City Hall in Copenhagen - a new plan to integrate the elite event with a mass participation race was a key factor in the city earning the right to stage this year's IAAF World Half Marathon ©Getty Images

The 2014 edition will, for the first time since the Great North Run pioneered the notion at the inaugural event in 1992, involve an integrated mass participation element. And in November, the Copenhagen local organising committee confirmed that 30,000 people had entered the event which will be held in conjunction with the men's championship race.

Just to emphasise the sweep and reach of this re-cast event - among the expected runners on the start - and finish - line in front of the Danish Parliament will be Crown Prince Frederik, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) member who is first in line to the Danish throne.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark is hoping to be one of the runners in the mass participation race at the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships ©Getty Images

Cardiff can claim to have gone one better than their Danish counterparts, in that they have had a mass-participation race for several years on the same waterfront course which will host the IAAF version in March - the Cardiff Half Marathon, which is held each October.

After the decision had been confirmed, Ed Warner, chairman of UK Athletics, identified the integration of a mass participation element as being highly influential, describing it as a "big plus".

He added: "The IAAF were very taken with the pitch made by Copenhagen, and we want to build on that...

"Pretty much the only opportunity for the man and woman in the street to compete in a world championships is to run in the World Half Marathon Championships. That's what Copenhagen are doing with the event in 2014. And that will be a large part of the appeal in Cardiff."

The successful bidding team for the Cardiff 2016 World Half Marathon championships pictured at the IAAF HQ in Monte Carlo in November ©Getty Images

Such developments offer evidence of a strong trend at the elite end of the sport - that is, a strong desire to widen and deepen its reach in the most active of fashions.

That desire lies at the heart of what parkrun has tried to do since it started in the south London location of Bushy Park in 2004. The idea behind parkrun is simple: every Saturday morning, at a set time which is usually nine o'clock, people run for five kilometres around a park. For free.

If you imagine a gentle upward slope which turns gradually into a vertiginous climb, that is the shape of the graph which charts UK involvement in this event.

From its tentative start in 2004, where just 13 starters took up Paul Sinton-Hewitt's Big Idea, which was based on regular time trials he had taken part in while club running in South Africa, the participation has grown rapidly.

In his latest post this week, Sinton-Hewitt celebrates the year which has just finished and which saw 332,000 people do their first parkrun.

He adds: "Just over 1.95 million runs were recorded last year, taking our total number of runs since we started in 2004 to 3.92 million runs. Making all this possible was the amazing 42,800 unique volunteers who volunteered in excess of 180,000 times across 362 events or locations....153 new events were added in 2013...the UK added the most new events followed by Australia and South Africa.

"One of our newest countries, Ireland, has shown phenomenal adoption of parkrun and we look forward to this trend continuing.

"We are excited about the opportunities for growth and look forward to continuing our contribution to the fitness, health, fun and wellbeing of parkrunners across the nations.

"We are also excited to be welcoming Russia to our list of parkrun countries in 2014....

"My message to you for 2014 is to 'keep it simple'. It's always good to remind ourselves that we are just a 'simple, weekly 5k timed run with your friends in a park'."

The parkrun figures include more than 50,000 regular participants who take part in 350 events all around the world. Of these stalwarts, around 35,000 are in the UK, with a further 16,000 regularly involved in Australia, South Africa, Poland, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, Singapore and, most recently, Russia. There is even a regular parkrun for service personnel at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan.

Over the last nine years the idea of time trialling has evolved into something far more relaxed, picking up the moniker of parkrun along the way, and, according to Tom Williams, country manager in the UK, embracing, above all else, a sense of togetherness.

"The social element is fundamental to parkrun," Williams, a former triathlete  and multiple marathon runner - with a best of 2hr 49min - who has himself embraced and nurtured this new approach to running, said.

"Our events start at 9am, not too early for people to get out of bed, but not too late to prevent them doing other things with their day. It gets the weekend off to a good start.

"The fact that it is free is also fundamental. The difference between 50p and £2 as a charge is not a lot, but the difference between paying nothing and 50p is huge.

"There is the opportunity to get together in a relaxed atmosphere, to meet friends, to have a smile and a chat while doing something that improves your fitness and your health. I always think parkrun is a bit like going to church - a lot of people with a common vision who come together on a regular basis."

The ethos of parkrun is an inclusive one. Those taking part are involved in a run, and not a race. There are no "winners", only first finishers. There are no "losers", only final finishers.

But human nature being what it is, the element of competitiveness cannot be erased from the proceedings - and there is no wish for it to be. After registering with the website, runners are emailed a barcode to print off which is scanned at the finish, thus recording their time.

The parkrun record is held by British Olympian Andy Baddeley, who recorded 13min 48sec. But the emphasis, emphatically, is not on elite performance.

