1,000 Parkruns

Parkrun began in October 2004 with 13 runners showing up to Bushy Park, Teddington, UK to run 5km on a Saturday morning. Fast forward 22 years, there are now 10 million members of Parkrun across 23 countries. On average 400,000 runners take part in the free weekly community-led run across 2,500 separate park locations.

Darren Wood, has become the first to complete 1,000 park runs in March 2026, which equals 5,000km ran at the Saturday weekly park runs across 22 years.

With no interruptions, this milestone can be completed in 19 years. Yet this took Darren 22 years as life, volunteering, and other comittments came up. Yes, volunteering, Wood has volunteered at 400 park runs, and ran at 120 different locations.

‘Parkrun is essentially the same everywhere you go, whatever country you’re in. Travelling to new locations is always great fun, and each event has its own character and quirks, but the community is always welcoming’ (Darren Wood, 2026).

‘Parkrun has always been there for me, every week, and through challenging times’. (Darren Wood, 2026). The best part is, this is for everyone. Whether you run, walk, jog, volunteer, cheer, or support, all is welcome. And the Parkrun organisation have claimed that Parkrun will always be free.

Take a look at your local Parkrun at Parkrun.com. Whether you are in the UK, Europe, USA, or South Africa… The amount of Parkrun events coming up around the world is still growing.