Parkrunners, assemble!

[runningbutnotinfluencing]

My pet peeve though is people sprinting past in the last 50m when their time is still only going to be 35mins On a good day

I think perhaps the nature of parkrun and their strive for inclusivity has passed you by?

So what if someone sprints in the last 50m.
If their 5k pbs are all 36 minutes or high 35 minutes and they sprint to a pb in the lower 35s, they’re perfectly entitled to sprint. parkrun gives them a structured route, other runners that they can ‘race’ against and a supportive finish.

Sprint finishers aren’t exclusively for those finishing in a “fast” time.

 

[RunRunRun]

I’m probably in the minority and prepared to be shot down but I am in support of these changes. Parkrun. Own is so different to parkrun when it started, where it felt much more like an inclusive and supportive community, where people did get out their super shoes and elbow one another to start at the front, and where it was more about f a run than a race. Now it’s all GoPros and super shoes and infighting. It doesn’t feel a nice community anymore. I’m not sure these changes will make a huge difference to this, but if it means other people can feel included and trans people feel more able to participate without hounding and judgement, why not? If you want to do a 5k race, there are enough of them around. And if it stops all the tourism and crazy travel, then that’s great for the planet too.

I don’t disagree with some of your points - parkrun has definitely lost something to me as it has grown and is so different to what it was when I first started about 13/14 years ago. If it really is a run not a race, then all public facing times should go. All public and private finishing positions should also go. Including on the event page. Just a text/email to the individual of their time and that is it. For me the changes don’t go far enough. At most, parkrun should be a race against yourself, and focus on the participation and community.

I will disagree about your comment about trans people. Nothing is stopping them participating. There are multiple categories they can select if they do not want one that aligns with their sex (prefer not to say and non-binary in most countries). They should just not be able to run in the category of the opposite sex, against biological fact, and have males taking away the times/placings of females.

People wouldn’t like it if I registered my age as 80+ to get a better placing and records, so why should it apply in any other case?

Remove all the places/results completely and it solves the problem. Register as what you want because it doesn’t impact anyone else then.

 

[instaclowns]

I’ve volunteered a few times at mine but I absolutely lost my shit as a tail walker once when there were a couple in their 50s I’d guess, decided mid way through the walk of 3 laps to go into the cafe that had opened at 9:30 and grab some breakfast and a hot drink. The we’re not fluent in English and I was trying to speak to them about it and told them that they’ve kind of counted themselves out of the event now and I continued. When we’d finished and packed the course up we always go into the cafe for breakfast and a cuppa but later on this couple came steaming in asking why we’d packed up and they actually reported up and we had to have a full investigation on us and our behaviour which was appalling from HQ! We were cleared and the situation was explained to them but these people or those who take 1hr 15 to walk it are reasons why volunteering sometimes declines as people have lives outside of Parkrun and it turns into a 2.5hr shift

 

[Baby Giraffe]

My pet peeve though is people sprinting past in the last 50m when their time is still only going to be 35mins On a good day

Blimey, hope you don’t mean it like this sounds, when I first started running 35 mins was a pretty unobtainable time so to get to that with a last push was something that made me feel great. Hearing somebody tell me that it was ridiculous doing I that for a time they didn’t deem worth chasing would have really upset me. Not sure why you would be peeved by it anyway.

 

[Zerothree]

Hahahaha I like parkrun but this thread is amazing. A few of my pet peeves:

• Front of the pack runners who take themselves way too seriously (push to the front, treat it like a proper race, discourteous when overtaking, disregard for the people still finishing, etc). I'm a sub17:30 5k runner when I cba and these types give "speedier" runners a bad name.
• People who have done 100s of parkrun and are there every single week but never volunteer, especially when that event routinely struggles for volunteers. I get that people have different personal circumstances but for most, if you go to your local parkrun every week surely you can volunteer once or twice a year!
• Excessive Parkrun tourism (2 hours+ drives and/or flights just to tick off a parkrun), alphabet, all that culty nonsense. Especially when it's middle-aged blokes who are mostly doing it so they can post on Instagram for their other internet friends, embarrassing.
• The middle-aged men - who are usually mid-pack runners - who take parkrun way too seriously and are full of self-importance. If you've volunteered enough times, you will have probably come across these types. Most likely to be rude to marshalls, most likely to complain about something trivial, first to moan if there's an error in the results. Proper losers

 

[WeTalkAboutBruno]

My pet peeve though is people sprinting past in the last 50m when their time is still only going to be 35mins On a good day

Why I'm not a fan of runners/parkrun, exhibit A

 

[kazizzle]

I quite like my local parkrun but we have quite a lot of athletics clubs in the area so there are some FAST runners. I'm always in the last quarter of finishers. It's a nice route though and I always enjoy the atmosphere.

My pet peeve though is people sprinting past in the last 50m when their time is still only going to be 35mins On a good day

I always do a sprint finish and my time is always between 33-35 mins depending on the day. I "jeff" at parkrun (run walk run) so always have a good amount in the bag left for the finish straight. 35 minutes is a perfectly reasonable 5k time.

