Listen "Paul Sinton-Hewitt"
Episode Synopsis
Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun, was born in Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa at the age of five, where he was brought up in care with his two siblings. Always a keen middle distance runner, he was a second for a friend in one of South Africa's most gruelling road races. Eventually he moved to the UK to work in IT and raise a family. After a perfect storm of redundancy, marriage breakdown and an injury which prevented him from running with his own club, he decided he'd start a time trial in a local park, for his running club pals. The only proviso that they had to have coffee and cake with him afterwards. Twenty years later, that timed run that he started has outpaced anything he could have envisaged and turned into parkrun. The 5k run around local parks on a Saturday morning, has gone global and the parkrun community has hundreds of thousands of people running or volunteering as stewards every week. Stephen Smith finds out what makes Paul Sinton-Hewitt run. CONTRIBUTORS
Roun Barry, School friend
Hugh Brasher, Director, London Marathon
Bruce Fordyce, Marathon runner
Duncan Gaskell, Parkrunner and friend
Russ Jeffereys, CEO parkrun
Eileen Jones, Author and parkrunner
Joanne Sinton-Hewitt, WifePRODUCTION TEAM
Presenter: Stephen Smith
Producers: Julie Ball, Natasha Fernandes, Farhana Haider
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound: Neil Churchill
Roun Barry, School friend
Hugh Brasher, Director, London Marathon
Bruce Fordyce, Marathon runner
Duncan Gaskell, Parkrunner and friend
Russ Jeffereys, CEO parkrun
Eileen Jones, Author and parkrunner
Joanne Sinton-Hewitt, WifePRODUCTION TEAM
Presenter: Stephen Smith
Producers: Julie Ball, Natasha Fernandes, Farhana Haider
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound: Neil Churchill
More episodes of the podcast Profile
Afua Kyei
08/11/2025
Andy Burnham
01/11/2025
Sanae Takaichi
27/10/2025
Luke Littler
18/10/2025
Marina Abramović
11/10/2025
Kristi Noem
27/09/2025
Deborah Griffin
20/09/2025
Peter Mandelson
13/09/2025
Zack Polanski
06/09/2025
Michele Dougherty
30/08/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.