Parkrunners turn out en masse as historic 1,000th event becomes the most attended ever

Parkrun UK have confirmed that they staged their most attended event ever last weekend with 6,204 runners finishing the Bushy parkrun.

Avid runners flocked to Bushy in West London to celebrate the 1,000^th parkrun event, which began in that very park in 2004.

Paul Sinton-Hewitt organized the first event, then known as the Bushy Park Time Trial, and had just 13 people turn up to run a five kilometre course.

Now, parkrun has over 2,000 locations across 22 countries in five continents.

Entering the parkrun is free and the events, usually on a Saturday morning, are reliant upon volunteers to help things run smoothly.

Duncan, who wrote the online run report for the event, said: "I think we can all be very proud to belong to such a positive, forward looking and inclusive community to which we all contribute by turning up every week and being nice, decent folk."

The Bushy parkrun itself is usually the most participated in every weekend, since it occurs in a heavily populated area of London.

As well as those traversing the five kilometres, 134 volunteers were in attendance at Bushy Park and of the 6,204 runners involved - 490 set their personal best time at the event.

Other parkrun events with high attendances this weekend included Poole, Southampton, Chelmsford Central and Cannon Hill.

Andrew Butchart, a British runner who competed in the 5,000 meters at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, holds the record for the fastest parkrun with a time of 13 minutes 45 seconds.

The female record is held by Northern Irish runner Ciara Mageean with a time of 15 minutes 13 seconds.