To have been really put off Parkrun by this

[rookiemere]

I'll start by saying I love parkrun. I've done over 130 of them and it's a real treat to discover a new one when we're away on holiday.

Everyone there is lovely and welcoming and it's such a great way to start Saturdays with a 5km run.

I am also older, fat and slow, but this is fine as I'm not there to win it.

So last Saturday headed to one of my usual parkruns with a friend. There was a traffic incident so many people didn't make it. This meant that rather than being in the back 10 or so I ended up being the last person bar the tail runner. Again all fine and someone has to be there.

However for the last km or so as I went past people who were dispersing made a big point of clapping loudly and shouting on encouragement. Obviously meant to be supportive, but I've run so many of the damn things and I just like to be invisible rather than the obviously last, slow ploddy person who people want to help.

I'm actually really nervous about going again, it upset me so much. I could go to one with more runners and then I should be less likely to be right at the back, but its a further drive and the whole thing has knocked my confidence and I don't know what to do.

Nice essay. But I suspect 'Daily Mail' is just shorthand for 'things you don't like'.

Maybe try to reframe it in your head like this: you don’t need or want the cheers or claps, but the other runners don’t know that. They don’t know your circumstances and maybe one week, those cheers of encouragement will really mean something to someone. So it’s better that the cheers come to someone who finds them a bit cringey, than to have someone who’s really struggling have to suffer around in total silence. You just took one for the team this week so that someone else can get the support they need another time! Nothing to feel embarrassed about and it definitely shouldn’t put you off going back.

I have a relative who’s a regular park runner and used to get a pretty fast time, but he had a heart attack a while ago and recently returned to parkrun after recovering from major surgery. He walked the whole way round and came in last. People would probably look at him and see a slim, fit-looking man who looks like he should be able to run a much better time but they would have no idea what that 5k walk meant to him that day. So I really hope he had people cheering and rooting for him at the end of his walk as I know that would have meant a lot to him.

I do know what you mean though, it can feel patronising even when you know it’s meant well. Although for me the worst is when you’re on a parkrun with three or four laps (my least favourite kind) and people start cheering you at the end of your penultimate lap going ‘well done, nearly there!!!’ expecting you to head for the finish line and then you veer off to do your final lap instead. Awkward!

That's the whole point of park run - the community feel and encouragement. If it's not for you then why not time yourself on a running app and you can test yourself that way. Or join a local running club and find friends to run with .
But it's unreasonable to expect to be ignored when taking part in a group sports event!

Oh do get a grip. The organisers will be there early to set up. It’s then 5k. It’ll be over in an hour, max. As for people ‘hanging around, clogging up the facilities’ afterwards, how dare they use their local park, it’s only for you, right?! 🙄

No, I've given very precise reasons why it has a Daily Mail vibe. Keep reading.

The latter won't happen and the former will probably just be parkrun marshalls who cheer on eveyrone regardless of ability.

If you're really worried about being at the back you can see how many people do the one you're doing and the kind of times they get. But even then who cares - everyone's in their own world focused on their own run.

They will have the permission of the landowner and have as much right to be there using the trails etc as you do.

Suck it up.

You seem disproportionately angry about Parkrun. The people who take part are members of the public just like you. It lasts for about an hour once a week. I said the marshals were volunteers because you called them petty dictators and that’s a tad unfair (I’m not one btw) they mostly clap and smile, have a small child in tow or are like the man at my Parkrun who has Parkinson’s and can’t run anymore but shouts “come on young un” at all the little ones on the last hill.
I would suggest that could you either run earlier or later on a Saturday, complain to whoever runs your local park and try and get it cancelled and/or complain to Parkrun if you think it’s too intrusive. Alternatively you could embrace it and rock up with high viz and a copy of the Daily Mail and tell everyone what to do 🤷🏻‍♀️

If we're going to throw out stereotypes, parkrunners are much closer champagne socialst guardian readers who likely abhor the Mail. The average parkrun resembles a Liberal Demoract conference.

