Saturday, November 9, 2024

Parkrun at 20: Meet the man who revolutionised the UK’s fitness

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Paul Sinton-Hewitt has done more for the nation’s fitness than Mr Motivator, Davina McCall, Rosemary Conley and, whisper it, even the national treasure Joe Wicks.

Yet on a bracingly cold morning at his local Parkrun in Horsham, West Sussex, Sinton-Hewitt, 64, stands near the back of the 600-strong crowd, inconspicuously, as he is not a recognisable household name like the other four.

Twenty years ago, he organised the first Parkrun for 13 friends in south-west London’s Bushy Park which took place on October 2, 2004. He was struggling with his mental health after the breakdown of his first marriage and was having a difficult time at work as a software engineer.

He could not run the first Parkrun himself because he had tripped over his

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