Double bubble

It has been a while since I wrote (harped on) about the parkrun doubling effect, so now must be about time.

On a few occasions in the past on this blog I have written about how parkrun seems to roughly double in size (based on various criteria) every year. Well there is good recent evidence that this growth rate is still continuing.

Roughly 9 months ago I wrote a blog post about "parkrun world domination in your lifetime". Have a quick read of that post if you have the time, as it does show that expecting parkrun to keep doubling in size forever is simply not possible  (just like story of the grains of wheat on a cheeseboard did for some king whom I can't remember the name of). This growth cannot go on forever, that is unless someone uses parkrun to spread friendships beyond this planet.

I have had a quick look at recent attendances, and the equivalent date last year, and have found that for this period of the year at least attendances are still doubling in attendance numbers.

2012		2013
Date	Attendance	Date	Attendance	Growth
18th August	21,877	17th August	42,694	95%
25th August	20,113	24th August	39,042	94%
1st September	21,187	31st August	44,351	109%
8th September	24,408	7th September	44,226	82%

Firstly, of course, I must say that this is a very small sample to base statistics on. And secondly, it demonstrates that there is significant fluctuation in the figures each week of each year.

However, it certainly shows that, give or take some fluctuation, the number of people running a parkrun each week this year (over the last 4 parkrundays at least) is pretty much double the number of last year.

To make this coming parkrunday double up on the same weekend last year we need to get 47,034 of us to complete a parkrun. Let's see if we can manage that!

parkrun stats of the week...7th September 2013

The parkrun statistics of note for last weekend are:
- 290 parkrun events run (Equalling the record set the previous week)
- 44,226 runners (just 125 short of the record)
- Over 400,000 different people have now run and completed at least 1 parkrun event

The average number of runners per parkrun event run was: 152.5.

39 parkrun events recorded new record attendances last weekend, as follows:

Event		Record Attendance
Abingdon		194
Castle Demense		106
Chelmsford Central		271
Concord		90
Delta		322
Ebotse		173
Gdansk		200
Greenpoint		169
Lake Mac		236
Lódz		186
Logan River		151
Maidstone		186
Modderfontein Reserve		266
Northampton		247
Oak Hill		98
PE Hobie Beach		289
Porirua		95
Porthcawl		166
Poznan		170
Roodepoort		129
Root 44		147
Rushcliffe		151
Shongweni		164
Skipton		194
South Bank		392
Southwark		150
St Albans		297
Swindon		374
Szczecinek		70
Valentines		207
Wanstead Flats		118
Warszawa-Praga		126
Warwick		98
Whitstable		182
Wimbledon Common		416
Wolverhampton		135
Woodlands		140
Worcester		307
Yeovil Montacute		152

The longest standing parkrun attendance record is:

Event		Record Attendance	Record Week
Amager Faelled		146	28/08/2010

And in the UK it's:

Hackney Marshes

75

21/05/2011

The highest attendance this week was exactly 1000 at Bushy parkrun.

The lowest attendance this week was just 2 at Summerfields parkrun. 

A quick update on the record attendances of all parkrun events:

There are now 11 parkrun events with a record attendance over 500, with Blackbutt and Edinburgh parkruns having broken into the club during August.

A further 20 parkrun events have a record attendance over 400. And a further 17 over 300.
116 different parkrunners ran under 17 minutes this week. 9 of those ran under 16 minutes!

The fastest parkrun time in the world this week was 15:27 by Joshua Grace at Frimley Lodge parkrun.

The parkrun juggernaut

Firstly, I have to start by saying sorry for a lack of posts over the last few months. I hope that there is still someone out there interested enough to read this....

My excuse is that when summer really sets in, I fully focus on outdoor things (including running of course) and I don't seem to find the time to blog (rubbish excuse?). With the Autumn rain now set-in it seems (at least it will be cooler for running!), I'm sure I will find more time to keep the parkrun stats coming again. I'm not a fair-weather runner - honestly!

So, back to the plot....

The parkrun juggernaut just keeps building speed, gaining momentum, growing and growing.

Whilst I have taken my blogging hiatus, parkrun has smashed through some impressive figures, not least:

Number of runners each week
- Over 40,000 parkrunners* took part on a single parkrunday* (* when are these words going to make it into the Dictionary I wonder?).
- The 40,000 mark was first broken on 3rd August, when 40,476 runners took part.
- Amazingly, the 40,000 runner mark, that record and each subsequent record, has been broken again on 3 of the 4 parkrundays since that weekend.
- The current record stands at 44,349, set last weekend. When I was last blogging regularly, the 40,000 runner mark was tantalisingly close for weeks on end and now in just a few short weeks, the 45,000 mark could be broken imminently. Incredible!

Total number of runs
- About 3 or 4 weeks ago, the total combined number of runs for all parkrunners broke through the 3,000,000 mark.
- With that, unsurprisingly, the total combined distance run reached the 15,000,000km mark. This is a big number, so to give some perspective, this is just over 374 laps of the earth at the equator - that would be a long, hard, hot run on your own! At average parkunner pace that would take a little over 160 years, with no breaks!
- Current runner numbers mean that we are already well on the way to 16 million kilometres, just 3 weeks later!

Number of events
- Last weekend the total number of parkrun events that have taken place passed 24,000.

Number of different parkrun events
- This is a nice little stat that I have just come across....Last weekend, Paul Freyne became the first person to have run at 150 different parkrun locations, running at the inaugural Maldon Prom parkrun event. Interestingly, Paul has run 44 inaugural parkrun events (this is also a record) and has *only* run 194 parkruns in total. Quite a high tourism ratio. Paul is surely the ultimate parkrun tourist!

And we also have a couple of significant figures approaching:

Number of different parkrunners
- Worldwide to-date, 399,659 different runners have run and completed at least one parkrun.
- If we don't break through the 400,000 different runners mark this weekend then I will be forced to go out to the hat shop and buy a hat just so that it can be mine to eat!

Number of locations
- So far 295 different locations have held a parkrun.
- With 4 new parkrun events starting this weekend we should reach 299.
- Presumably we will only have 1 more week to wait to break the 300 parkrun events mark.


I think that is probably enough parkrun stats for now. Happy parkunning everyone!