A free 5km Time Trial that takes place in more than 20 countries around the world on Saturday mornings, the phenomenal success that is known as parkrun has a global community of more than one million runners today.
But despite its success today, parkrun had very humble beginnings. Founded by Paul Sinton-Hewitt, 58, it began at Bushy Park in West London, United Kingdom, back in October 2004.
The Inspiration Behind parkrun
How did he originally come up with the inspiration to start parkrun?
Said Paul, “Back in 2004, I was a little injured running and I thought, what would be the one thing to get my friends, who are mostly runners, come down and meet me every week? I had a beautiful park called Bushy Park where I lived, so I invited my friends, and asked them to invite their friends in turn. 13 runners came that day, eight from my running club and five whom I did not know. So it had started from selfish motives as I wanted to see my friends each week.”
With Paul, founder of Parkrun.
Paul could never have imagined that his then “selfish act” all those years ago could ever have changed the global running landscape for good and started a fitness revolution not only in the United Kingdom where he lives, but in fact, all around the world.
He said, “I never expected parkrun to be so successful. Originally, I just planned to have that one event. It has taken a very long time and it was a gradual process building parkrun and each week that goes past, parkrun gets bigger with more events being held.”
Continued Paul, “So it has actually been an organic growth where I not only learnt a lot about myself, but also what people want and what is good for the society. When we expanded to two events in 2007, that was the first time that I realised that anyone could be a part of parkrun, that it could take place at any park so it was when I thought, ok let’s start to make it bigger.”
Blown Away With parkrun’s Success
Now Paul is completely blown away by the global community that has rallied around parkrun. He said, “Here we are now, in 2018 and around the world, parkrun has become amazing and I could never have expected this, when we started it.”
Besides Paul’s home ground in London, of the countries that parkrun today is held, include Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa, just to name a few.
Paul Did The East Coast Park parkrun
I had been speaking to Paul at my home parkrun event, the East Coast Park parkrun. The founder had chosen to drop by for a short visit here, where he had experienced a tropical weather parkrun.
With Paul and one of the run directors of the East Coast Park parkrun.
Said Paul, “I landed in Singapore yesterday at 5pm and here, the parkrun starts at 7.30am in the morning. It was very, very humid when we started, but I thought that I could run my normal time. I started out as if I was going to run my normal time, but when I u-turned at the 2.7km mark, I knew that I had already given my best and from there, it was just a matter of hanging on till the end of the run. It was very humid.”
Continued Paul, “I guess that you never really get used to the weather here, but if you have lived here for a while, you get more accustomed to running in the humidity.”
Me and running buddy Krys.
When Paul had been introduced as the founder of parkrun, he immediately became a mini-celebrity amongst all the runners present this weekend, and he was swamped by selfie and photo requests.
The parkrun Tourist
Paul’s visit to run at East Coast Park parkrun would also classify him as a “parkrun Tourist” during his parkrun experience here.
With the number of countries and cities that parkrun is being staged at nowadays, it is quite commonplace for regular parkrun runners to look out for a parkrun in their destination country to “visit” the event there whenever they go overseas for holiday, thus the coining of such a term.
In fact, I myself have visited a couple of overseas parkrun events myself, at the Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as well as the Cornwall Park parkrun in Auckland, New Zealand, and I had an amazing time at both of these, interacting with the local parkrunners there.
In fact, regardless of where I was, I felt very welcomed by the friendly and cheerful locals, who had indeed treated me as one of their own. I look forward to experiencing another parkrun when I visit London, England, in April.
Said Paul, “The tourist concept is wonderful. Today I could see it at East Coast Park parkrun as much as any other parkrun in the world. It goes to show that we all feel immediately at home when we see another parkrun runner; you may be in a foreign land, but you know what to expect from us and you accept us into your group as though we are family. So it becomes an addictive thing to meet and be with all these other people whom you do not know, but become friends with the minute that you meet.”
He continued, “Also, there is this concept of collecting parkruns all over the world as well as challenges like the parkrun alphabet challenge, which injects a bit of fun into things.”
Paul himself has done about 200 different parkruns all around the world to date. He said, “They are all different yet at the same time, all the same. That is the most wonderful thing about parkrun.”
His Favourite Parkrun
Considering that he has done so many parkruns, does Paul have a favourite event, or a parkrun that he sees as the ‘easiest’?
