Parkrun comments giving me the rage

Because …

i) It is supposedly not a competition / Olympics,
ii) Apparently, cannot be ‘policed’,
iii) Some people are supportive of male people being treated as if they are female because kindness / respect / friends / belief.

and people have lost so much already with parkrun that women should not expect anything to change because if there is a change it can only be to the detriment of women due to i) and ii) so therefore should accept sex discrimination for the overall good of the organisation and making some male people feel better because of iii).

Or... people just don't care. I run in our local one most weekends - as do my children and DP. It is literally just not an issue for the vast majority of people. Going hell for leather and attacking Parkrun is utterly batshit behaviour - it takes away focus from where we actually need single sex spaces.

Or... people just don't care. I run in our local one most weekends - as do my children and DP. It is literally just not an issue for the vast majority of people. Going hell for leather and attacking Parkrun is utterly batshit behaviour - it takes away focus from where we actually need single sex spaces.

Or... people just don't care. I run in our local one most weekends - as do my children and DP. It is literally just not an issue for the vast majority of people. Going hell for leather and attacking Parkrun is utterly batshit behaviour - it takes away focus from where we actually need single sex spaces.

Really?

You think questioning when ‘first female’ is actually a male. That’s the batshit behaviour?

I mean, seriously? 😵‍💫

It turns out that there are photos of my local parkrun last year. I have found the woman who came 1st. I think it could be a woman, the person is quite small and slight but is wearing a cap which obscures a lot of their face. But anyway, now I know what they look like, I will keep my eyes peeled at future parkruns.

I just feel like someone who is that good would have been good in her youth and people would know about her.

It is literally just not an issue

Yet still they persist in sending emails telling people that they have come first in their category. Must be a technical error and not a blatant attempt to treat women less advantageously than men.

I think trying to make it into a huge issue for what is essentially a community-driven initiative to get as many people running and active as possible - is batshit behaviour. There is an increasing level of GC purity test that we're all expected to just go along with and it's nonsense. I feel exactly the same way about what happened with the WI. Our local one voted to close - as did countless others - and then re-set up as a group on their own because they didn't want to exclude trans people. I have no problem if you want to set up a single sex group or run your existing group as single sex - and some should absolutely be required to be single sex - but for a bloody community fun run or get together - absolute nonsense forcing them into it. I've been reading about how the tide is turning for near on a decade now - it's not going to happen in the way that the extremist GC position wants. We can either have sensible boundaries and hold them or go on pretending that the Supreme Court did something that it didn't - and make ourselves look increasingly more batshit as the days go on. You may want being GC to be your entire personality but I can assure you that for most people - it's a passing thought.

I think trying to make it into a huge issue for what is essentially a community-driven initiative to get as many people running and active as possible - is batshit behaviour. There is an increasing level of GC purity test that we're all expected to just go along with and it's nonsense. I feel exactly the same way about what happened with the WI. Our local one voted to close - as did countless others - and then re-set up as a group on their own because they didn't want to exclude trans people. I have no problem if you want to set up a single sex group or run your existing group as single sex - and some should absolutely be required to be single sex - but for a bloody community fun run or get together - absolute nonsense forcing them into it. I've been reading about how the tide is turning for near on a decade now - it's not going to happen in the way that the extremist GC position wants. We can either have sensible boundaries and hold them or go on pretending that the Supreme Court did something that it didn't - and make ourselves look increasingly more batshit as the days go on. You may want being GC to be your entire personality but I can assure you that for most people - it's a passing thought.

So?! Just opt out of the emails if you're that bothered or launch your own park race. Parkrun don't have a monopoly on running in parks.

With respect - this is unhinged behaviour.

Parkrun don't have a monopoly on running in parks.

I'm now sceptical about your claim that you take part in parkrun.

It is difficult to set up a parkrun event, and parkrun does actually have the monopoly. It is highly unlikely that a local authority or organisation like the Royal Parks would give permission for multiple events to be held each week.

But why cannibalise parkrun. What do you have against fair categories?

In what way is it unhinged? There are photos of participants and she came in directly ahead of one of my running clubmates, so she's on a photo with them! Easy to see what she looks like!

There are people who check all the marathon results to look for anomalies. Now that is is a bit extreme, simply because of the volume at somewhere like the London marathon.

Parkrun welcomes all runners. If you're upset with how they run their own events - you're welcome to start your own.

You didn't read the post did you?

You didn't read the post did you?

I'm don't think parkrun has events in every park so while double booking may not be possible, others exist.

I'm don't think parkrun has events in every park so while double booking may not be possible, others exist.

I would imagine that anyone who thinks Parkrun sections off parts of parks - or takes them over completely - has never actually taken part.

I genuinely don't think that you have taken part if your suggestion is that e.g. Bushy Park would be happy to host more than one parkrun a week.

Lots of 'it's too hard for me to set up my own event so instead I'll try to force an exclusionary policy on an unwilling organisation'. What it doesn't say is that the reality is that exclusionary groups with no need to exist just aren't as popular as inclusive groups. See the recent hiking thread - one hugely popular inclusive hiking group and one barely-attended, dwindling single sex hike. People aren't going to abandon their usual Saturday morning schedule unless they care a great deal about what the alternative is offering.

Lots of 'it's too hard for me to set up my own event

Again, you give the impression that you don't quite know what you are talking about...

I'll try to force an exclusionary policy on an unwilling organisation

Nobody has suggested that. If parkrun wants to protect the privacy of all competitors there are ways to do that. It just wouldn't enable men to compare their results, and that seems to be a stumbling block...

See the recent hiking thread - one hugely popular inclusive hiking group and one barely-attended, dwindling single sex hike.

You seem confused. Nobody is suggesting that parkrun should become single sex. Just that it shouldn't discriminate against women.

I don't know Bushy Park, so I have no idea. Mine begins and ends on an athletics track - so there's plenty of opportunity to organise runs. Unless you think your local park is representative? But again - this supposes that a GC only run would be more popular - and all the evidence suggests that it would not be.