Hewitt on 2 October 2004 at Bushy Park in London, England.[1] Sinton-Hewitt was born in Zimbabwe and went to Potchefstroom High School for Boys as a boarder in South Africa.[2] He became a club runner with a personal best time in the marathon of 2 hours and 36 minutes.[3] In 2004, Sinton-Hewitt was suffering from depression and unable to run due to an injury. He founded Parkrun because he wanted to continue to spend time with his running friends.[2] In a BBC Radio 4 interview he said that the idea for Parkrun came from his time in South Africa 20 years earlier where he had experienced competitive races that took place on the same course at the same time each week.[4] The first event took place at Bushy Park, and had 13 runners and three volunteers, and was managed by Sinton-Hewitt himself.
Participants lining up to start at Parkrun Łódź in Poland
The Bushy Parkrun was originally known as the Bushy Park Time Trial, and its results were timed with a stopwatch, recorded on paper while washers[clarification needed] stamped with a finish number were used as finishing tokens.[5][6] Over the next two years, the event took place every week with the number of participants and volunteers growing, and with new technology introduced to streamline the processing of results. The second Time Trial was launched at Wimbledon Common in 2007; it was here that the model of having an identical structure at different locations began.[5] That year saw a further six events established.[7] They were initially known as UK Time Trials before the "parkrun" name was adopted. Five more locations were added in 2008, including the first Parkruns in Scotland and in Wales.
The first event outside the UK was launched in Zimbabwe in 2007, though this event no longer operates. The longest-running Parkrun outside the UK was launched in Denmark in 2009. In 2010, there were 30 new events added including the first in Northern Ireland.[5] In 2011 parkrun began in South Africa and Australia, both of which have seen significant growth in event numbers, and in 2012 Parkrun USA launched. Junior Parkrun started at Bushy Park in 2013.[5] Sinton-Hewitt received a CBE in 2014 for his "services to grassroots sport".[8]
The first event at Serpukhov Parkrun in Russia
By 2015, more than 80,000 people were gathering in parks across the world each week to run, jog and walk a Parkrun – more than twice the number who take part in the annual London Marathon.[9] In 2016, 1.1 million different people completed a Parkrun and 142,000 people volunteered.[10]
In 2017 "Parkrun Global Limited", the organisation which supports global Parkrun events, became a UK registered charity.[11]
By 2018, approximately a quarter of a million runners took part weekly in 1,500 events, spread over 20 countries.[12] Parkrun events were closed from March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.[13] They resumed in England on 24 July 2021.[14]
Permanent event closures are rare. Zimbabwe was the first country to host a Parkrun outside the UK; the event started in 2007 but closed several years later. Parkrun Elliðaárdalur closed in 2012 due to operational difficulties in the winter, and Hillerød Parkrun in Denmark closed in 2013. Camp Bastion Parkrun was hosted at a military base in Afghanistan, which shut in 2014. More frequently, Parkruns have formally closed at a location, but have relocated to a venue nearby and changed name,[15] such as when changes to the layout of the adjacent car park by East Lindsey District Council which cut the course in half, forcing the closure of the Parkrun. Cambridge Parkrun (formerly held in Milton Country Park) closed after 10 years.[16]
In 2022 Parkrun changed its rules to ban dogs running with owners where a waist-harness was used; participation was instead restricted to running with one dog on a short, hand-held lead. This was due to research that showed that where participants use waist harnesses, there was an "increased risk of serious incidents, particularly trips and falls, compared to when using handheld leads." A spokesperson said "More than 10% of incidents at Parkrun events involve dogs, and as such we have spent significant time considering the nature, frequency, and severity of dog-related incidents."[17]
Event outline
Participation
A unique Parkrun I.D. is carried by the runner and scanned at the end of a run to record the completion time.
