Parkrunners, assemble!

[Matisse182]

I know Eastville! Ashton court hill is a beast! I barely ever go but it used to be one of my local ones too.

 

[Northernscumpet]

Our local one is small and generally not too competitive, there's one pushy parent with a super speedy kid (one week he fell over and just dropped out because he wasn't in first place anymore, he wasn't hurt) but that's it, others are all fine. We've not been beyond our local though.

 

[Lurkeryaar]

I have volunteered 10 times but only run 27 times... probably should run more but my local has a killer hill at the end

 

[Melian]

Are we talking about DN again?

Not him!

 

[Lastqueenofscotland]

A lot of those things are self navved aren’t they, so I guess the issue really is meeting checkpoint cut off times…

 

[Giggling Squid]

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.

ahh I didn’t get that they were doing all the roles, I thought you meant they had signed up for something for 5 weeks! Doing everything is definitely not on. There’s not even any benefit to it!!

 

[Lastqueenofscotland]

I think it was one event that had to cancel? They announced it on the day I think. I’m not sure of the ins and outs but for example, I know HQs guidelines is cancelling for vehicles for example. So if they’ve bought a van and we’re packing up and driving out.
I was RD when someone was setting up an event (we’d been told they wouldn’t be there till about 11) and we had to cancel with about 20 minutes notice as there were a few flatbeds driving in and out of one of the gates.

 

[ElektraWintour]

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)

I don’t think this is quite what you’re asking but Horsham Parkrun is in Horsham park in the summer and Southwater park in the winter but still named Horsham parkrun.

 

[chickhicks86]

I barcode scan and I’d say I only get 10 out of 160 thank me for giving up my time

Barcode scanners are the easiest to say thank you to as well, you're literally having to interact as you hand your token in

 

[Millyve]

It was far more savage before it was edited!

And with that, they have a near enough full roster for next week

 

[Rxt156]

I think fast lad is fairly into his athletics generally, so he's obviously using it as a training session, which is fine, he's flipping mental fast! It's just his Dad that is comical.... I don't think he realises how daft he sounds!

Ooh and i've just remembered another from daughter's friends Mum... daughters friends shoelace came undone so she had to stop to tie it obviously (DD stopped with her which was proper cute) friends Mum then said 'well that's her race ruined, no PB today then!'

That’s the spirit wtf is wrong with these people

 

[Rxt156]

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

That’s a good idea. Some of the pics they take are unflattering or really bad quality which no one wants.

 

[emphiii]

Henstridge Airfield ended up doing an untimed run this week so everyone got 59.59. I had a look at the run report and it veers off on a diatribe about volunteering and starts complaining about regular runners who aren't volunteering regularly. They even manage to get mentions of 'snowflake' and 'woke' in there

I can't help but think that shaming people into volunteering isn't the way to go about getting more volunteers, especially when the finish times can be quite long now.

If they cancel the event on a Friday evening when it's clear they won't get enough volunteers, it might wake people up a bit more.

I've just seen that Henstridge has now stopped for good. I feel sorry for them, they were obviously annoyed at never getting any volunteers (or the same volunteers) and it spilled out in that report. Clearly took its toll on them though

 

[WeepingCassandra]

I think it’s part of the consequence of getting so big. People just think that someone else will pick up the slack, but in reality that someone else tends to be a small core team who were there from the start. If an event regularly gets 400+ attendees but struggles to find volunteers then there is a problem somewhere.

If the community is built well then I do think those who participate should consider volunteering occasionally. It’s a free event after all. But I also know how fucking dull it is doing marshalling because the same core volunteers like to have their regular (and more interesting) roles every week.
---

Despite what I’ve said, I don’t disagree with you. There are a handful of employees who are paid, but so much of the labour over the years has been voluntary. I remember the ambassador programme being set up and it made me feel very uncomfortable that these people were doing so much work for free, while those in HQ benefited from it financially.

My comment was a little bit facetious but looking at their annual accounts and return it does seem that they are indeed, raking it in. https://register-of-charities.chari...lsPortlet_priv_r_p_organisationNumber=5107721

Perhaps not enough to offer minimum wage to every volunteer everywhere every week, but certainly enough to manage to solve this problem one could say.

 

[Millennial Pink]

Last time I did my local one a woman actually tripped over her Labrador and needed medical help.

Oh dear. I was once nearly taken out by a mad pointer thing that launched itself over the line at Silksworth. I've seen dogs get into scraps with other dogs, too. Lots of near misses.

 

[Melian]

There's a bloke who lives in Birmingham who regularly gets buses at stupid o'clock to parkrun in Scotland

 

[Melian]

Oh sorry, about the man in Ireland being the 4th person to do something…. But not sure what he did

I think it was his 6th alphabet. His wife was the first lady to do 6.

No parkrun for me today. Annoyingly I wasn't well Thursday and yesterday so told my guide runner's wife (as he isn't on Facebook) I wasn't well and wouldn't be there. I'm feeling a bit better and could have gone. But the lie in was welcomed.

 

[runningbutnotinfluencing]

Nothing worse than a 4 lapper!

I will introduce you to Clair in Haywards Heath.
4 and a half laps - and the half is their uphill, so you go up 5 times and down 4. Bastard course.

 

[orangelolly]

This is the one closest to my daughter, had thought about doing it when I was visiting her but 5 laps sounds torture.

Parkrun had it's most parkwalkers last Saturday. We were talking about how they classify someone as a parkwalkers, I'm assuming it is purely based on time. But we have lady who walks it in 45 minutes and runners who take 50 minutes. Does anyone know the cut off time for running/walking?

I was wondering this too. What have they based it on? I’d love to know

 

[Humblebrag]

To do a 5k run?!

yes, totally bonkers