From running while being pelted by rainbow-coloured paint, to splashing through open water alongside hundreds of swimmers, a new wave of exercise events puts taking part over times or techniques
When Paul Sinton-Hewitt started parkrun in 2004, it was “selfish” he says.
A club runner, he was injured and wanted a way to stay fit and see his friends while he recovered. He launched a free Saturday morning 5km event in Bushy Park, south London, and invited a small clique of athletes. But then something surprising happened. These serious runners quickly became a minority, outnumbered by their ‘unsporty’ family members and friends.The newcomers loved the run and asked for more. Two years later, Sinton-Hewitt launched a second parkrun, and then a third, recruiting volunteers to help keep the events free. “I knew that if I could do two, I could do three, and if I could do three I could do 300,” he says. Today, more than 1 million people have taken part in parkrun. There are nearly 600 events in the UK and another 460 around the world – and it continues to grow.
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Parkrun is a phenomenon, but it is also part of a larger trend. Varied and ambitious mass participation events also include Cycling UK’s Bike Week, which set out to get half a million people cycling in June, and the Great Swim series – which has encouraged more than 22,000 people to plunge into open water in the last decade. There are walks, triathlons, aquathlons (events that combine swimming and running) and The Color Run, where participants have bright powder hurled at them as they jog past kilometre markers.
Arguably the most important feature of these events is that public health experts say they are encouraging previously inactive people to exercise. In a country where, according to the British Heart Foundation, a third of the population – about 20 million people – are at risk of heart attack and early death through inactivity, mass participation sports events may have the power to improve what is currently a rather bleak outlook.
Parkrun alone claims to have got nearly 40,000 previously inactive people running, with Sinton-Hewitt describing a whole new demographic of “people who did not think they were runners – but they are parkrunners”.
Public body Sport England is currently conducting research into the potential power mass participation events have in breaking down barriers to exercising.
“Mass participation sporting events are a great way for lots of people to get active because they allow individuals to set themselves their own challenge, knowing their success is celebrated by the participants and organisers,” says Dave Newton, director of mass markets at Sport England.
There’s a sense of fun and camaraderie, and they’re held in non-threatening environments. People feel like they own the space, whether it’s a park,…
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