He said, “I am not allowed to name a ‘best’ parkrun, although Busby is my home parkrun and the one that I started, so that one has always been special to me.”
Paul continued, “Generally I do not think that there is such a thing as an easy 5km run, because when you are running 5km, it is a hard run so it always feels very hard. Oh the route does make a difference though whether it is hilly or flat. Some people like the undulating hills and terrain as they can rest and slow down when going uphill, but today’s East Coast Park parkrun was completely flat meaning that you had the work the whole time; there was no rest.”
Main Draw Of parkrun
But what is the main draw about parkrun, in the first place, that so many people would be willing to wake up to run the 5km on Saturday mornings, though?
Said Paul, “Actually, I think that nobody ever wants to really wake up early to do a 5km. This parkrun community is more about friends and being healthy and socialising, more than anything else, it is a warm community that you want to be a part of, and there are no barriers to joining. We do not ask you to pay anything, so once you have discovered parkrun and see how easy and welcoming it is, it becomes addictive and you want to be with these people each week.”
parkrun Has Changed Peoples’ Lives
And Paul is grateful that his “selfish idea”, in a way, has encouraged so many people to turn their lives around by including regular physical activities.
He said, “Being active is important and running is one of the ways of being active. I am not saying you have to run; you can walk or cycle or whatever. To be honest, too, 5km once a week will not change who you are, but rather, it is the starting point to being more healthy. I think that what happens is that you when come to parkrun and run the 5km, you realise that you have fun and you want to come again and again. Then when you come more often, you start falling in love with running and start adding more runs to your week, say beginning with Wednesday, then it becomes Mondays and Wednesdays, and then finally Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.”
Continued Paul, “So this means that ultimately people are getting fitter. They do not all stay with running though – some may go and play football or other sport, but the brilliant and positive thing about parkrun is that it has helped so many different people, to find the best person that they can be, through exercise.”
Alternative Medicine Prescribed By Doctors
In fact, parkrun today is even becoming a form of “alternative medicine” recognised by doctors in some parts of the world, too.
Said Paul, “The growth of parkrun is the most phenomenal thing ever. I think that in the really well developed communities like the United Kingdom, we are starting to do things that are really important where our doctors are even prescribing parkrun to people who have mild conditions; telling them to volunteer or walk there, or possibly even run, and it is helping people to address their emotional, mental and non life threatening conditions in a more gentle way without drugs and stuff. So you start to see the value of what parkrun can do, for larger communities.”
He continued, “Now we are even starting to have parkrun in prisons and that is helping people who are in possibly the worst place on their lives, to find some meaning and find a way to re-integrate with society when they come out.”
Main Challenges parkrun Has Faced
But parkrun did not always have such a strong standing in the community though.
Shared Paul, “At the beginning, the authorities who looked after athletics saw us as a threat and they did not want us to upset what they had created. Of course parkrun is not purely an athletics platform; it is much more than that. But the official athletics bodies did not see it that way at the beginning. Today parkrun has helped a lot of people who want to be part of the athletics scene, to find a way to fit in.”
He added, “These days we still face challenges but they are more about getting permission to run on the land; we do not ever pay for access to the parks because parkrun is an entirely volunteer-led community where nobody pays anything. It is all about community and this is what we need to convince the parks of.”
In all the different cities that parkrun is located at, Paul sees the parkrun as being a part of the local running community, and does not like the idea of “differentiating” parkrun from the many other social running groups that have been springing up in these areas of late. For example, in Singapore alone, there are countless running groups who meet during all days of the week.
Said Paul, “I do not like to set parkrun apart. I like to think that we are a part of the community and part of those activities atet go in society. We do not want to stand apart. We want to instead believe that we are doing our part to make society better and we would welcome anyone who takes the same approach. We wish to remove all the barriers and get people active, and do it in the best possible way that helps these societies to improve themselves, as a whole.”
Feels Thankful And Privileged
Nonetheless, all in all, Paul is thankful and feels privileged that he has had the honour of starting Parkrun and seeing how it has impacted communities.
Said Paul, “I am delighted to have been the person who founded parkrun. It is a huge honour and I am always reminded of how wonderful it is to have so many runners and volunteers making this happen across the world.”
He added, “Today we will have nearly 300,000 people participating in parkrun across more than 20 countries and that is a big number, that will only get bigger. So I am totally in awe of what parkrun has done and how this has grown and how peoples’ lives have changed, as well as the effect that parkrun has had on the world.”
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