What we’re about
Welcome to parkrun!
We organize FREE weekly timed runs all over the world. Held in pleasant parkland on weekend mornings, our runs are open to all – from juniors and first timers to Olympians and octogenarians…
It’s free
Running in a parkrun event is totally free. You don’t pay to run, ever. And every event is organised by a group of local volunteers.
It’s for everyone
Whether you’re young or old, male or female, fit or unfit, able-bodied or not, you’re always welcome. It’s not about racing, it’s about running.
It's forever
So long as we have our fantastic volunteers and backers to make it happen, our events will always be free and everyone will always be welcome!
Our story
We’re super proud of the fact our volunteer-led, free-for-all 5km runs have been taken up by so many people across so many cultures in so many countries. Of course, it was a bit more low key at the beginning…
Our first ever event was in Bushy park, Teddington, UK, where 13 intrepid parkrunners got together on 2 October 2004. The volunteer team included Paul and Joanne Sinton-Hewitt, Duncan Gaskell, Simon Hedger and Robin Drummond.
It took nearly two years before parkrun spread beyond Bushy. Wimbledon was the chosen venue and we had to prove to ourselves that we could manage more than a single event at a time. This was the start of the ‘cookie cutter’ approach to events that would allow parkrun to expand.
To begin with we collated all results on paper and the finish tokens were washers from the local hardware store! But eventually we ramped up the technology, and so the parkrun registration and barcode result system was born.
Now many thousands of runners are processed, websites updated and emails sent each week. The parkrun community is growing all the time – but it’s all still based on the simple, basic principles formed from the start: weekly, free, 5km, for everyone, forever.
