Bushy Parkrun

File:Bushy parkrun logo.png

Bushy Parkrun logo

Bushy Parkrun (styled as Bushy parkrun, formerly Bushy Park Time Trial) is a 5K run that takes place every Saturday morning at 9am in Bushy Park, Teddington, London. It has taken place every week since October 2004 and is the longest running of the Parkrun events. It is entirely run by volunteers, and is free to enter.

History

A parkrun at Bushy in 2014

Bushy Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinton-Hewitt under its original name Bushy Park Time Trial. The event started on 2 October 2004 with just 13 runners taking part in the inaugural event. The record number of runners completing the course is 1705 people for the 10th anniversary event. The course record for men of 13 minutes 48 seconds was set on 11 August 2012 and is held by Andrew Baddeley, the previous record of exactly 14 minutes was held by Australian Craig Mottram. Baddeley's time is also the fastest Parkrun time ran anywhere in the world. The women's record of 15:58 was set on 22 October 2011 by Justina Heslop. The previous record holder was Gladys Chemweno (16:11 on 8 May 2010) who beat Katrina Wootton's women's record of 16 minutes 20 seconds (1 January 2009). This performance beat Parkrun's longest standing record: Olympic Games silver medallist, Sonia O'Sullivan had previously held the record since 18 June 2005.

The organisers of Bushy Parkrun went on to form Parkrun (originally UKTT), an umbrella organisation that aimed to spread the event to other locations. In 2007, the Parkrun events began to be staged elsewhere in London and the UK. It has also since expanded into eleven other countries. The event changed its name from Bushy Park Time Trial in October 2008.

On 2 October 2014, Bushy Parkrun celebrated its 10th anniversary. The event that celebrated this was run on 4 October 2014 and contained a record 1,705 runners, beating the previous record of 1,184 on 11 January 2014, which was the 500th event.

Bushy Parkrun is highly rated by the runners who have taken part in it, with a 96% overall rating and 98% reporting that they would take part again, in the Runners World running event survey. The event is reported on a weekly basis by the local press, and the Parkrun phenomenon is gaining national exposure. Furthermore, because Bushy Park is the origin of the now international phenomenon, the event has become somewhat of a place of pilgrimage for runners across the globe, having many tourists every week visit simply to run. As well as being the oldest Parkrun, Bushy is by far the largest event in the UK, consistently getting over 1000 participants each week and over 50 volunteers. Due to its large size, Parkrun has had to adapt over the years to accommodate for its increasing popularity, differing itself from other Parkrun events. Such innovations include changing its route twice (once in 2006 and again in 2015), and adopting a two funnel system at the finish line (2012). Its size can also be attributed to Parkruns worldwide adoption of barcodes to record results. Originally Parkrun results were recorded manually on laptops with runners receiving a metal token after finishing. Barcodes were introduced in October 2009, shortly after the 5th anniversary run which had a record turnout, this made recording results significantly quicker.

Due to its large turnout, Bushy Parkrun has over 40 volunteer roles including some uncommon to other parkrun events such as a Lead Bike and Visually Impaired Guides.

As with all other Parkrun events, runners must pre-register on the Parkrun website and bring their barcode with them to get a recorded time for the event. With this barcode, a runner can record a time at any Parkrun they choose to run at.

Notable participants

• Craig Mottram, Australian 5000 m runner
• Sonia O'Sullivan, Irish Olympic silver medallist
• Gladys Chemweno, Kenyan International runner
• Andrew Baddeley, British Olympic 2008 1500m runner
• Jodie Swallow, British triathlete
• Richard Stannard, British triathlete & 2011 ITU World Aquathlon Champion
• Jonny Searle, British Olympic rowing gold medallist
• Martin Cross, British Olympic rowing gold medallist
• Collins Kosgei, Kenyan athlete
• Dennis Ndiso, Kenyan athlete
• Richard Dunwoody, jockey who has won the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup
• Mo Farah, Olympic 5000m Gold Medalist, Olympic 10000m Gold Medalist
• Mike Trees, World Masters 10,000m Champion, 2012 World age group Sprint Triathlon Champion, 2012 World age group Aquathlon Champion
• Becky Essex, England women's national rugby union team player
• Jake Wightman, British 1500m runner

Points prizewinners

Season	Men's Points Prize John Hanscomb Trophy	Women's Points Prize Sonia O'Sullivan Salver	Volunteer Prize Timothy Bennet Trophy
2004/2005	Darren Wood	Gill Wilson
2005/2006	Shane McDermott	Nicola Whitby
2006/2007	Tom Morgan	Liz Souness
2007/2008	Mike Anderson	Polly Adams
2008/2009	Tom Morgan	Simone Rapa
2009/2010	Mark Gratton	Simone Rapa
2010/2011	Danny Norman	Simone Rapa	Simon Lane
2011/2012	Mark Gratton	Polly Adams	Jan Franks
2012/2013	Phil Bearman	Simone Rapa	Pat McGrath
2013/2014	Ed Higgins	Polly Adams	Rodney McCulloch
2014/2015	Mark Gratton	Ramona Thevenet	Lucy Thatcher
2015/2016	Mark Gratton	Sacha Kennedy	Nick Blanchard

Note the parkrun points system ended in 2016.

External links

• The official Bushy Parkrun website
• The website for Parkrun, who support all events
• The Royal Parks – Bushy Park