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Parkrun is a popular 5K run which occurs every Saturday (plus New Year’s Day and Christmas Day) at 100s of locations around the world.

The majority of these events start at 9am, but some have a different time - for example in Scotland it starts at 9:30am, and some events have an 8am start in the summer in Canada.

Therefore, if there are two events close enough together, one could theoretically run both events.

The best I’ve found is in Ontario, Canada, where Hamilton Beach is 8am in summertime and River Oaks Park is 9am. Unfortunately, it is a 1 hour drive between the two, so not possible to run the first and then travel.

Requirements:

  • I need 25 minutes to run the first one.
  • I’m happy to travel by car, public transport, swim, walk or cycle. I don’t want to have to take some niche vehicle like helicopter.
  • I want to follow all laws in transit between them.
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    Unless you can find one with an odd start time you need a boundary either between timezones or local habits. Although they start later in Scotland than England, none are close enough to the border. Ireland and Northern Ireland both start at 9:30 in general. In the US and Canada, timezone boundaries avoid major population clusters; I can't find anything even close to opposite sides of a TZ boundary. Australia does have parkruns close either side of a timezone boundary, but it's a half hour timezone, and they're not that close (Edenhope, Victoria, and Naracoorte, SA)
    – Chris H - UK
    Commented Mar 11, 2023 at 17:58
  • @ChrisH-UK it's not just time zone boundaries - it varies within the same towns in the US and Canada, as with my example in Ontario.
    – Tim
    Commented Mar 11, 2023 at 18:57
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    Please note Parkrun explicitly discourages people from "doing the double".
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 at 17:33
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    @PhilipKendall I mean two 5Ks within two hours is pretty achievable, it's not like this is some sort of extreme sport activity we shouldn't be encouraging on the stack
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 at 17:50
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    @Tim Yes, see here.
    – LeopardShark
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 8:27

5 Answers 5

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During the summer, the Brecksville Reservation Parkrun starts at 8am and the Ohio and Erie Canal Reservation Parkrun starts at 9am. They are in Ohio, within a 20-minute drive of each other according to Google Maps.

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You mentioned the New Year's Day parkruns, and these are often arranged to allow exactly this. Neighbouring parkruns will coordinate to start at 9, 10 or even later to allow for double runs.

It may be easier to get to New Year, than to get to Ohio.

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    Shorter to travel to Ohio from a time point of view, shorter to travel to New Year’s from a space point of view!
    – Tim
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 at 20:32
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    New Years day doubles are no longer around due to, especially in the UK, the volume of people at events, and the potential to upset locals/landowners. It is a shame to lose it, in one way, but honestly it is nice, like Christmas Day parkrun (UK) to see friends and chat, before going to see family and/or get a breakfast at the local cafe.
    – indofraiser
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 9:09
  • Well my local doesn't run any extras at all, because it becomes a mud bath from November to March, and a second run during the week would just be too much for the grass.
    – James K
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 17:55
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Just to add a technically correct answer: Both Tokyo and the Vancouver/Seattle-area have several runs to choose from. From what I can find, the flight time between the two is about 9 hours, but the time-zone difference is 16 hours, which leaves several hours to spare.

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    This would work if you were willing to charter a plane, but all commercial flights currently offered on these routes leave Tokyo in the late afternoon or evening and do not arrive in Seattle or Vancouver anywhere near early enough to make the run. There is however (as of this writing), a flight to Los Angeles which is at more-or-less the right time, except for the lack of Parkrun events in Los Angeles, so you would have to start one there or convince someone to do so.
    – mlc
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 6:55
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    @mlc True, I did not check the schedules if there is actually any such flight. Though while we are at ridiculous things, looking at the flight to Los Angeles you linked, it managed to arrive at 5:08 at least once. This could be barely enough time to clear customs and catch flight DL2614 to San Fransisco departing at 6:00. If that one has a bit of tailwind, it should be possible to jump into a waiting car and arrive exactly in time for the one run there is in Palo Alto. Though to be fair, I have been at neither airport, so I cannot say how realistic these transfers are...
    – mlk
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 12:16
  • @mlk LAX is massive. You can’t get anywhere in that airport in 2 minutes.
    – KRyan
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 17:53
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You can run multiple events, however, you can only have an official finish one, the will remove the other from your results, including different countries, so even if you country/timezone hop it still will not count. The only 'official way' used to be the New Year's day 'double' when the start times were staggered, however, this has been removed.

In the UK I have actually done two in one day, just for fun(!), as they were just over a mile apart (but again only 'credited' with one). Looking back I definitely should not have done this(!), one person is one thing but if groups do it. Additionally, you are behind-the-tail walker, so confusing marshals, or they may move off, after the tail walker and you get injured with no one around. (I've been at parkrun that was stopped mid-way to allow the air ambulance for someone who had a heart attack).

You can do 'special events' as extra days, for example in the UK Christmas Day alot of parkruns happen, even if not a Saturday, the same for New Years, so in 2022 we have 4 in just over a week (Christmas Eve/NYE were Saturdays).

I should mention I did the first one in under 20 minutes, and most importantly, it does not matter your speed, you can take as much time as you like to walk, jog or run it.

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  • This is interesting. I have heard they were trying to prevent people trying to do 2 parkruns in 1 day, since there's a danger element to having people rush from 1 event to the next. I didn't know they were enforcing it on a technical level.
    – Nauraushaun
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 0:49
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Reading Parkrun and Woodley Parkrun are roughly 2km apart as the crow flies, or a car journey of 7 minutes. If you were very fast, you could probably do the first, jump in the car, and catch up the last finishers at the second - typically walkers in the region of 45 minutes.

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    If they need 25 min to do 5k, at that pace they need 35 min for 7k. So they could run 5k, run the 2k between, and then run the 5k. 12k in 60 min.
    – stanri
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 at 21:29
  • @stanri in theory yes, but there is a railway line in the way with only two or three feasible crossings; two road bridges and one footpath. This is quite a bit more than 2km.
    – Tom W
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 at 21:33
  • 3.4km on foot / 4.4km by car so yeah 25m + 7m in car + 25 and might not be the last person across! The second 25 would be optimistic for me, but certainly there are plenty of people who can do a 50 minute 10K so nice answer!
    – Tim
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 0:10
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    Actually Leazes and Town Moor in Newcastle upon Tyne are 1.7km on foot, probably less if you can cut through the university, and across some playing fields! Leazes had walkers coming in up to 59 minutes, so could definitely run the first 5k, the 1.7 and the second 5k within that time!
    – Tim
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 0:21

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