Parkrunners, assemble!

[Baby Giraffe]

That’s the spirit wtf is wrong with these people

Somebody I vaguely know has a daughter who must be about 6. She fell over and hurt herself at school sports day, bleeding knee etc. The mum was then screaming at her to carry on and not fail and that pain was just temporary. Poor kid was crying her eyes out and will no doubt learn to hate exercise. In the same event another kid skipped the whole race and waved and smiled to everybody. She was loving it and her parents were happy that their daughter was happy. I know which family I’d rather be part of.

 

[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

 

[Baby Giraffe]

I think it’s more how parkrun has changed over the years. Back in the day, there was parkrunner of the month, the annual points competition where you could get points for volunteering up to three times and when you did, it was over by 9:40 and you could be home by 09:45. My old parkrun was 40 people on average, now it’s 500+ every week. That element of community and competition has been lost sadly.

Personally I find far more of a community in something that's accessible to more people than a more restricted approach where a lot of us weren't welcome as we'd not be deemed fast enough. Doesn't sound like much of a community, more of a clique

 

[Lastqueenofscotland]

I think I’ve seen the post you mean. Personally I think parkrun should bring back the rule where at the discretion of the event/RD, they can have an hours time limit. Especially in very poor weather like we’ve had this weekend.
Volunteers are human and is it the end of the world if someone has a sense of humour failure after over an hour stood in an actual storm.?!

I don’t RD anymore but did for god… basically a decade, and saw a lot of changes, and I think the huge push to encourage slower walkers/runners correlated with an issue attracting volunteers. And very little thought is given to the volunteers.

 

[Melian]

I think I got a walking pb today!

 

[Lalalemon]

We love junior parkrun! Some of the parents are interesting though!
There's a few really fast kids at ours and one in particular if you were solely watching his Dad, you'd think it was the bloody Olympics.... constantly balling at him telling him to pick up the pace etc.1
Then there's the parents who run with little kids (which is fine) but they're literally dragging the poor buggers round in order to get a PB!
My daughters friend's Mum also said she's not allowed to stop/drop out, if she starts she HAS to finish.... they're 7! Mine has dropped out a couple of times because she's fallen over, or she's just not been feeling it that morning!

 

[Vixen88]

My local PR puts me off volunteering. They seem like a cliquey group that share all of the main roles between them every week. The run report is full of in jokes no one understands outside of their group.
The volunteer names they list are always like John ‘lame adjective’ Smith, Sarah ‘wacky anecdote’ Jones.
One of them has decided that getting a time where the seconds and minutes are the same is named after one of the core volunteers surnames. So these, for some reason, are listed weekly.

I will volunteer at some point and I’m sure they’re not a bad bunch. I’ve also put it off as it’s a bit of a trek for me to get to on public transport.

Otherwise I like running them, super inclusive. I’ve done some parkrun tourism, but only when I’ve happened to be somewhere with one nearby, I’ve never travelled for one especially.

 

[WeepingCassandra]

Christmas parkrun, or new year, is the main one I do we have other sporting activities Saturdays which mean I don't do it much.
Haven't they stopped the double now by saying they all have to be at 9? We spent one new year morning we queuing to get into the carpark at Haldon Forest. It was rammed with people trying to do the double.
My other half has a real bug bear about the organisation behind parkrun and the rules they issue, the trans thing, the sun newspaper executive they appointed, the dogs on leads not harnesses....

Same, not because I do other activities but because it's the one day of the year (pre-baby) when I feel good about getting up early (i.e. before 8am on a Saturday)

We're going to enter the world of buggy running at parkrun soon. We're very casual parkrunners, once every few months if we can be arsed. Since baby has come along we've been twice I think (he's 5 months now). If he enjoys buggy running and his naps/sleep schedule fits it we might up the frequency when he's old enough but if I'm honest I hate our local buggy appropriate course and the other ones round here are not buggy friendly.
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My mum does parkrun, she's asthmatic so she essentially began with powerwalks with short bursts of running. She says there were plenty others at the beginning of their running journey and plenty of people finished after her. She started off taking 42 mins to power walk it, has been doing it a year and can now actually run and get 31 mins consistently. Not everyone who goes does it quickly. Everyone has different health conditions and age so you should only compare your own time to your average.

I don't run myself yet (I've never liked the sensation of running), but I must admit my mum's success is tempting me to try...

Bloody hell, 42 minutes to walk a 5k? Sign your mum up to race walking! I can barely run a 5k in 40 minutes at the moment!

