Parkrunners, assemble!

[Giggling Squid]

I've done some parkruns in over an hour because of the terrain. There was ice at Heaton parkrun when I first visited. I was fit enough to run it but didn't want to risk it.

Slowest was 1hr 12. Far too muddy and slippery to even consider running it.

There are also some parkruns that are challenging. My local is one of the hardest in the UK. Not unusual to see people come in over an hour.

Hardly inclusive if you have a cut off time.

But those are exceptional circumstances, and not the norm. My local parkrun is a couple of laps around a paved park. As someone who regularly volunteers because I love the atmosphere, I do NOT want to be standing around for 20+ minutes after everyone but 1-2 participants have finished waiting for people who can’t walk 5k in a reasonable amount of time. 20 min miles is a normal, not that fast walking pace. It’s the pace Google maps use as average.

I stand by the fact that if in normal conditions you can’t walk 5k at a normal pace you shouldn’t be at parkrun. There will always be uncontrollables like weather, terrain that affect speed, and I don’t think that a blanket 60m cut off is right but there absolutely does need to be some rational thought

 

[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.

 

[Baby Giraffe]

“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.

I don't think that's necessarily true, I'm not competitive and don't care where I finish in relation to anybody else but it's a nice measure of my fitness to compare my times I time all my runs but rarely race. I do have a fancy watch but most people starting out in exercise don't so it's nice to get that text to let you know. As far as people walking, it depends a lot on the attitude of the person. Somebody wandering along and stopping to chatting isn't good at all but (I think I've posted previously about this), one of the most inspiring parkrun events I attended was when a quite badly handicapped kid made it round on calipers with his mum, he was putting a fantastic amount of effort in and a large proportion of the runners stayed to cheer him on. He normally volunteers with one of his parents so is well known and so gives a lot normally so it seems fair to give him something back. I wouldn't want to put people like that off but then again, for me, the most rewarding role is back marking as it can really make a difference.

 

[GalofHal]

Morning parkrunners, freezing this morning.

Was looking at stats, and a year ago I was tailwalker. 1hr34m in December. Nobody was waiting at the finish, they'd gone home or moved on to the café.

It was a couple visiting from Australia so I had to stick with them.

Where do you draw the line? It's meant to be for all abilities but that was too much imho.

 

[Hellojanuary]

Tail walker should be able to disqualify participants if they’re walking too slow. I do it in 40-45 mins pushing two kids in a pram. An hour and a half is taking the piss!

 

[chickhicks86]

Totally agree about the very slow walkers making volunteering less appealing! But I guess how do you draw the line between the repeat offenders who hold things up every week, and the ones who have maybe overestimated their abilities and didn't managed to do it as quickly as intended. I'm not keen on the "parkwalk" initiative either, it's diluting the essence of parkrun, which I've always thought was to challenge yourself a bit against others (even though it's not a race!) and against your previous times. There are plenty of other groups etc out there for those who want a social walk.

 

[WeepingCassandra]

So we actually made it to parkrun this week and I'm back with some thoughts about walking XD

First of all, I did walk a bit - roughly 2/3s of a mile in bursts - as I went off way too fast and was running at about roughly 3 minutes per mile quicker than I have done since May 2021 (my first mile was 9:xx and I haven't run sub 11 minute miles since getting pregnant). There were several other people who also walked at times. But everyone was giving it effort, no-one was ambling around looking like a lost soul following the pack blindly because they felt they should. I think that is the key difference and what probably annoys volunteers more. There's a big difference between someone walking as fast as they can with short breaks and someone just plodding along, not getting out of breath and taking 2 hours to do 3 miles.

 

[Millyve]

Why do people leave getting to a destination until the day of park run someone on park run tourist pages flight was delayed so the chose to get escorted back out the airport and found a park run near by….. utter madness and a waste of money.

 

[Melian]

If I want to fly to a parkrun I'd go the day before because of my concern about delays

If it's going to take more than an hour by train, I'll go up the day before.

