Bushy Parkrun
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.
Contents
History
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. Andrew'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 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 9 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 run 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.[1] The event is reported on a weekly basis by the local press,[2] and the Parkrun phenomenon is gaining national exposure.[3]
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.
List of famous people who have done the Bushy Parkrun
- 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
Points Prize Winners
| Season | Men's Points Prize John Hanscomb Trophy |
Women's Points Prize Sonia O'Sullivan 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 |
| 2011/2012 | Mark Gratton | Polly Adams |
| 2012/2013 | Phil Bearman | Simone Rapa |
| 2013/2014 | Ed Higgins | Polly Adams |
Trivia
- It has become famous locally for the events on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. At the 2007 New Year's Day event, Shane McDermott finished first despite wearing the clothes that he wore at the previous night's New Year celebration party.
- In April 2007 it was awarded the title 'Best UK small event' at the inaugural Runner's Personal Best awards organised by the UK edition of Runner's World magazine.
As of 6 December 2014 [1]:
- There have been 547 runnings of Bushy Parkrun.
- 26,778 people have run the event.
- They have run it a total of 281,178 times.
- People from 888 different clubs have run it
250 Club
Here are some of the notable people that have run more than 250 runs at Bushy Parkrun since its formation in 2004.
- John Hanscomb, after whom the men's points competition trophy is named and who has completed 424 Bushy Parkruns.
- Darren Wood, who was the first member of the 250 club and has completed 505 runs in total.
- Richard Fletcher (412).
- Paul Killick (394).
References
External links
- The official Bushy Parkrun website
- The website for Parkrun, who support all events
- The Royal Parks – Bushy Park
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