All Parkruns are 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) in length and are free to enter.[18] Anyone can take part, including walkers as well as runners. Participants include parents with their children, pensioners, people with their dogs, wheelchair users, people pushing prams, and club and casual runners, although not all courses are suitable for all participants.[19] Beginner runners, older adults and overweight people are common.[20] Visually impaired runners and walkers are also able to participate, with the aid of trained VI guides.[21][22]
They usually take place at the same time, at the same place, on the same course, once per week. There is no formal procedure before the run with participants asked to arrive shortly before the start time and wait near the starting line.[23] A run director will make announcements giving safety instructions and community news before beginning the run.[24] Participants run or walk the course and are directed by marshals along the correct route to the finish line.[25] As each runner enters the finish funnel, a volunteer records their finishing place and time. The results are uploaded to the Parkrun website, which also generates a number of statistics.[26] The results available are: finishing position for both male and female runners, finish time, whether a personal best time has been achieved, the total number of runs completed by an individual, their age grade result and their position in relation to other veteran or junior runners.[27]
To have a time recorded, runners are asked to register on the Parkrun website, print out a personal I.D. that includes a barcode and bring it to each event. Alternatively, they can download the barcode or QR code to a phone app or fitness or smart watch. Registration needs to be done just once, with the barcode valid for any subsequent Parkrun in the world.[28][29][30] Runners can still participate without registering, or if they forget to bring their personal barcode, but they will not have their time or participation recorded. If the runner does not have a barcode, their position on the finishers table will be recorded with the name "unknown" and no time. After passing the finish line, each runner is handed a "finish token" corresponding to their position. This is later scanned alongside their personal barcode, if they have one, to link their result with their Parkrun profile.[26]
The Daily Telegraph reported that "what's clever is that it’s not a race against everyone else but a timed run", and that trying to improve your personal best time is a great incentive even for slower runners.[19] The paper further explained that the success of the events is down to them being free and weekly, because it allows people to get into a routine.[31]
An article in The Daily Telegraph said that a drop in gym usage can be attributed to a backlash against gym membership fees combined with the popularity of events such as Parkrun and fitness tracking devices.[32]
Parkrun locations
Cannon Hill Parkrun in Birmingham, England, is run in a city park on tarmac footpaths.
Events take place in a range of locations and aren't restricted to parks. Venues include city parks, country parks, national parks, the grounds of stately homes, castles, forests, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, beaches, promenades, prisons, racecourses and nature reserves. The runs have different degrees of difficulty, with hilly runs harder to complete than those that are flat. The running surface varies, with many city park Parkruns being run on tarmac footpaths, closed roads, grass or a mixture of all three, while forest and country park Parkruns are more likely to be on trails. Runs that take place in hotter countries often start early in the morning to avoid excess heat.
Volunteers
Volunteers arranging a Parkrun event in Perm, Russia
Each Parkrun event is run entirely by volunteers, who are integral to its not-for-profit status.[33] There are several different volunteer roles at each Parkrun event.[34] Every event has a "volunteer" web page, with the same basic information about how to get involved as a volunteer, as well as crediting those who have made the effort in the most recent week.[35] At the outset of Parkrun, the central organisation sought to simplify the volunteering process to allow new events to be set up with a low number of volunteers; this simplification now allows new volunteers to assist with minimal training.[36]
Each event has a core team, who has received sanction from Parkrun HQ and the location owner to stage the event. The individual roles are typically filled by different volunteers each week and include: a run director who manages the event, making announcements and starting the run; course safety checkers; timekeepers; marshals; barcode scanners who scan finishing tokens; event setup and close down volunteers; pacers and tail walkers.[37]
According to Steve Flowers at the University of Kent’s business school, Parkrun is an example, along with Wikipedia, of what he calls "people’s innovation", which The Guardian explains as being "driven by users rather than producers, by volunteers rather than professionals".[38] Volunteer roles such as timekeeping and barcode scanning use a free, downloadable app to assist with the data collection and compilation.[39]
Several surveys and academic studies have shown a net beneficial effect on health and wellbeing experienced among those who volunteer regularly at Parkruns.[40][41][42]
Junior Parkrun
Junior Parkrun (stylised as junior parkrun) is a spin-off event that provides a 2 kilometres (1+1⁄4 mi) event for children aged 4–14, held on Sunday mornings. Parents and guardians are allowed to run with their children but are not eligible for a placed finish. Dogs can be brought to the event but are not allowed to run with their owners. Juniors who have completed 11, 21 or 50 junior runs are awarded a coloured wristband.[43]
When launched, Junior Parkrun was run monthly, on the first Sunday of every month, most events have converted to running weekly. Events take place on Sunday morning.[44]
Milestone clubs
The number of runs by each participant at all events is posted on the Parkrun website. "Milestone clubs" are available when a runner has completed a sufficient number of events; milestones are available at 25, 50, 100, 250 and 500 runs, and members can, if they so wish, order a colour-coded t-shirt to commemorate their achievement. The t-shirts are coloured purple, red, black, green and blue, respectively.
Juniors - those under the age of 18 - can claim a white T-shirt when they complete 10 runs, and there is a purple t-shirt for people who volunteer 25 times.[45] The milestone and volunteer t-shirts were free until September 2021, at which point they became chargeable. At this time, additional volunteer t-shirts were introduced, to align with the milestone t-shirts: 25 (purple), 50 (red), 100 (black), 250 (green) and 500 (blue).
