Man in first ever Parkrun doubted it would catch on

2 hours ago

Laura Devlin

News image — Andrew Lane trained and ran with parkrun's founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt

PA Media A man in a light blue running top smiles at the camera. He has grey hair and a grey beard. The top has parkrun written across his right chest in white. He is wearing a lanyard around his neck with a wooden pendant on the end, with 500 carved out of it. — Andrew Lane trained and ran with parkrun's founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt

A runner who was among just 13 to take part in the first ever Parkrun said he had not believed it would catch on as the global charity marks its millionth event this weekend.

Andrew Lane ran a 5k (3.1-mile) course with Parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt at Bushy Park, south-west London, in October 2004, and described the turnout as "pathetic".

The 69-year-old, now of Wymondham, Norfolk, has since completed more than 600 Parkruns and said it was "extraordinary" the free to enter event had come so far.

"[I had] no sense at all of what it would become and that's what makes it so lovely every Saturday, to sort of pinch myself and experience what it has become," he added.

Reuters Runners dressed in t-shirts and shorts and running trousers in various colours head towards the camera while running on short grass. One woman runner pushes two boys in a double buggy. — Bushy Park's Parkrun now attracts hordes of runners every week, as seen in 2014

There are now more than 2,800 Parkrun locations across 23 countries, with hundreds of thousands of people running, walking or volunteering each week.

Lane became involved during the genesis of the phenomenon because he trained and ran with Sinton-Hewitt at the Stragglers running club in south-west London.

"He had been talking about it [Parkrun] for a while and then launch day came," he said.

"I encouraged all my fellow Stragglers to turn up and I thought the turn out on day one was pathetic.

"I thought there would be 50 or 100 people and there were only 13."

Sinton-Hewitt briefed runners on the course, which had no marshals, and gave each participant a token from a hardware store with their finishing position on it.

"The different feature compared to road races we did was everything was done at the finish and that was a masterstroke really for Parkrun's growth," said Lane.

"Because he wasn't taking money anyone could just turn up."

Joanna Durrant/BBC A man with grey hair and beard smiles at the camera. He is wearing a grey jacket and blue shirt — Andrew Lane had not foreseen Paul Sinton-Hewitt's (pictured) idea taking off globally

'Lovely glow'

Asked if he had any sense that it was the beginning of something special, he said: "Not at all, and in fact two weeks later there were only 11 people there, so I really wondered is this going to take off or not?

"I just thought this is another nice, informal running event."

As it developed, he continued to believe it would plateau at "about 20 events on a Saturday".

"I thought there'll be one in every major city, perhaps a few extra in London," he explained.

"I could not have been more wrong there either."

Lane said Parkrun was "just the happiest place to be on a Saturday morning".

"I also go to football, I'm a season ticket holder at Norwich and enjoy football," he said.

"After a football match I'd say at least half the fans go home a bit unhappy because either their team has lost or their team hasn't won by as many goals as they thought it should have.

"And the contrast is at a Parkrun I'd say maybe 95% of people go home happy and the other 5% are the ones who want to be five seconds quicker.

"It's just a lovely glow of social interaction, outdoor exercise and that's the feeling I get every Saturday."