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# The joy of parkrun
- URL: https://violet-wood.ghost.io/the-joy-of-parkrun/
- Published: 2026-09-05T09:47:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-05T09:47:20.000Z
- Author: Violet Wood
- Tags: Fitness and sport

In 2004, a man called Paul Sinton-Hewitt got out his stopwatch and timed about a dozen friends running a 5K round Bushy Park in London on a Saturday morning. He had no idea where this would go but he committed himself to being there every week to watch it develop.

Now, over 20 years later, the parkrun has become a global phenomenon. There are nearly 3,000 parkruns in 20 countries. Almost half (over 1,400) are in the UK. Australia comes next (over 500), followed by South Africa (over 200). Almost everywhere, the event starts at 9.00am local time on a Saturday. And it’s every Saturday throughout the year. Participating countries also offer parkrun on two additional days: New Year’s Day, and another day of their choice. In the UK and several other countries, this is Christmas Day. Nearly 8 million people have taken part as runners, and over 1 million as volunteers.

This is an astonishing success story. What is it about parkrun that makes it so attractive to so many people worldwide?

1\. It provides an opportunity for regular exercise at one of the shortest running distances. Everyone knows that regular exercise is good for both the mind and the body. Motivating yourself and finding time can be difficult if you run on your own. But parkrun has a structure and a community. It’s always there, it’s always organised for you, and all you have to do is turn up.

2\. It’s free. Not many organised mass-participation events can say that. Obviously there are costs, notably for the central administration and IT support, but these are paid for through sponsorship, the sale of parkrun merchandise, and donations. 

3\. There is a tremendous community spirit. Parkrun brings people together. It’s not a race (although people can compete against themselves) and everyone is made welcome. That includes children, and dogs on leads, as long as they run with a responsible adult. One encouraging development is parkwalking, for people who can walk the 5K course but don’t feel up to running it.

4\. Volunteering is encouraged. Parkrun could not happen without all the volunteers who set up the course, act as car park stewards, provide a briefing for first-timers, stand as marshals on the course to direct the runners, time them as they come in, and so on. Both the organisers and the runners are grateful for the volunteers and they show it every week. And from the volunteers’ perspective, it’s nice to be appreciated, and it has its own feel-good factor.

5\. Parkrun is a statistician’s paradise. The results of each individual event are posted online within a few hours of the event taking place. And parkrun is organised the same way everywhere, so statistics are comparable worldwide. Each runner has access to a complete record of their performance in all the events they have taken part in, anywhere in the world. And it’s possible to track your friends’ progress as well.

Parkrun passed me by at first. It simply did not impinge on my consciousness. I did not start until late in 2024, when, encouraged by a friend, I ran my first parkrun at Alice Holt forest in Hampshire. It was not long before I was taking part almost every week. In a period of less than two years, I have taken part on 80 occasions, 50 times as a runner and 30 times as a volunteer. I do enjoy volunteering but wasn’t planning to volunteer so often. This happened because I have had a number of injuries in that time, and could not run as often as I wanted.

How do you decide where to run? There are two basic approaches. Some people run at their local event the whole time. That’s easy to organise, and certainly rhythmic. This is a good way to develop a network of friends, by doing the same thing every week in the same place.

The other approach is to become a parkrun tourist and run at a different event each time. This is my own approach. I have never run the same event twice. It takes a bit more organising, because there’s more travel involved. On the other hand, it’s an incentive to go to places you might not otherwise see. I have travelled to many parts of England, and also further north to Scotland and across the Channel to the Netherlands. Also, it’s inherently more interesting. No two parkrun events are the same. For example, York parkrun is one lap of York Racecourse, totally flat, on a wide paved track all the way. In contrast, Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Hampshire is very hilly, and all off-road within the forest boundary.

Parkrun has many challenge activities to give people a focus. The most popular of these is the Alphabet challenge. This is to visit a parkrun whose name begins with every letter of the alphabet. There are 25 of these. The missing letter is X – there are no parkruns beginning with X anywhere in the world. UK runners have the advantage in the Alphabet challenge because there are so many events in a relatively small country. The most difficult to obtain is Z, because the UK has no Z parkruns. So you have to travel to a different country for these. The nearest is the Netherlands, which has 5 of the Z parkruns. Poland and Germany have a number of Zs as well.

Today I reached two milestones. I completed 50 parkruns and I completed my second alphabet. I wanted to do something special for the occasion so I travelled to Amsterdam and ran Jagersplas parkrun. It was very satisfying. 

What happens next? I am planning to begin again, on my third alphabet, and work towards the next official parkrun milestone which is 100 parkruns.

Parkrun is a great way to start the weekend. I can’t recommend it highly enough.