 

[WeepingCassandra]

Why do people leave getting to a destination until the day of park run someone on park run tourist pages flight was delayed so the chose to get escorted back out the airport and found a park run near by….. utter madness and a waste of money.

Yes, I saw that! And I thought what a bellend, why wouldn't you go anyway and enjoy the city?

Personally I do not get this travelling around to get different parkruns. If we're staying somewhere Friday night for something and we're free Saturday morning, I might check and see if there's one that we could get to but I'm not going to book a hotel or drive for 4 hours on a Saturday morning JUST to run 5k.

 

[Fifah1907]

People travel further for a park run than I’m travelling for a marathon next year

 

[fireflies]

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

Lol people do that at my local park run

 

[Baby Giraffe]

Lol people do that at my local park run

To be honest, thanking marshalls for giving up their time is basic manners, seems a strange thing to be annoyed about

 

[fireflies]

Done 9 park runs now I alternate between 2 locally.
The one that's more central just off motorway my least fave as over 500 runners hard get a good pace on lap 1 as so many trying to start.
Lap 2 is around a lake.
Lap 3 around whole park then half to finish.
Issue is after Lap 2 coming up hill from lake to start Lap 3 you share the same path as those who are super fast heading to finish line as get to end of path and some turn right to finish but I'm straight head to 1.5 more laps feels mentally hard see so many finished before.
I'm always in final 50 to 60 places and my personal best is 36mins 11 seconds.
What annoys me about results.

Is never tell you how many female runners.
How many in your age group
Percentages think 43% around highest yet the bench mark for good is 60%.

Was so cold minus 2 yesterday went to smaller ones so half the number of runners but basically each Lap is up one big hill and down.
More of a rough path than the others I came 194/ 225 runners with 36.56 finish time.

I never look forward to it but feel great afterwards.
Definitely getting faster and volunteers always seem lovely.

Find hard get past buggies and nearly tripped up over a few dogs.
---

To be honest, thanking marshalls for giving up their time is basic manners, seems a strange thing to be annoyed about

I think most say thank you just some runners defiantly more enthusiastic and extra chatty with marshalls than others was the point.

 

[Baby Giraffe]

Is never tell you how many female runners.
How many in your age group

You can search the results page by age group and it states the number of women in your result, hopefully clear on this random screenshot

 

[*twinkletwinkle*]

You can search the results page by age group and it states the number of women in your result, hopefully clear on this random screenshot

It always tells you in the results email too where you came, came by gender, and came in gender/age category

 

[Baxter75]

Done 9 park runs now I alternate between 2 locally.
The one that's more central just off motorway my least fave as over 500 runners hard get a good pace on lap 1 as so many trying to start.
Lap 2 is around a lake.
Lap 3 around whole park then half to finish.
Issue is after Lap 2 coming up hill from lake to start Lap 3 you share the same path as those who are super fast heading to finish line as get to end of path and some turn right to finish but I'm straight head to 1.5 more laps feels mentally hard see so many finished before.
I'm always in final 50 to 60 places and my personal best is 36mins 11 seconds.
What annoys me about results.

Is never tell you how many female runners.
How many in your age group
Percentages think 43% around highest yet the bench mark for good is 60%.

Was so cold minus 2 yesterday went to smaller ones so half the number of runners but basically each Lap is up one big hill and down.
More of a rough path than the others I came 194/ 225 runners with 36.56 finish time.

I never look forward to it but feel great afterwards.
Definitely getting faster and volunteers always seem lovely.

Find hard get past buggies and nearly tripped up over a few dogs.
---

I think most say thank you just some runners defiantly more enthusiastic and extra chatty with marshalls than others was the point.

Is it St Albans parkrun?

 

[muffinheeler]

To be honest, thanking marshalls for giving up their time is basic manners, seems a strange thing to be annoyed about

Yep, I thank every marshal and especially on days like yesterday. I also buggy run and have taught both of my children to say thank you. I don't really see the issue with it

 

[Millyve]

Yep, I thank every marshal and especially on days like yesterday. I also buggy run and have taught both of my children to say thank you. I don't really see the issue with it

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

 

[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