Around 6,000 people took part in the 1,000th edition of Bushy Park Parkrun, 20 years after the first event was held.
Since Paul Sinton-Hewitt gathered 13 friends to run the inaugural 5km in 2004 Parkrun has become a worldwide phenomenon with time trials now held in 1,284 UK locations.
But even though Parkrun has spread across the globe the original Teddington location has stayed symbolic and is considered one of the fastest to run.
“Brilliant day today at Bushy Parkrun,” the official account tweeted. “Thank you to everyone for your patience and to our wonderful team of 125 volunteers.”
Whoa, that was a busy one!! Bucketfuls of parkrun love at Bushy this morning. 🥰🥳. Thank you to everyone for your patience and to our wonderful team of 125 volunteers 🙏🙏🙏
— Bushy parkrun (@bushyparkrun) August 31, 2024
Please bear with us as we process the results - looks like we had around 6,000 finishers 😱🤯🤩😍 pic.twitter.com/k0XuKvZGQo
The official account added: “Please bear with us as we process the results - looks like we had around 6,000 finishers.
“We are making progress with the results and hope to complete the process on Monday.”
The events are always free and only require participants to download a barcode and bring it to the race. All runs are 5km long and can also be walked.
Andy Baddeley set the longstanding men’s parkrun record at Bushy in 2012, clocking 13 minutes 48 seconds - but this was broken by Andy Butchart last year with his 13 minutes 45 at Silverknowes in Edinburgh.
Ciara Mageean broke the women’s record with her 15 minutes 13 in Belfast last year.
Mr Sinton-Hewitt said in his new year address last year: “Every year I am blown away by the people of parkrun. And, fundamentally, those who give their time so freely to ensure parkrun can be the very best it can be.”