Parkrun tourism and challenges
Runners, when they sign up on the Parkrun website, are asked to pick a "Home Parkrun", usually the one they live closest to and are likely to frequent most. Parkrun tourists are broadly defined as anyone travelling to a run that is not their home Parkrun. Tourism can involve running in a neighbouring park, town, region or even country with some runners travelling to a different run every week. [46][47][48]
Parkrun challenges involve completing a number of different runs in a particular way which are personally meaningful but not officially recorded. These include "Londone" which is completing all of the Parkruns in London.[49] The "alphabeteer" is running a Parkrun beginning with each letter of the alphabet[50] and light hearted challenges such as the Bee Gees themed "Stayin' Alive" which is completing three runs beginning with B and three beginning with G.[51] A Google Chrome and Firefox extension details further challenges such as "Groundhog Day" which is running the same time at the same Parkrun location in two consecutive weeks and "Regionnaire" which is to complete all of the Parkruns in any region.[52]
Individual running records
Female record holder: Ciara Mageean on 23 December 2023 with a time of 15:13 at Victoria Park Parkrun in Belfast, Ireland.[53][54]
Male record holder: Andrew Butchart with a time of 13:45 at Cramond/Silverknowes course in Edinburgh on 24 June 2023.[55]
Age-graded record holder: Fauja Singh set 179.04% at Valentines Parkrun on 31 March 2012 (the day before his 101st birthday) with a time of 38:34.[56]
Global record holder for highest number of runs: Darren Wood with 860 runs (as of 30 August 2023).[57]
Global record holder for the highest number of different events: Paul Freyne with 638 different Parkrun locations (as of 12 September 2023).[57]
Funding
Parkrun events are free of charge to participants and run principally by volunteers. Parkrun income comes from sponsorship and grants, with commercial income from apparel, wristbands, and accessories. Parkrun Global Limited receives all funds, it is a registered charity in England and Wales and in 2022 it reported income of £5.5m with expenditure of £4.3m.[58]
Reception
A 2013 article in The Guardian noted the rapid growth of Parkrun and suggested this was mainly due to its simplicity and accessibility: runners register online once, turn up at any event, and run.[7] Inclusivity is also a factor,[59] as participants have a wide range of running abilities, from fast club runners to those walking, a wide range of ages from children running with their parents to the elderly; also allowed are wheelchair users, those pushing buggies and people running with their dog.
Writing in The Independent in 2018, Jonathan Liew, their Chief Sports Writer, said "parkrun is not simply one of the biggest sporting events in the world, but one of the most important, largely because it entirely upends what we have long been told sport is about."[12] He discusses how sport has become ever more something the public pay to watch, packaged ever more expensively, with the sports people's lives tipping over into light entertainment, concluding with the comment "parkrun offers something entirely different: community, opportunity, the outdoors, the simple pleasure of sport and people. In so doing, it has resurrected a vision of sport that has been in recession for a generation."[12]
Research
The Journal of Public Health reported in a 2013 study upon 7,308 Parkrun participants that the events were attractive to people who described themselves as non-runners; with women, older adults and overweight people well represented. It added that participation problems have been minimized, with no upper age limit, no special equipment and no cost. And that while some participants ran before a Parkrun, some are new to exercise, and Parkrun offered the opportunity and support to become active on a continuous weekly basis.[20]
A 2015 qualitative study by the University of Loughborough found that runners attending a Parkrun for the first time were typically motivated for weight loss or an improvement in their physical fitness.[60] On the other hand, there were a range of different motivations for runners to continue regularly taking part, with runners wanting; to beat their personal record time; to reach a certain number of runs and join a milestone club; to enjoy being outdoors at the park; to make new friends through volunteering or to meet existing friends or family for the run.[60]
Community
Health initiatives
Parkrun endeavours to promote health and wellbeing through a number of initiatives. Its mission statement is "a healthier and happier planet".[61][62] In the UK, Parkrun has partnered with the Royal College of General Practitioners in order to promote healthy living through increased physical activity, socialisation and mutual support.[63][64]
In Ireland, the long-running Operation Transformation TV show has partnered with Parkrun on several occasions, encouraging viewers to join local Parkruns that held special Couch-to-5k programmes to coincide with the series.[65]
Relations with local authorities
Most events are run with the support and sometimes the sponsorship of local authorities. A notable conflict occurred at Little Stoke Parkrun. Parkrun does not set up events where charges would apply to the organisers or runners.[9] Little Stoke Parkrun had begun with the council's permission in November 2012.[66] In April 2016 the responsible parish council in Stoke Gifford, Bristol, England, voted to charge runners a fee to participate.[67] Despite an online petition and support from the Minister for Sport, the council would not change its decision, so the Parkrun was permanently cancelled.[68] In April 2017 the British Government proposed that, in future, local councils in England would not be allowed to charge for Parkruns in a public park.[69]
Events around the world
Australia
The first Australian Parkrun event was held at Main Beach, on the Gold Coast, on 2 April 2011.[70]ABC News, remarking on Parkrun Australia, said "there are competitive runners aiming to win but there are just as many people running for the fun of it. If people want to race each other, that's fine, they can, but if you want to walk that is fine too. Everyone is welcome, from kids to grandparents, it's one of the few sporting events that a family can do together."[71] The two biggest Parkruns in Australia are South Bank in Brisbane, Queensland and Albert Park Lake in Melbourne, Victoria, the two having alternating attendance records over the years with South Bank holding the current record of 1,010 participants set on Christmas Day, 25 December 2019.[72]
Germany
The first three parkruns in Germany were Georgengarten parkrun in Hannover, Küchenholz parkrun in Leipzig and Neckarau parkrun in Mannheim, when they all hosted their first event on 2 December 2017. When Aachener Weiher parkrun started in Cologne, it became the first parkrun in the alphabetical list of all parkruns.
