I remember my first parkrun: Wimbledon in November 2014. I also remember the words I said to a friend at the end: "never again." That promise I didn't so much break as grind into dust. Over the next 12 years, I completed 355 more of these free community 5Ks.
My running achievements are modest—I've never run farther than 10km, and my times are average. In fact, the world record for running 5km while juggling (a niche sport called "joggling") beats my non-juggling personal best by over eight minutes. But this averageness gives me a persuasive superpower: if I can go to parkrun every week, so can you.
The Longest parkrun Journey
Home and away: 6,000 miles from Morden, our writer discovers parkrun is welcoming wherever you go.
Do I like running? On some level, I must, because I've just completed my most far-flung parkrun: Futakotamagawa in Tokyo. That's about 6,000 miles from my home course at Morden in south London. If you uncoiled all my parkruns in a straight line toward Tokyo, the finish line would be in Russia.
I didn't travel for parkrun, but it was a great chance to add a third flag to my profile. I chose Futakotamagawa, Japan's inaugural parkrun: flat, easy to reach by metro, with majestic views of Mount Fuji on a clear day (spoiler: it wasn't clear). In Japan, parkruns start at 8am to cope with extreme heat and humidity. Only the humidity showed up on June 20. At the English-language briefing, I realized I wasn't the curiosity I'd expected—I was the only Briton, but there were plenty of Australians and Americans. The briefing was familiar yet charming: three laps ("you can make four—we don't care") and don't lose your barcode ("we will find you").
The run began. It felt different from a British parkrun, with the park buzzing: children and adults practicing baseball, football, and rugby in the center loop. On my third lap, my Apple Watch showed I was running faster than I had since before COVID. Whether it was my bouncy walking shoes, the hearty ramen from the night before, or the desire not to look slow, I kept up the pace, finishing 58th with a time of 25:31—50 seconds off my 2026 best and my fastest since February 2020.
The humidity left me drenched. Tokyo's drink machines were everywhere, but I chose water over a viral high-caffeine, high-calorie drink called Nope, which one Redditor described as a "carbonated prune juice travesty." I tried not to stink up the metro carriage on the way back.
Ultimately, parkrun is parkrun wherever you are in the world. If you've been tempted, it's absurdly welcoming, whatever your speed.