Darren Wood ran his thousandth parkrun on May 30, finishing at Morden parkrun in south-west London to a guard of honor, a canary yellow milestone shirt, and a small media swarm. No one else has ever reached that number. More than 4.13 million people have run at least one parkrun since the format launched in 2004. Wood is the only one with 1,000.
He spoke with Duncan Craig of Runner’s World UK a couple of days after the run.
“I’m still a little bit lost for words,” Wood said. “It has been a whirlwind. Bizarre.”
The Carshalton-based card payments worker has been showing up on Saturdays for 22 years. He has run at nearly 120 different events in the UK and abroad. His 998th was in Copenhagen. His 999th was a single lap around a lake in southern Sweden. He has also volunteered more than 400 times, choosing to marshal rather than run.
Why he keeps showing up
Wood was the first runner to hit 500 parkruns too, back in March 2015. Shortly after, his life fell apart. Debt. Work pressure. A marriage that ended. He self-harmed, then attempted suicide through an overdose. He calls that period rock bottom.
The free 5K was the one thing that did not change. He calls parkrun “the one constant in my life.”
“If by sharing my story we can encourage just one person to attend their first event, which could potentially change if not save their life, then I will shout as loud as I can to get the word across,” he told Craig.
He is in a steadier place now, with a new partner, Kellyjo, who he has pulled into the habit. They travel for runs together.
From a 2004 email to a global movement
The story started with an email. Wood was running with Ranelagh Harriers in Ashford, Middlesex, when a clubmate named Paul Sinton-Hewitt mentioned an experimental new event in Bushy Park. Wood skipped the first one. It sounded too serious.
“I was able to have a talk with a few people and it felt quite friendly, so I turned up again on the third week,” he said.
That was the Bushy Park Time Trial, the seed of every parkrun that followed. If you have never tried one, our Couch to 5K plan is a sensible way in.
His personal best from that era still holds up: 17:58, set in November 2007. He was still close to it ten years later. These days he averages around 22 minutes, and he says he does not really pay attention to the clock. That mindset is a big part of why regular running sticks.
2,000 by 2048?
At his current pace, Wood would hit 2,000 parkruns in 2048, just before his state pension kicks in. He is not ruling it out.
“You’ve got to dream big, right?” he told Craig. “Who knows where I’ll be by then, but am I going to stop running? No. And am I going to stop parkrunning? No.”
The new 1,000 shirt is now in the parkrun shop for £20. Wood is its first customer. He bought a second one the morning after his milestone, so he can frame the one he was handed at Morden. For more on the running events worth following this year, see our recent coverage on parkrun and our take on the 9-year-old who just broke the parkrun world record. If running has helped you through a hard stretch, this piece on running and anxiety is worth a read too.
