Parkrun at 20: how a gentle jog turned into a 5km Saturday morning obsession

The event, which is celebrating its anniversary, has grown into a global phenomenon - and made us feel a whole lot better

Twenty years ago, on a windy, autumnal Saturday morning, 13 runners showed up to a park in south-west London for an event called the Bushy Park Time Trial. A 5km course was plotted and the organiser, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, a computer programmer who grew up in South Africa, bought washers from a hardware store to hand out as finish tokens. The times were tapped up on a laptop afterwards in a local Caffe Nero.

This Saturday, the weather hadn't much improved - overcast, with the sun straining to peek through - and the venue was the same: picturesque Bushy Park with its resident red deer squaring up, ready to rut. But pretty much everything else about the impromptu get-together has evolved. Since 2008, it has been known as Parkrun and there are now 2,500 weekly events - all 5km, all free - in 22 countries, everywhere from the slopes of Mount Etna to 25 UK prisons to the Falkland Islands. In a typical week, around 350,000 people will take part. Runner's World hails it a global phenomenon".