parkrun returns

[secondchapter]

Parkrun is back on Saturday and I'm quite emotional. Anyone going?

See that's what I was worried about lurkingfromhome, think I might see if I can get any local info before I sign up

Looking forwards to my DCs not needing to be in arms length 6m and 2.5 years to go...

I once called "behind" to DS2 (then 5) as the front runner was gliding up behind us on a narrow downhill. He turned, panicked and sped up matching the pace of the front runner leaving me having to do my best Ussain Bolt trying to get back in arm's length!
He's now at 8 doing junior parkrun comfortably faster than my race pace

The reality is to make sure that u11s are supervised all the way round rather than a precise rule. They are allowed a parent humiliating sprint finish
It's if your results were minutes apart that there would be issues.

At junior parkrun, there are more marshals so they are in sight of an adult at all times.

All really looking forward to it coming back here

Just don't park over my drive!

Or rather show some consideration for the neighbours!

@Simbacatisback

Just don't park over my drive!

Or rather show some consideration for the neighbours!

Oh no!!! I live half a mile away from mine so just far enough away for cars not to park near me but close enough to walk easily.

I can understand how that can be frustrating though, I've had emails from my local parkrun reminding people not to do this.

Ours is crammed in and too close for comfort at the best of times, think Friday evening beer smells last nights food and unwashed clothes

Blimey where on earth is your parkrun? I had run over 350 parkruns before it stopped, at about 35 different locations, and I have never experienced what you describe. And I am mid pack too.

I don't think parkrun will be as busy as people fear - people are isolating, others will be staying away from large events because they don't want to run the risk of being pinged before holidays etc, others will be on holiday already, and others will be too nervous to go back yet.

As for walking, I think most of the UK ones are extremely welcoming and you can easily take up to an hour to walk it - yes some people might take 16 minutes but there will be people doing 56 too. I have noticed that the slowest times at some of the overseas ones tend to be more in the 37-40 minute range, so people are running and not walking.

I had got into the habit of going to my parkrun course every Saturday but stopped because there were too many off-lead dogs and dog walkers meeting up with their charges so you had around 12 dogs together.

And we had British Military Fitness on the course.

It's going to be interesting this weekend - I think a lot of peoples' noses are going to be put out of joint. On the other hand, they'll get their town pavements back on Saturday mornings.

It is really difficult to comply with the "arms length" rule if you have a fast child, although you can ask another adult to keep an eye on them. I think the rule was aimed more at the irresponsible adults who left their kids behind, they didn't really think of the speedy kids!

I have a parkrun really near home now, but my "home" parkrun is still my first where I'm volunteering on Saturday. I do think a lot of people will be nervous about going back and it is holiday time so that will reduce the numbers too. Some courses have changed their route so they have more space to spread out at the start/finish so might be worth turning up with a few minutes to spare to check this out!

I was considering joining in with our local park run, but not sure just yet. I'm in NI and they started back up a couple of weeks ago. There were photos on Facebook and everyone looked like they were having a great time. All good. But it did look rather congested. Pre Covid I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but I did feel a bit twitchy even though it was outdoors!

I’m more excited for parkrun than almost anything else.

I’ve been doing my own parkrun since last summer, as have a few others. It’s been nice getting to know the not parkrun gang who I didn’t know before. Going to be a bit different when there’s 300 of us rather than the usual 7/8.

Not just me then @Potplant I've done the course a few Saturdays at various times of day and it is always lovely to recognize/chat to people. Most weeks we have just walked 5k setting out from the front door though.

Yes running and then volunteering as a scanner too.
I’m on 24 volunteers, been waiting over a year to get my 25 t-shirt!

I’ve walked the whole way at many different parkruns. It’s fine. It doesn’t matter if it attracts lots of fast runners, walkers are equally as welcome.

I'm looking forward to Saturday morning - I will be walking as I haven't been running at all for a long time. It'll be lovely to see the regulars at my local one again.

Very much looking forward to this tomorrow! May have to walk rather than jog/walk, as I normally do, because my knee isn't quite right. It will be a huge step back to normality for us. Weather forecast is for heavy rain here tomorrow so numbers may be low.

Yes the weather forecast isn't great. Just hoping the rain will hold off. Anyway, I will be there regardless.

I won’t mind if it rains and puts some people off, our neighbour parkrun isn’t back and they’re expecting hundreds!
Won’t be putting me off, I’ve treated myself to a new barcode print out to celebrate.

Good luck to all tomorrow, hope the rain holds off wherever you are.

High chance of rain where I am.

I think it'll be a bit like New Year - 2 or 3 really busy ones, the settle back to something like normal

Yes, very excited. The forecast is awful here so maybe that will keep the numbers down a bit, but I'd be there anyway. Double vaccinated and outdoors, in happy with that.

I'm running there with a friend, definitely stopping for a coffee afterwards. I'm fully expecting that we'll make an entire morning of it.

I read all the time about how welcoming and inclusive Parkrun is but I have to say I don't find mine to be massively welcoming and I've never seen anyone walking it sad. I wish it felt more like an actual Parkrun, i.e. no competition, everyone welcome, kids and dogs everywhere.

That's a shame and unusual IMO. We get lots of walkers and very young children at ours. DS2 walks and never comes last.

I am going to give a miss and see how it settles down. Our local one is a real mix of dogs, pushchairs, small children and is very scrum like in the first instance and at several points on the course.

We have great regular volunteers but they were regularly ignored at the briefings so I am going to see how it works. I am not comfortable but am delighted to see others join in with running or walking. My regular running group social distances when running but we aren’t 300 bodies at once.

We’ve got a massive thunderstorm here. Hope it’s not cancelled, given we run through woods!

I’ve also just realised I left my running shoes outside overnight and it’s chucked it down. I am not clever.

So your day can only get better!!

I'm wondering why my apricot is a little snugger than I remembered it. And I have also printed a new crisp barcode!