Parkrunners, assemble!

[Millennial Pink]

There is some absolute Parkrun drama on twitter this morning. Can’t find the original tweet/where it’s come from but basically it’s about trans women signing up as women and beating women’s records

Ah, I think that booted off a few weeks ago. Parkrun are trying to please everyone (impossible) by placing the emphasis on inclusivity and moving away from focusing on times and performance. That stance is at odds with having course records, imo. It would be a shame to lose the course and age-grade records, but I don't see this argument going away otherwise.

It frustrates me that people are putting values from elite athletics on parkrun, but there we are. Most of the courses are not measured correctly, no one asks for your birth certificate when you sign up to check age or sex, there's no drug testing. The records are meaningless, so why have them?

 

[Rxt156]

I’m m talking about Gemma Clark (14k followers - radio presenter) who has been harping on about it all morning arguing with loads of people.

Lots of tweets suggest that people don’t want elites or ‘proper runners’ there but that’s not very inclusive. Same way we wouldn’t ban slower runners or people over 45 mins for example. With the nature of Parkrun being ‘do an informal, free TIMED 5k’ records etc were always going to happen as it is timed. It doesn’t take anything away from slower runners. Everyone knows a Parkrun PB doesn’t count as a proper PB anyway.

Everyone wants to beat their own time, nothing wrong with that. Surely the point of Parkrun is to inclusive and suit everyone which mean people of all speeds both ends of the spectrum

 

[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.

 

[Millennial Pink]

The time thing reminds me of the London Marathon row a few years ago, where they allowed very long cut-off times but then the back of the pack had a horrible time. LM did seem to improve in the following years. I think ultimately, organisers have to decide what the event is and stick to it. Is it a run or a walk? Having both seems to cause operational difficulties. I won't suggest a separate 'parkwalk' event. God knows where the volunteers would come from.

 

[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.

 

[orange club biscuit]

Something which I also really hate is the recent rise in amateur race photographers attending parkrun and taking hundreds of photos and posting them to Facebook every single week. I find it so invasive - fair enough if it’s a race, I kind of expect that but I really don’t want or expect dozens of awful zoomed in photos of myself jogging round my local parkrun in my county there’s a Facebook group full of these photographers and sometimes they upload 5 albums just for ONE parkrun

 

[instaclowns]

Something which I also really hate is the recent rise in amateur race photographers attending parkrun and taking hundreds of photos and posting them to Facebook every single week. I find it so invasive - fair enough if it’s a race, I kind of expect that but I really don’t want or expect dozens of awful zoomed in photos of myself jogging round my local parkrun in my county there’s a Facebook group full of these photographers and sometimes they upload 5 albums just for ONE parkrun

This is an official role from the volunteers list though and it does state photography will happen on their website. As a professional sport and event photographer and film maker, I've done a couple of volunteer shifts at my park run here in Lancs and it's always very welcomed. There are two women who regularly ask not to be uploaded anywhere and so they're removed from photos when I do them.

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[Bonbon76]

I thought you did this

 

[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!

 

[Melian]

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!

The parents clearly aren't aware it's meant to be fun and not competitive

Has anyone said anything to them?

 

[Lalalemon]

The parents clearly aren't aware it's meant to be fun and not competitive

Has anyone said anything to them?

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!'

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[Bonbon76]

The parents who get in the way in the finish funnel! One sort of propelled his child by pushing them in the back right in the funnel, completely getting in the way of my child!

The ones with their own stopwatches amuse me the most...

 

[Fifah1907]

I’ve done one junior park run with my nephew (aged 5) and he told me I wasn’t taking it seriously when I was telling him he could slow down and walk if he needed to

 

[Melian]

I'm visually impaired and use a guide to run. One lady I've ran with has a 4 year old who does junior parkrun. His grandma asked if he'd won. He told her it's not a race!

 

[Lalalemon]

The parents who get in the way in the finish funnel! One sort of propelled his child by pushing them in the back right in the funnel, completely getting in the way of my child!

The ones with their own stopwatches amuse me the most...

Yes, Olympic Dad that I mentioned earlier times the poor kid too and like to announce to him loudly how fast he finished once he's come through the funnel!
---

The parents who get in the way in the finish funnel! One sort of propelled his child by pushing them in the back right in the funnel, completely getting in the way of my child!

The ones with their own stopwatches amuse me the most...

My favourite thing about junior parkrun is the little cute ones at the back.... I was marshalling once and one little chap was running with a massive leaf in his hand swishing it about completely in his own little world and loving life!

 

[Bonbon76]

Yes, Olympic Dad that I mentioned earlier times the poor kid too and like to announce to him loudly how fast he finished once he's come through the funnel!

I do some sort of opposite performance parenting by shouting loudly "WOW! You worked so hard. Time doesn't matter at all darling! Did you enjoy it?"