Dame Kelly Holmes turns up to West London parkrun to celebrate one millionth milestone

The one millionth parkrun has taken place with Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes joining runners at the milestone community event

The one millionth parkrun has taken place with Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes joining runners at the milestone community event. The landmark 5k run took place at Bushy Park on Saturday morning, where the very first parkrun happened more than 20 years ago.

There were just 13 runners and five volunteers when Paul Sinton-Hewitt organised the first event – then called Bushy Park Time Trial – in West London in October 2004. It has evolved into a global community of free, weekly, timed 5km parkruns on Saturdays, and 2km junior parkruns on Sundays, with more than 2,800 event locations in 23 countries.

Runners held cards to form a “thanks a million” sign at the London park on Saturday, with Dame Kelly wearing a “Celebrating 1m” t-shirt.

The landmark event saw a large turnout, with runners queuing in finish funnels to get their times recorded on a sunny morning in the capital.

Dame Kelly, who won 800m and 1500m gold medals at the 2004 Olympics, joined parkrun founder Mr Sinton-Hewitt and parkrun Global chief executive Elizabeth Duggan at the event.

Speaking before the charity reached the milestone, Mr Sinton-Hewitt, 65, said a million events was “never in the plan”.

He added: “Nobody ever thought we would get to a million.

“But of course now the next million’s going to come so much quicker.”

Mr Sinton-Hewitt said the “numbers are extraordinary”, adding: “There are many people who’ve been born since we started parkrun who just don’t understand a world where parkrun doesn’t exist.”

He said he does not get involved in the day-to-day running of parkrun and is “hoping in a year or so’s time to retire from the organisation”.

In January, the King attended Sandringham parkrun in Norfolk as a spectator.

Mr Sinton-Hewitt, who now lives near Horsham, Sussex, said: “I’d love to meet the King, I’d love to have them involved on a more regular basis.

“But the fact he chose to go down to Sandringham parkrun and to cheer everybody on, that is a huge accolade for parkrun and we’re very, very proud of that.”

He said the success of parkrun was “clearly down to the simplicity… the fact it is for everybody, inclusivity, the nature of that, the fact that it’s free”.

The first runner to participate in 1,000 parkruns, Darren Wood, reached the milestone last month.

He said he is “not running much any more because (the) knees just can’t do it” but he still tries to “do the odd walk and quite a lot of volunteering”.

Elizabeth Duggan, chief executive officer of parkrun Global, said hitting one million events was “just phenomenal”.

She said parkrun has “massive ambitions for the future”, including to increase the number of parkrun countries from 23 to 30 by 2030.

“We have about half a million participants every single weekend globally and we believe by 2030 we will be hitting three quarters of a million,” Ms Duggan added.