Parkrun to remove course records

"The one thing they could change, IMO, is that when you apply for your barcode you get a choice of male/female and the drop down makes it clear that it is sex not gender that is being asked for."

This is what I said in my email. No, I don't expect volunteers to be asked to inspect the genitalia of the first finishers to see if they match their registration, I expect the tone to be set from the top that if they are having any kind of categories, sex or age, then the information is truthful.

The vast majority of parkrunners won't lie, it's a shame that such a small group of entitled males have abused it, and an even greater shame that Parkrun have enabled it.

All they had to do is put a note on registration and issue a statement that specified that while anyone can run and will be most welcome no matter how they present or view themselves that people should be registered under their sex not their gender, since running is an embodied activity. Then cheaty cheaters would still cheat but parkrun itself would have made it clear that it considers women's sporting achievements to be more important than sad penii.

I'm finding this all very interesting. I follow Mara and Sharron on Twitter and recently emailed my local Parkrun to tell them that my daughter and I will no longer be volunteering (we are regular volunteers and really enjoy it) and I set out the reasons why, and that we would continue to run. I sent the email to them and also to Parkrun HQ and Sport England.

I can see on the Parkrun website that the event latest results and event history tables are still there, with their 'gender' and age categories, first male and first female finishers. I can't see my local Parkrun's course records any more - is that the only change they are making?

In my email to them I told them I wanted to have a pop at the age grade record by changing my age, but although I can change my gender I can't change my age. To change either would be a lie.

Will see what the effect of this is before we start volunteering again...

'The one thing they could change, IMO, is that when you apply for your barcode you get a choice of male/female and the drop down makes it clear that it is sex not gender that is being asked for.'

Well yes, exactly, they could do that. A step towards everyone accepting that sex is sex - no more, no less, sometimes relevant. That's it.

Of course I'm not going to boycott parkrun. It's still a good thing.

What do you want them to do exactly? There's no event registration. When you get your barcode scanned at the end of an event the volunteer scanning doesn't see any information about you on the Virtual Volunteer app and it would in fact be a GDPR breach if they did.

Parkrun is run completely on an honour system. If people want to cheat (incorrect sex, incorrect age, PEDs) there is absolutely nothing stopping them from doing so. And Parkrunners accept that as the cost of having a completely free weekly event. The one thing they could change, IMO, is that when you apply for your barcode you get a choice of male/female and the drop down makes it clear that it is sex not gender that is being asked for.

There are loads of running events with formal registration and ID checks and doping control if that is what you want: because of the extra administrative burden of registration, timing chips, doping control etc you will have to pay to enter them.

It's sad when women are complicit in our own poor treatment, but not surprising.

All women should boycott them
No, you can if you want though.
I love Parkrun and that it's open to everyone, regardless of ability, age, sex, gender, whatever
It's a great way for me to go out on a Saturday morning and get some exercise despite being really unfit 😬
Doesn't matter there though, so no I won't be boycotting them and other women I know won't be either

I wrote this on another thread...

The 'parkrun question' isn't about how many males take the records or positions of females .. it is about whether women, women's sporting achievements and the participation of women in sport are less important than men's right to identify as women.

There is no need to police the categories, simply changing the language of the rules would be enough.

By removing the results, they are confirming that the feelings of men matter more than the feelings of women. Men will continue to be seen.

I honestly didn't know any of this about Parkrun and I'm sorry I have ever taken part.

The individual event results remain so your son will still be able to check how he did on each event. It's the course records and Top 500s that are going as far as I can see.

Honestly, fuck Parkrun. All women should boycott them and that would make them reconsider how they've behaved. Or women should set up our own alternative.

Perhaps I'll get my 17 year old son who's a great runner to identify as a 65 year old male and get an age record.

Love that some men's groups are up in arms about this!

It started as a time trial so yes it was competitive.

Parkrun have always maintained they're a fun run for everyone, at least if this is what they're doing it solves the problem I suppose

no, they haven't. It started out as a time trial.

The fun run (walk) for everyone started when they realised they could unlock a lot of health-related funding and encourage lots of people to take up exercise (as well as volunteering and having a social outlet).

But its origins were in a time trial.

And "inclusive" means for everyone, including the fastest runners.

How long will it take for.new records to be started? 🤔

It will be interesting to see how all the people shouting down women with, “it’s not a race, it’s only your individual time that should matter to you” feel now
I'm one who thinks it's not a race, it's only your individual time that should matter"
(and expressing that opinion and disagreeing with you on a subject doesn't mean you're being shouted down for goodness sake)
I still maintain my view, and at least this way I suppose you won't have people scrutinising the results stats comparing themselves to others and then taking it upon themselves to police who should or shouldn't be where.
Parkrun have always maintained they're a fun run for everyone, at least if this is what they're doing it solves the problem I suppose.
It's never been competitive.

As per, it'll be the women complaining about men invading their space that get the blame for the inconvenience rather than the men and the cowardly parkrun HQ

exactly right. Abusive and relentless people attacking event teams every week. What a load of nonsense - all they were doing was wearing "save womens sport" t-shirts.

I don't understand the attendance records removal either, I don't think anyone tries to increase those, it just happens naturally for a whole variety of reasons.

The age category records are still there. If you for example you go into your local results and click on an age group, it is a clickable link.

The first finishers table is still there too, but you have to google it, so I don't know long it will be there for. Every weekend, the website Fast Running does a round-up of the top 10 male and female finishers across the UK (and another one for Ireland) and I assume they use that page - it will be much more difficult and time consuming to trawl through every parkrun website.

I do wonder if they will amend the results email too so all it says it overall position, time and age grading.

In the parkrun stats group it's transphobic women's fault for daring to have an opinion of course, rather than cheaty male runners running as women. Of course it is.

I think they had to remove the records in order to keep the ‘not a race’ argument for registration by gender rather than sex. I also get that they want everyone to feel they can participate so understand why they are not wanting to say transwomen can’t register as female. They do have the option to register as ‘prefer not to say’ or ‘another gender identity’. Even if they did change the language to sex, people convinced by gender ideology wouldn’t change their registration and it can’t be policed so it would only be a point of principle and they would exchange the gender critical twitter attacks for trans activist twitter attacks.

I am annoyed that they have removed more stats than they needed to at the same time. Attendance records? Are they worried it leads to encouraging parkruns to be too big?

My male running buddy tells me that his (mostly male) What's App running club chat has exploded this evening!

It looks like you can still get lists of fastest finishers in a specific age and gender catagory (click on the catagory name under the parkrunner name on the results list).

They are just copping out of addressing the actual issue (men free to LARP at the expense of women at their events) and pissing everyone off a little bit in order to protect the special sad penis gender feels of a tiny group of people. Of course it happens to fit nicely into their "it's not a race gov, honest" wankery, sorry, I mean narrative, as well so they don't even have to grow a pair enough to actually say why they are doing it.

As per, it'll be the women complaining about men invading their space that get the blame for the inconvenience rather than the men and the cowardly parkrun HQ.

As an avid parkrunner this has really annoyed me!

Hi - just to clarify, I’m not 100% sure that all of the weekly rankings are going.
I got the impression it was more course records, top 500s etc rather than stats related to weekly races but I may be mistaken.