Parkrunners, assemble!

[Lastqueenofscotland]

I think it is already a bit of a victim of its own success. I feel a lot changed when vitality came on board from an ED/RD perspective anyway? So I’m not sure how much pressure they were under to please the sponsors.
I’m still not over the safeguarding training I had to do when vitality came in, I was very pleased it was essential. I was an ED for an inner city parkrun at the time in an area with a few issues and thought it would be great given we are more likely than most to attract vulnerable adults, maybe teenagers in chaotic homes…. It was an hour long PowerPoint presentation which was an advert for vitality with a slide at the end basically saying “call the police or social services” that was it.
What a waste of everyone’s time but also a good opportunity to actually give some useful training about how to deal with tricky situations.

 

[Millyve]

Surely it’s better to have volunteer spots filed than not? We have a lot of people who do this at my local

I see where you are coming from, but I also can’t see why others can’t wait until the week before adding themselves to multiple roles if struggling. In a couple weeks time I wanted to volunteer and get a good time in but the only role left to do is tail walk, this week id of been happy to do a pre or post role but I can’t because one person has already fulfilled them.

 

[Melian]

But it's annoying when it's the same people every week. (I do understand the same person volunteering to guide run as it's not the easiest role. But give others a chance to tail walk, etc)

 

[Humblebrag]

I saw that on the tourism group. That's just far too much effort for me. I hope the upside is that they'll all spend a bit of money whilst they're there and contribute to the local economy.

All with their funny t-shirts with all the events they visited listed on the back

 

[Millyve]

I personally think they need to give more of an incentive to volunteer…. I’ve signed up to marshal at plenty of local events close to me, I get free entry into other events and credit to merchandise which I think is brilliant, correct me if I’m wrong but park run give you credits towards volunteering but you then still have to pay for a volunteer top? I don’t believe for one moment that they couldn’t give you a freebie 50 times you volunteer when they are making money from the other merchandise they are selling?

 

[GalofHal]

Same with the age group statistics. I checked them out for inspiration. I'm a 65 year old runner and was amazed at some of the times. Really helps me keep on going.

 

[Notworthy]

The park run I go to has a rotating group of RD so they can run most weeks, quite a few DofE volunteers and a few non running partners. There's a few volunteer jobs that don't prevent people from running aswell.

 

[RunRunRun]

I don’t see how just because some people are slower than others that means no one should be timed. Feels like throwing the baby out with the bath water

“It’s a run not a race” as per the parkrun propaganda. So don’t time it then. Or highlight placings/age gradings etc. Like I said, they need to pick a lane and stick to it. They can’t be all things for all people.

 

[Humblebrag]

Parkrun is perfect for people with OCD like this, all their weird letter/number challenges and streaks

 

[RunRunRun]

I’ll just leave this here

I need an eye roll reaction.

 

[Rxt156]

We had today at our parkrun, a girl about 12-13 her dad pushing to the max and throwing up twice when she crossed the line. We offered them some water, her dad was like she is fine. Tell her to get up off the floor and walk. She was like a ghost, and not steady on her feet at all. Then the dad was saying to her stop been dramatic and walk. we couldn’t believe it..

Oh god I hate this type of parent. When she is a bit older hopefully she will have the guts tell him to fuck off. He’s going to drive her away from the sport with that attitude. So sad to see

 

[Lastqueenofscotland]

Oh I don’t mind the photographers, even though I always look like the girl in the exorcist in my running photos.
There is a young lad who does them at one near-ish me and the rate of his improvement in the last year or so is amazing
They say to put thumbs down if you don’t want to be in a picture and if you appear in it at all they’ll take it down, and have always been incredibly responsive to removing pictures when requested

 

[runningbutnotinfluencing]

I didn't realise that the lot who went to Inis Meáin had actually chartered their own ferry. Flaming hell.

To be fair; I think it was that they asked the ferry company if they’d put the route on that they have done before but culled due to lack of demand.
So … ask and you get. If that’s what they wanna do, fair enough. Crack on.

 

[aimz_yeah]

Thanks for this thread. I am relatively new to running and my 5k is sllllooooowwww. I keep feeling like I should try park run but I'm embarrassed to. But this thread has shown me I'm not missing much!

 

[Humblebrag]

A Liverpool club went by plane to Dublin for parkrun today- posting pics with pints and fry ups BEFORE the flight

serious athletes

 

[Millennial Pink]

parkrun have just advertised for a content creation ambassador to launch their tiktok channel. Sounds more like a paid job to me

It does sound like it should be paid. There are already people making parkrun content of their own i.e. they could potentially make money from it. I can't see the benefit in this volunteer role, tbh.

 

[RunRunRun]

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

Another annoying thing that became popular due to the podcast (carrying on my moans from the runners thread). Just say thanks if that’s what you want to do.

 

[orange club biscuit]

Rothwell in Leeds is another penis shaped one

 

[muffinheeler]

It was more about the fact that in Sydney we have a challenge named after someone because they were the first person to complete all Sydney based parkruns.

It's quite a common thing to name challenges after the first person to do them - Cowell, Freyne are the ones that spring to mind. I think there's a Lon-done one for all the parkruns in London.

 

[Magentamarathon]

Does anyone know of a parkrun which has moved location? Ie they are still in the same town but moved to a new area and course?
(Doing a bit of research for an event director who is considering moving an event to a different location but in the same area)

Gainsborough closed and now Thonock Lane Farm is the replacement (less than a mile from previous).
I think there are newer rules about names, so don't think they could keep the Gainsborough name.