😂

It doesn't always feel nice to be last. But that's where some of us are all the time, possibly due to age, illness, injury or disability.

Is it possible you are just displeased that you weren't better than anybody else on this one occasion?

I think it's a good idea to recognise the efforts of the people who aren't ever going to get a sub 30 and dealt with a lot of fear about whether they'd be laughed at, complained about or just totally blanked by the sporty types. Kind of reinforces the idea that sport isn't just for the wealthy and able bodied other than when you're in a special event for the disabled - it's for anybody who wants to do it. But as somebody who has had physical disabilities since childhood, I'm well used to people deliberately excluding me and making it clear that I do not belong amongst the fully able bodied, whereas you're just not an elite runner.

Have you not been clapped at a parkrun before? I find the marshals and people in the park are constantly clapping for everyone.

I do get not wanting to be centre of attention for being last though. My DH runs parkrun in about half the time I do, and my tolerance for his encouragement,
after he's lapped me definitely varies.

I quite like it, but that's probably just as well given how slow I am. I've had a group of teenage boys on bikes come back to offer me a backie to catch up with the rest of my exercise class before now.

Thank you that's very kind advice.

I'm now determined to keep going, primarily to annoy @MasterBeth .

No, everyone has to share use of the park's public facilities. For six days a week, people understand that and do so respectfully, turning up to do all sorts of activities that they enjoy. But they don't rope bits of the park off for their own use or block entire pathways or routes through the park. They don't bring amplified electric equipment so their voices can be heard across the park. They don't encourage hundreds of people to come at the same time so that the public toilets and the picnic tables become an unofficial changing rooms and the car parks become completely unusable.

I haven't rtft. I am going to very gently suggest that you have a bit of internalised discrimination going on in your head. I am always one of the last three, I'm often cheered an

Sorry posted too soon bear with me!

I'd love to be able to do cartwheels down the middle of the M25 but all those bastard independent reading motorists keep getting in the way.

How dare they tyranny of the majority grrrrr.

I'm now determined to keep going, primarily to annoy MasterBeth

I suspect that’s easy enough to do ;)

@MasterBeth the problem is that those hundreds of parkrunners are the majority.

You say everyone needs to share, but then expect that at a particular time you demand, the vast majority of people wanting to use the park for what they want to do aren't allowed to? That's not sharing. You say yourself, all of the rest of the time you can do whatever you like.

You can hardly expect them to clear out just because you want to run specifically on a Saturday morning, especially as there's nothing stopping you...running parkun.

I have run a marathon, four half's, been running for twenty years - as have many at the back, former club runners included - so yes they are making an assumption about you and me, but why be embarrassed and ashamed? Its just a time. Faster runners are incredible but they are not better than me or less shameful? Just saying, no offence

Ah sorry you felt self conscious. It really isn't meant to be patronising though.
I do CrossFit and it happens there too, people who finish the WOD first cheer on everyone else and then there's high fiving and stuff at the end. I did find it a bit cringe at first but then I made myself get into the spirit and see it for what it was - people being encouraging and trying to create an inclusive atmosphere.

This shows why ofren people can’t do right for doing wrong.

People cheering mean it to be supportive not patronising.

i am a regular Marshall at parkrun and the community spirit is one of the great things about it.

@MasterBeth my experience is so far from what you describe. As a lower middle of the field runner I’ve found park run to be the most inclusive sports club I’ve come across - all ages, sex, religion welcome with the aim to do it, not win but complete it. It’s also free so inclusive for all budgets.

Don’t let that experience put you off. They wouldn’t have meant it in a patronising way but I know what you mean about wanting to be invisible. Just remember, none of them will recognise you if you bumped into them in the supermarket.

totally ignorant view and 100% wrong. You’ve never done one so how can you possibly know.
I get OPs point but parkrun is an absolutely incredible initiative which has helped tens of thousands, possibly more, get fit.’