What is parkrun?

Put simply, parkrun is a free, weekly, timed, marshaled, 5km run, every Saturday, typically in a park location.

parkrun is also a bit more than this.....
parkrun is not just one run it is hundreds of runs (currently 184) which all take place at the same time, in the same location, every Saturday morning across the UK and now spreading around the world. Its a weekly global gathering of parkrunners.

parkrun is also the name of the not-for-profit organisation that oversees all of parkrun and which helps local communities through the process of setting up their own parkrun event.

parkrun is well on its way to being a global running phenomenon.

parkrun can be whatever you want it to be.
- parkrun can be fun
- parkrun can be a training run
- parkrun can be run fast, slow or even walked
- parkrun can even be a race

parkrun is certainly a weekly community event, a great place to socialise and meet like-minded friends.

You may have some more questions.....

So, is parkrun really free? Yes, it really is.
How can parkrun be free? It's free because it has limited overheads. The initial start-up costs for each event are covered partly by the parkrun organisation, through its various sponsorship deals, and also by local communities, local sponsorship and city and town councils. So the runners do not have to pay anything to run. The weekly running of each event is all covered by volunteers, with the runners taking turns to marshal and run the event, so again there is no weekly cost there.

So there you have it. parkrun is many things, but most of all it is a free, weekly, timed, marshaled, 5km run and a local community event.