It’s running season in most countries, with the marathons in Boston and London amongst two of the biggest global sports events in April. In Boston, a new women’s course record was set this year.

Running continues to surge in popularity, and it’s one of the most popular recreational sports in the UK. Its popularity went up 39% from 2023-2024, according to the Running Industry Alliance, from stats provided by the Great Run Company. [Source]

With few barriers to entry – just your time, some athletic clothing and running shoes required – it remains one of the most accessible sports for anyone wanting to keep fit.

parkrun matches this vision with its steadfast commitment to always remain free, forever, for everyone. parkruns are weekly, community 5k events that take place in parks and open spaces every Saturday morning. People can walk, jog, run, volunteer, or simply come along and cheer others on. For runners and walkers that want to compete with themselves and improve their personal best times (PBs), the communication of finish times is critical. aql has proudly supported parkrun since 2011 to provide SMS text messaging services to communicate times to parkrunners all over the world.

Through aql’s network, parkrun can simply and quickly send thousands of parkrunners their times by SMS.

To provide finishing times, every parkrunner receives a unique barcode when they register. After parkrunners go through the finish funnel, their unique barcode is scanned by volunteers and, when all the finisher times have been processed, they receive an SMS with their time. All parkrun times are bulk supplied to aql’s high capacity gateway to distribute to recipients’ mobile phones individually. These times, along with other messages such as those thanking parkrun volunteers, are handled using aql’s SMS network. aql’s network offers direct connections to UK operators, free from intermediaries.

Through the years, aql estimates that more than 50 million messages have been sent through its network to parkrunners.

“We’re proud of our years-long friendship with parkrun, which gives hundreds of thousands of people access to welcoming and sociable fitness. We share parkrun’s vision and it’s been a privilege to support them on their mission, which aligns closely with our own passion for enabling a connected, better society,” said Professor Adam Beaumont, chairman of aql.

“aql has been a loyal friend of parkrun, providing outstanding technology services for many years,” said James Kemp, Global Head of Event Delivery. “With text messaging being one of the quickest and easiest ways for us to send our times to parkrunners, we’re grateful to have such a reliable SMS provider as aql.”