The founder of parkrun has said that a million events was "never in the plan" as the charity prepares to reach the milestone this weekend. Paul Sinton-Hewitt organized the first parkrun—then called Bushy Park Time Trial—in October 2004 at Bushy Park in London, with just 13 runners and five volunteers.
Since then, it has grown into a global community of free, weekly, timed 5km runs on Saturdays and 2km junior runs on Sundays, with over 2,800 event 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 after parkrun started "just don't understand a world where parkrun doesn't exist. It's like knowing that you have breakfast every morning. It's so part of their lives." 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. "I think the positive message from that is 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 as a spectator. Mr Sinton-Hewitt expressed his desire to meet the King and have him involved more regularly, calling the royal visit "a huge accolade for parkrun." He attributed parkrun's success to its simplicity, inclusivity, and the fact that it is free. "For somebody who's coming to running for the first time... a barrier gets taken away," he said.
The first parkrunner to complete 1,000 parkruns, Darren Wood, reached the milestone last month. Mr Sinton-Hewitt, who has completed 614 parkruns, said 1,000 "feels a million miles away" but he might achieve it by age 80. 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," he explained. "The fact we've introduced these milestones at every 100, it makes sense."
Although his knees prevent him from running much, Mr Sinton-Hewitt still walks and volunteers. "The one thing that's still consistent is I still love parkrun and I still love being there," he said. Elizabeth Duggan, CEO of parkrun Global, called hitting one million events "just phenomenal." She outlined ambitious plans to expand from 23 to 30 countries by 2030 and increase weekly participation from half a million to three-quarters of a million. Parkrun is also launching its first health and inclusion strategy in the UK. "We know that we want to reach more people globally, but we also know that we need to reach more and different people," she said, emphasizing that parkrun is a charity reliant on support through participation and donations.