 

[chickhicks86]

How many people would be soon keen on parkrun if they didn't get a time at all? I don't know any runners personally that don't record their times and distances on a watch or phone app, in my mind parkrun is an extension to this except you get that magical text and your barcode on the website. I know some very fast runners who use it as part of their training, and also a very hardcore runner (the type that commutes a half marathon to work ) who will happily plod a 45 minute parkrun at the weekend with her kids and doesn't care how that affects her stats.

 

[Patrickthewonderdog]

I remember the 45 minute days back in the early 2010s. I was ED and i loved picking people for the Sweatshop trainer voucher each month and also all the (free!) milestone T-shirts came to my house and I would have to give them out each week. It was much better. 45 mins is still not fast (my kids at the time were 5 and they could do it quicker than that!) so it was still highly inclusive.
It then got way too big and I started to hate it so I stepped down. I have barely been back since as it’s a bit weirdy and culty now and I don’t want to spend my Saturday clapping in some people ambling round the park in over an hour when I have other things to do.

 

[forthelifeofriley]

I was barcode scanning today, it was nice. Someone was pissed off with a girl who was apparently cheating (he said she was cutting corners) Silly not to follow the course but oh well.

It will only be their problem when they set a PB they can never beat

 

[RunRunRun]

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.
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The 'obligation' to volunteer at parkrun pisses me off, like I've said before. If it's that necessary, perhaps the organisation should put their hands in their pockets and throw some cash at it. I'm certain very few events would be short of volunteers if you offered minimum wage for the hour or two that they need to be there.

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.

 

[Millyve]

How have people not heard of google….

 

[WeepingCassandra]

Why should faster runners volunteer more than slower runners? As a naturally faster runner I feel unwelcome at parkrun. I think parkrun is anti-fast runners - walkers are definitely more welcome than us.

Parkrun isn’t inclusive at all. It’s cliquey and cult-like.

TBH I don't agree with this mentality of everyone should feel they *have* to volunteer but equally everyone should be aware of how much time, effort and sacrifice goes into putting on the events and that if people don't volunteer, the events simply won't happen.

My OHs dad set up a parkrun before the pandemic, he left the lead team a couple of years ago because it was getting to the point where every week they struggled for volunteers and the same people would not run to fill the spots, but equally they had a large group of regulars who would turn up and complain that something was wrong after their run and never make any effort to help out - even for a quicker runner scanning in barcodes for half an hour after or something.

 

[Millennial Pink]

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

 

[Giggling Squid]

I've started to become petty and won't clap when they announce milestones that aren't milestones. "Peter is doing his 200th event" good for him, but he's not getting a t-shirt.

One of our RDs refuses to do these even when asked. I love it.

 

[NotGonnaLieToYou]

I was scanning yesterday and one of the participants got scanned and made a big show of thanking all the volunteers and saying we were the backbone of parkrun etc. All very nice, but this guy has never volunteered and he's there most weeks. I wonder what it would take for him to volunteer? He clearly understands how it works. I was thinking about that aggressive run report again. Do most runs have a few volunteers who volunteer most weeks and aren't runners? We've got a number of volunteers like that at my local one and they enjoy the volunteering for it's own sake. Not sure how common that is.

There's a woman like that at my parkrun - runs almost every single week but volunteers maybe once a year. Comes up to me saying thank you so much for all you do at parkrun etc and all I can do is smile and accept. But then I rant to my husband in the car after saying I wouldn't be volunteering so much if people like her helped out a bit more. But I find with parkrun you have to be nice and smiley to everyone.

We have a lady who volunteers but doesn't run. She walked with her husband when she first came to parkrun. But she's found now that she's not really able for the full 5km anymore so she comes along to help out and chat while the husband parkruns. The couple are late 60s/early 70s and enjoy getting out to mix with people.

 

[chickhicks86]

I'm just trying to figure out how a course record being published would put someone off coming to parkrun? Is that the main motivation around doing it? As a sport, I do find running quite inclusive, not just parkrun. The fast times are inspirational!

 

[chickhicks86]

The slowest person at a local parkrun today was 1 hour 25, the person in front of them was 55 minutes. If one person had caused my volunteering slot to run over by another 30 minutes I would not be impressed. And that's on a nice day!

And it's not just as if it's affecting one person, is it? RD, tail walker, barcode scanner plus anyone involved in course closedown would have to hang around. It's so disrespectful and entitled. I know it's supposed to be inclusive, but that's not even making an effort surely? Most normal people would have the sense to drop out, surely?

 

[NotGonnaLieToYou]

The cynic in me suspects that they got a bollocking from HQ and said sod this

That would make sense alright. It kinda shows that parkrun HQ should be supporting events more. If events are struggling for volunteers, low participation numbers etc they should feel they have somewhere to turn to for support. Volunteer is often a thankless job and there’s only so long you can keep doing something for free that is costing you time and energy and getting nothing in return.