 

[Notworthy]

It's fair to say that this change is little to do with people being triggered by the fast finishers.

I'd go as far as to say nothing to do with.
I'm not adverse to the changes but hiding the real reason us cowardly. Parkrun know the tide is well and truly turning regarding men pretending to be women, that's why these changes are happening now

 

[Patrickthewonderdog]

I hate parkrun. I was event director for 5 years and I hated the change to including 1 hour plus walkers - like I had nothing better to do with my Saturday than wait for people to walk really slowly round the park when it’s 2 degrees outside and then they never ever offered to volunteer. So I quit - not for me anymore.

 

[Humblebrag]

THANK YOU MARSHALL! People who yell that, as if to show extra thanks

 

[Lastqueenofscotland]

When I used to RD I wouldn’t read out milestones of people who hadn’t volunteered…

 

[Humblebrag]

It’s so pathetic! I have no idea what I’ve done to get banned from commenting.

did you spell parkrun with a capital P?

 

[Lalla]

My pet peeve though is people sprinting past in the last 50m when their time is still only going to be 35mins On a good day

Honestly it's posts like this that put me off going back to Parkrun. I did a few before COVID when I was thinner and fitter, and my absolute best time was about 34 mins. I was one of the last 2-3 to finish every time, as ours is quite a small Parkrun and was full of blokes who finish in 17-18 mins.

Now I'm 3st heavier and i doubt I could do it in less than 50 mins. I don't want to be bringing up the rear thinking people will be wondering why I'm even bothering or that I'm holding all the tailwalkers up from going home

 

[RunRunRun]

If there are age gradings and course records then sex must be respected. Male puberty cannot be erased by having long hair and wearing makeup, or by identifying out of the realities of biology. It doesn’t matter if this is grass roots or elite sports, respecting sex and its differences is the only way to be fair. Make a third category if it helps.

When I was fitter the age grading and female position mattered to me. It will matter to others now. If inclusivity matters above all else then parkrun need to decide to get rid of the records/timing/position element….which kind of defeats the object of why it exists.

Yeah I get that no evidence is needed to fill in anything correctly, but I’m sure if I identified as an 80 year old to get some course records something would be done about it.

 

[Lurkeryaar]

THANK YOU MARSHALL! People who yell that, as if to show extra thanks

Then you have the opposite at my local parkrun when recently a runner shouted abuse at a marshall for cheering people on

 

[Rxt156]

I have found my people



Also people that double Parkrun on Xmas need to shut up and spend time with their families

 

[blueblue]

I think when you are running/walking/generally moving regularly it's really easy to underestimate how unfit some people are. Talking a long time to do 5k might be someone's biggest achievement that week.

 

[Millyve]

“Karen is celebrating her 100 park run today, do you think she wants any publicity”

Well the fact Karen has turned up with a 100 balloon im saying yes she does…..

 

[anniemouse]

Blimey, hope you don’t mean it like this sounds, when I first started running 35 mins was a pretty unobtainable time so to get to that with a last push was something that made me feel great. Hearing somebody tell me that it was ridiculous doing I that for a time they didn’t deem worth chasing would have really upset me. Not sure why you would be peeved by it anyway.

Surely everyone wants to finish strong don’t they? My time yesterday was terrible as it was my first but I still pushed myself to speed up at the finish line just for the sense that I’d achieved it. I’m not comparing times to anyone, I don’t care about that.

 

[Lastqueenofscotland]

On the subject of unhinged parkrun tourism, last summer (I’m sure I screenshotted it but now can’t find it) I saw a post of a woman who hadnt realised the parkrun in Cyprus was on a closed military base, had booked to stay as near to it and found out two weeks before she couldn’t do it and was genuinely considering cancelling her and her families (no one else was a parkrunner) holiday and trying to get a last minute deal somewhere with one…
Batshit.

I like parkrun and like touring and doing lots of different parkruns. I hate “tourists” the same day return flights to Poland, ignoring requests to not go to a parkrun because of one of the dumb ass number sequences. Environmentally horrible and so selfish.

I used to RD and stopped for a number of reasons but people being absolute twats was high up there, I had two worst offender groups.
1) as someone said before, middle aged middle of the pack men. Always rude, never volunteered.

2) also always rude and never volunteer, a particular brand of tourists: slightly larger women in tikiboo skorts, always with camel packs, who take about 45 minutes, always running in a group on a three lapped course which gets narrow and being bloody dickheads about being asked to keep right.We didn’t have toilets at our parkrun, there were some in the park that the council didn’t open till later in the morning made VERY CLEAR in the course description and I had one woman of the above description literally have a tantrum because I couldn’t open it for her.
They were always also the ones who emailed into complain that the barcode scanner wasn’t super cheery, or the marshal was too cheery and it was patronising (both genuine complaints).

argh