On Saturday 2nd October, 2004 a man named Paul Sinton-Hewitt gathered together a small handful of friends to go for a run and then have coffee afterwards. Paul had been feeling lonely and really wanted some company, so being an ideas man and a runner, this was his solution; running and post-run chatting.
The initial event was called the Bushy Time Trial because it was run in Bushy Park, in London and he organised to have the event timed and properly recorded.
Over time the number of people who showed up grew and soon others convinced him that this time-trial kind of event needed to be run in more locations. A few years later it was re-named parkrun (all one word, all lowercase), I guess because it was people getting together and running in parks.
Between 2009 and 2020, twenty two other countries joined the ranks when they launched one or more parkruns. And while there was a temporary shut down of all parkruns globally during 2020, and into 2021 in some countries, slowly but surely parkrun has been restarting its events.
As parkrun in each country has started to find its feet again, new parkrun locations are being regularly added. In Australia alone we've had approximately one new parkrun launch every 2 or 3 weeks this year bringing the current total number of locations to hold a parkrun event (in Australia) to 428.
parkrun is described as a free, weekly, timed community event. It attracts everyone from super speedy runners, to slow walkers and everyone in between. It's run entirely by volunteer teams with a tiny contingent of paid staff keeping the whole show together.
I first heard about parkrun in January 2018 when I was running with a bunch of fast runners in the heart of Sydney City. It took me until I was travelling around South East Queensland in August that year to finally go along to my first parkrun. After that is was all on!
I went to 23 different locations before I finally got sick of not having a local community and started doing repeats to visit some people I knew. Soon after that I trained to be a Run Director at the (then) new parkrun at North Sydney, right near that local run club where I'd been introduced to parkrun in the first place.
(Photo taken by a parkrun volunteer at the launch of North Sydney parkrun. That's me, jumping up in the middle, in a bright orange volunteer vest!)
Between my volunteering at North Sydney and my continued travels I found myself saying yes to house sitting in North West Brisbane over New Year's. The main reason I did this was so I could go to Zillmere parkrun and get my "Z" for my alphabet challenge, as this is the only parkrun starting with Z in the whole southern hemisphere.
That trip ended up being life changing because at that event I met Brad (
Photo taken by Brad (
It's been one of the best decisions I've ever made. And in part, I have parkrun events and volunteers to thank as they played a pivotal role in making this meeting possible.
What has transpired in my life, either directly or indirectly, as a result of parkrun has been a lot of adventures, a lot of connection and a lot of opportunities to try new things. It has, in the last 3 and a bit years seen me participate (walk or run) in almost 150 events, at 114 different locations (to date) and do almost every entry level volunteer role possible.
So as you can see, I have a lot of joy for parkrun. So it is perhaps not surprising that for a woman who loves to express herself through words that I would pen a poem about parkrun. Gratefully, it ended up in the parkrun Australia newsletter, on their blog and on their social media channels. I'll share it below so you can appreciate it as well, even if, before today, you'd never heard of parkrun.
parkrun
that place where strangers become familiar faces
and those known faces
become the friends we never knew we needed.
Where some of us see the same people,
week in and week out,
and some of us travel as far as we’re able
to seek out new faces and new places
that inspire the mind and open the heart.
It’s that place where people
encourage each other by default;
like it’s normal to be kind to others,
to lift others up
with your words, your actions and your attention.
That place where we
cheer just as loudly for the person
who breaks 17 minutes for the very first time,
as for the person who huffs and puffs
and courageously struggles their way
across the line in just under an hour.
This is the place where we
applaud long time volunteers
and welcome new ones into our ranks,
where we learn, maybe for the very first time,
the sheer joy that can come
from contributing to support others.
It’s the place where we see
the success of another and we realise:
their breakthrough was possible
because of our support.
We come to realise how much
we love being a part of a community,
a lifeline for others
who may seem different from us
and who, over time, we recognise
have far more in common with us
than we first thought.
It’s that place where some of us run fast,
or run easy,
or walk fast,
or stroll with a friend
to have that much needed catch up.
It is that place where
we learn new skills as a volunteer,
or where we learn that
speaking to a crowd of friendly faces
isn’t so scary after all,
and where we regain our confidence
to try new things.
parkrun
that place where poetry and storytelling
is allowed to land in newsletters ;)
where we learn things about ourselves
we never knew before
and where we come to realise
that so much more is possible
than we ever imagined.
(Photo taken by a volunteer at Ecco Ripley parkrun)
Over to you now with some questions:
Have you been to a parkrun? If so, which one/s?
And if you've never heard of parkrun before this post find out if parkrun is in your country (or a nearby country) by visiting the global parkrun website here
Information gathered over many a post-parkrun coffee. Small gaps in historical knowledge filled through a quick peek at Wiki & the parkrun website.