British middle distance runner Andy Baddeley, pictured during the Victory Parade after the London 2012 Games, holds the record for parkrun 5k events ©Getty Images

Results are usually posted on the site by lunchtime of the run day, along with a score which takes into account the intrinsic value of their effort depending on their age.

Thus it is possible to log your own progress, and - if you wish - to compare your result with others running elsewhere. In this sense, parkrun is like one giant race taking place at the same time all over the globe.

The format, clearly, works. People of all ages take part. Around eight per cent of regular parkrunners are juniors aged 4-14. There are 80 year olds who run regularly. There are mums and dads pushing buggies. There are people running with their dogs.

The UK operation has four full-time employees, and the conundrum of presenting a free event which nevertheless costs money to put on is something that has exercised Williams and his fellow organisers considerably in recent years.

The event is supported by a small but carefully chosen group of sponsors but the challenge is to ensure the support is low key.

"We are only interested in enabling parkrun to continue and to grow," said Williams. "We could probably raise a lot of money by doing things like selling off the database, but we are not a commercial operation and we are not interested in making money.

"Our event depends upon volunteers. We have 30,000 of them who help with maintaining the course and scanning the runners. If parkrun was 'owned' by some huge corporation, they wouldn't want to volunteer for it."

One of the other compelling features of parkrun is the varied nature of the courses selected for the regular gatherings. Poland, for instance, has a Gdańsk race. Denmark has a venue in Esbjerg. New Zealand uses Lower Hutt for racing. Cairns is among the many Australian sites, while one of the Irish races takes place regularly at Westport.

Among the parkrun "champions" is Chrissie Wellington, the former triathlete who retired undefeated after winning the World Ironman Championship in 2008, 2009 and 2011. In the course of the last year, Wellington has been developing and re-launching the parkrun junior section, which now encompasses races in Bushy Park, the Forest of Dean, Savill Garden in Windsor, Woodley in Berkshire, Roundhay Park in Leeds and Riverside Park in Southampton.

Chrissie Wellington, pictured winning the second of her three World Ironman titles in 2009, is a "champion" of the parkrun events ©Getty Images

There are already more than 60,000 four-to-14-year olds on the global parkrun database, and Wellington has high hopes for its further growth, particularly among girls.

"We want to make exercise regular and habitual for all young people," she said. "And I feel really strongly that parkrun can truly help to overcome many of those barriers to participation faced by women and girls - time, cost, commitment and competitiveness."

The website contains weekly reports and testimonials which make it clear that the event is widely appreciated for a variety of reasons.

To take a few recent entries: "After having a double heart bypass on February 14 this year I decided to start running with my wife at our local running group in May," writes Peter Morris. "After a few weeks I decided to give parkrun a go. What an experience that was...I have now finished 14 parkruns and run 10 PBs. I can't wait for each Saturday to come..."

Michelle Hindmarch writes: "I started running in September as it seemed like a good idea at the time. My first parkrun was a walk/run that took quite a while. I vowed that if I ever managed to run the whole way then I would volunteer. Week eight and I volunteered, week nine and I got my first running PB. Thank you so much to parkrun because I am sure I would never have run this far, this fast, without you..."

For Jasbir Bangerh, parkrun has been a life-changing, and life-enhancing experience.

"There are so many things I'd like to say about parkrun. I've lost weight; got fitter and improved my health. I've met hundreds of truly inspirational lovely people including Olympic and Paralympic medallists. I've improved my parkrun time from 44.34 to 28.12. I've gone from believing that 5k would be the only distance my little legs could cope with to having competed in my very first London Marathon in April this year.

"Probably for me the best thing about parkrun is the sense of community; great friendship and of family. No one cares about your shape, size, ability, age, background or what you do etc. You are a parkrunner. It's as simple as that."

The parkrun phenomenon is set to run and run, with expansion into new countries being planned for the 10th anniversary year of 2014. "We started 82 new events this year, and next year we plan to start another 100," said Williams. "We have also re-launched our junior parkrun over a 2km distance. We have six junior parkruns, and we plan to add another 20."

On October 8 last year - parkrun's ninth birthday - Sinton-Hewitt reflected on his emotions before the first run in Bushy Park. "I remember feeling nervous," he wrote. "What if it didn't work? What if folks got lost? Then I remembered it's just a simple run around the park with your mates. This remains the principle of parkrun...

Hugh Brasher has likened parkrun's effect to that of the event his father, Chris, co-founded in 1981 ©Getty Images

"Hugh Brasher, the London Marathon race director, once said to me that parkrun was the second most important thing to happen to running in the UK. The marathon was a turning point that saw the average person take up distance running and he said that parkrun would have a similar effect. Looking back, the evidence is that he has been right so far. But let's not get complacent, because for every person doing parkrun there are thousands who are not. My goal is for there to be a parkrun in every town or village that wants one."

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.