Ireland
The first run in Ireland was at Malahide Castle on 10 November 2012. The rollout of Parkruns in Ireland was assisted by funding from the government's Department of Health with the aim of empowering local communities and encouraging individuals and families to lead active lives. The record attendance was at Marlay Parkrun on 21 January 2017 when there were 795 runners.[73]
Japan
Parkrun was introduced for the first time to Japan on 6 April 2019, by the Futako-Tamagawa Parkrun event in Tokyo. There are now 24 events held every Saturday morning in Japan.[74]
The first Polish Parkrun took place in Gdynia on 15 Oct 2011. Poland has the first Parkrun to cross the border of another country. Cieszyn Parkrun starts in Poland but crosses into the Czech Republic before returning to Poland.[75] The record attendance was at Poznan Parkrun on 27 December 2015 when there were 1111 runners.[76]
Russia
Parkrun in Russia began simultaneously at Kolomenskoe Parkrun and Severnoe Tushino Parkrun on 1 March 2014.[77] Parkrun Yakutsk Dohsun takes place in Yakutsk, which has an average daily temperature of −8.8 °C (16.2 °F).[78]
Parkrun South Africa was started and promoted by ultramarathoner Bruce Fordyce.[80] The first Parkrun took place at Delta Park in Johannesburg on 12 November 2011 and had 26 participants. It is now one of the larger Parkruns regularly drawing up to 1200 runners and attracting tourists as the first one in the nation.[81] The world record attendance was at North Beach, Durban, which saw 2527 runners on 20 January 2018.[82]
United States
The first parkrun event in the United States was in Livonia, Michigan on 2 June 2012. There are 63 active events (as of 22 July 2023), with five of these clustered in the Washington DC Area.
Festive and special events
There are festive and special events which do not necessarily occur on a Saturday. Each country chooses its own special event days, which are held optionally by local Parkrun teams - i.e., they will not be run at every Parkrun location. Generally, where such special events are held, they are Parkruns on Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and/or national holidays in their respective countries.[83]
List of Parkrun event countries
Parkrun is held in 26 of the 28 different countries and territories listed below as of 6 December 2022.
‡ Parkrun events in France were suspended from July 2022 due to legal issues regarding medical certification.[111]
¶ Parkrun events in Russia were suspended from March 2022 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Parkrun CEO Russ Jefferys explained the suspension, saying the war "directly conflicts with our charitable objective of promoting health and happiness across the world" and that Parkrun volunteers "should not be put in a position in which they are forced to justify why parkrun events remain open or have to explain their personal politics in a country where that would put them at risk".[79]
List of junior Parkrun event countries
The following table lists countries which host junior Parkrun as of 28 August 2022:
^Run under the jurisdiction of parkrun UK are 6 events which take place on British islands and territories outside of what is technically the UK, so the total has been reduced accordingly. UK events include those for Jersey, Guernsey & Isle of Man which each have 1 event and are Crown Dependencies. British Overseas Territories have 3 events; 2 in the Falkland Islands and 1 on Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus.
^Run under the jurisdiction of parkrun South Africa are those for Namibia (3) and Eswatini (2), the total for South Africa has been reduced accordingly.
^The Cieszyn parkrun course includes a section that crosses the border into neighbouring Czech Republic and is therefore the only parkrun event that takes place across 2 countries;
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