Parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt has said that reaching one million events was “never in the plan” as the charity prepares to hit the milestone this weekend.
The first parkrun, then called Bushy Park Time Trial, took place in October 2004 at Bushy Park in London with just 13 runners and five volunteers. It has since grown into a global community of free, weekly, timed 5km runs on Saturdays and 2km junior runs on Sundays, with over 2,800 locations across 23 countries.
“To have done a million events, there isn’t a single event organisation in the world apart from parkrun who might be even close to that,” said Mr Sinton-Hewitt, 65. “Nobody ever thought we would get to a million. It was never in the plan. But of course now the next million’s going to come so much quicker. It’s not going to be 20 years, that’s for sure.”
He described the numbers as “extraordinary” and noted that many people born since parkrun began cannot imagine a world without it. “It’s like knowing that you have breakfast every morning. It’s so part of their lives,” he said.
Mr Sinton-Hewitt, who now lives near Horsham, Sussex, said he is not involved in the day-to-day running of parkrun and hopes to retire within a year or so. “I think the positive message from that is I think that we have such a great team right now that I’m in a position to consider retirement. The only involvement I should have is where the team wants me to be involved, and I think that the future of parkrun is safe and secure.”
In January, King Charles attended Sandringham parkrun in Norfolk as a spectator. Mr Sinton-Hewitt said, “I’d love to meet the King, I’d love to have them involved on a more regular basis. But the fact he chose to go down to Sandringham parkrun and to cheer everybody on, that is a huge accolade for parkrun and we’re very, very proud of that.”
He attributed parkrun’s success to its simplicity and inclusivity. “For somebody who’s coming to running for the first time… a barrier gets taken away,” he said.
Darren Wood became the first parkrunner to complete 1,000 parkruns last month. Mr Sinton-Hewitt, who has completed 614 parkruns, said 1,000 “feels a million miles away” but added, “maybe when I turn 80 I’ll get it”.
Parkrun is introducing new milestone T-shirts for every 100 parkruns. “The one thing that we do at parkrun is we try to celebrate everything, regardless of your PB,” Mr Sinton-Hewitt said. “The fact we’ve introduced these milestones at every 100, it makes sense.”
He admitted he is “not running much any more because (the) knees just can’t do it” but still tries to walk and volunteer. “The one thing that’s still consistent is I still love parkrun and I still love being there,” he said.
Elizabeth Duggan, chief executive officer of parkrun Global, called hitting one million events “just phenomenal”. She said parkrun has “massive ambitions for the future”, including expanding from 23 to 30 countries by 2030. “We have about half a million participants every single weekend globally and we believe by 2030 we will be hitting three quarters of a million,” she said.
She also announced parkrun’s first health and inclusion strategy in the UK, aiming to reach more and different people. She stressed that parkrun is a charity and “can only exist if people continue to support us” through participation or donations.
