To think ParkRun need to consider banning racers?

I'd have a word with your run director and let them know what happened. They or the director of the next run can address the issue at the start and mention expected behaviours of those passing other runners and those being lapped.

If you need exclusive use of a venue hire one otherwise make sure all participants behave in a reasonable manner. If you can't ensure that then it shouldn't be allowed. It actually isn't allowed in our local park anymore. Actions have consequences.

I was with you OP but you've lost me now. It's not for you to decide where someone wants to run. Who are you to tell them they are embarrassing. You are just rude.

Spot on. I believe in South Africa people with health insurance get a reduced rate if they can prove they are doing some sort of organised activity that will benefit their health. This is one reason parkrun has done well there, as it provides an easy way of proving that.

My husband is disabled and in pain. We get his exercise, which he needs, by getting up, having breakfast with his heavy duty painkillers and going out when pain most manageable. There is no reason park runners have to have the whole path meaning other people can't walk safely. No excuse for pushing people out of the way. If runners can't behave in a civilised manner then the runs should be banned A great example of selfish behaviour.

Why should we have to avoid the park?

I wouldn’t run if i was on fire, but our local towns SM tells of dog walkers and small children being shoved aside in pursuit of a win in our local nature reserve/park… and then the parking chaos they cause. They’re not making themselves popular the last few months, which is a shame as I think everyone has rubbed along okay for a good few years.

Agreed. Also, organised races involving road closures have to be approved by local councils and notified to the police and other emergency services. They're planned months and years in advance.

I imagine amongst the 29% were people who disagree with the premise of the thread title, rather than they think this behaviour is acceptable.

I suspect the angry men might start to rethink things if another, possibly much larger, man started to shout and swear at them when they act out of order, though knowing how the world works it would probably be the man telling them off who got banned and the badly behaved men would be allowed to continue.

They have hired it. With the local authority’s permission - they’re just not being charged for it. And that’s because the health benefits and community benefits are significant.

The idea of ‘why can’t they just hire a venue’ is also laughable - a) there are clearly not many ‘venues’ big enough for a 5k loop to hire, b) the whole thing is free to participate and run by volunteers. It no doubt saves the nhs a chunk of money because there are a lot of people who have been encouraged into regular exercise by it.
Bad behavior should always be called out but that doesn’t mean park run should be made less inclusive just as a couple of rowdy teenagers don’t mean all teenagers shouldn’t be allowed in parks or the odd very loud and disruptive child mean no child should be allowed in restaurants.

Our local park is small and park run meant other people had to exclude themselves from the park for safety. Hire a venue if you want an event.

It happens once a week on a Saturday morning, starting at 9am and usually all finished by around 10am. Junior parkruns for 4-14yos are Sunday mornings and as they are shorter they are generally over and done with by 9.45am. Parks should not be no go areas because of parkrun, but even if they were, it's for a tiny fraction of the week, so pretty easily avoided.

It's not a new thing. I used to park run pre Covid and was pushed out the way by a couple of runners from the local club. Nothing like enjoying your run and then being shoved to the side out of nowhere. Yes, they were all men who did this.

I don't have much sympathy for this point of view. A park is a community asset and Park Run is a community activity. It takes an hour and it doesn't take up the whole park - just one path through a park (and parks generally are big enough to have several paths running through them). Park Run is held at the same time every week so you know when to expect them and you can avoid them all together if they upset you.

If there is a run through a city which is big enough to involve roads being closed, I find it hard to believe it took you 'by surprise'. These events are publicised for weeks beforehand. It's one day a year; get over yourself

Yeah. My question is how did OP know these were men behaving like this? I assume they didn’t reveal their gender identity. They could have been NB or women for all we know.

We bumped into an old running friend at Sainsbury's yesterday. He introduced us to Parkrun years ago but we haven't been for a long time. He told us, though he still runs and had just returned from doing the Boston Marathon, he and his wife have totally given up the parkrun cos there are too many people. It used to be a regular group of about 300, everyone was very friendly, no one berated me for being too slow, I was always last through the funnel, then we'd all split off into our own friendship groups, some would leave and some stuck around for coffee and cake. Apparently now there are over a thousand and most people we knew don't go anymore. It's just too busy, its takes too long, and there will always be a bunch of awful people trying to make it competitive.

I enioy Parkrun. Sorry it was spoiled by those men.

Even running fast can cause problems like accidents - I had one after tripping, running faster at Parkrun than I should have!

’They’ are volunteers and it must be difficult to deal with antisocial behaviour. They have the names, scould communicate with them afterwards.

Not at all happy with Parkrun as an organisation for not having a single sex women’s category.

I stopped doing park run when they let men who identity as women into the womens

either park run needs to decide what it is, fun social way to get to 5k or allow people to race and manage this, like the marathon and almost have two starts with the people wanting to run like this start at the front

I’ve never said it’s okay to do that. I’m just taking issue with the smug proclamation that if you do parkrun you can’t be a real athlete (whatever that means as even the top club runners won’t be professional athletes). You can be. Nobody should push or shove or swear at people.