ParkRun and Transgender record breaker

[PennysLane]

Trans runner (M to F) has smashed a woman’s record. Turns out he’s an attempted murderer too.

He attempted to murder the HR Manager of U.K. Athletics after he investigated his eligibility to compete as a woman. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Jeska )

I have enjoyed Parkrun on several occasions with my children, I’ll not be doing it again until they get this sorted. If at all.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/22/parkrun-self-id-male-runners-smash-womens-records/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/23/transgender-murder-parkrun/

Exactly. I know it's technically a timed run but a lot of people do treat it as a race. The finish tokens, timer, finish funnel, results are all....just like a race! (In fact it's more organised than some paid "official" races I've done!🤣)

I don’t disagree! As I said, I’d count myself as pretty GC. But, I also have an idea of what goes on at Parkrun, and it’s just not practical! Results are published after the event. They won’t know until after the event if a course record was set. What are you expecting to happen? For the volunteers who run Parkrun to remember that the person who came first woman today actually looked quite a lot like a man, and to - on that basis alone - invalidate their result? Or are they supposed to ‘report’ them to the Parkrun authorities? Are they only doing it for people who set course records? Or came first? Because remember, people get results based on a token and a barcode. You don’t know anything about who they are apart from their barcode. Are you going to be quizzing every person who looks like a man dressed as a woman to see what sex they registered as for Parkrun, and not letting them run if you think it’s wrong?

I don't remember having to prove who I am to register for parkrun
Same
there always is "that" person who has to come first, but they're usually entitled twats no matter what gender they identify as
Ha yes, always one who fancies themselves as the next Linford Christie or whoever 😁
shows age.

If he wanted, he could just enter the men's category. He'd have a choice. Let's stop taking away women's choice.

Well how about just as a starting point we take down the record in the female category in the name of someone who is a male AND is in prison for attempted murder and assault? I mean, that wouldn't seem so hard to do?

We can think about the rest later.

Parkrun is NOT A RACE!
The PR records for both men and women are utter nonsense, they hold no value.

Parkruns aren't properly measured (a lot are short of 5k so if your think your 5k PB is a Parkrun you're likely wrong) varying from 4.5k-6k.

Honestly I think when you get to a certain standard of running you should graduate from PR and do proper road races.

I don't get people bombing around in sub-17(men), sub-19(women). There about fitness, appreciating the outdoors not whizzing by people on a looped course so you can cut 2s off a PB.

Rant over...

A list of names and times should be enough then? they could include an age category, and a sex category and that should be enough.

If it is a fun run, talk of course records is a bit crass.

I used to do a lot of competitive running, everything from hugely organised half marathons to a local sports club having a 5 or 10k run round the woods. With times and age/sex categories and participation medals etc (it used to be a huge thing in Germany - going to a Volkslauf was a regular sunday activity, especially in the army as the biggest "team" entered often won a barrel of beer.)

The parkruns sound a lot like the Volkslauf thing - so a lot of people are competing against themselves, or the person just in front of them - but there were results and rankings. parkrun doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, what with being inclusive, not competitive and then having lists and records. It really needs to decide if it's flesh or fish or fowl.

Ah ok thanks, that's probably why I didnt get one then, as never opted in to that.
That's the way it should stay then, optional, as doing away with publishing the results altogether would take away an option for those preferring to see online or without access to a mobile.
Personal choice

It's not taking away women's choice though as it's not a race.
If you're treating it as one, that's a you thing, not park run and everyone else's problem.

Personally I'd want the opportunity for participants or volunteers in Parkrun to challenge anybody running if they think (read: notice) that they are not the sex they are competing as. Maybe also ID check.

No matter how many times people say Parkrun IS NOT A RACE IN CAPS, you are still wrong.

It's a race and it's a fun run depending on what the runners in question want it to be, and events up and down the country and indeed the world manage to run as such quite happily. If you want to race it, start up the front and off you go. If you don't, start a bit further back and jog it.

If walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.......it's a race!

Ok, it's not a race.

Parkrun need to stop listing records and times exactly as if it were a race then.

This.

The fact this attempted murder happened in 2017 and the full facts are just being reported now, I find it worrying.

Lauren Jeska's records competing in the women's category - including 1st and 3rd places, are still recorded on World Athletics.

It may not be billed as a race but it is about community as said in some posts

It’s about anyone whether in hijab or wheelchair being welcomed. That includes women too though. And women having own section with fastest time is part of that

It was reported at the time. It's not just being reported now.

But they don’t know what sex they are competing as. They just scan their barcode to match it with their finish token. And if you think volunteers are going to be getting up early on a Saturday morning to both organise a fun run for hundreds of people and get into arguments with people about whether they are competing in the wrong sex category, then you’re in dreamland.

I didn't even realise they had categories I thought it was supposed to be running for fun

The lengths people on here are going to to protect the rights of men to cheat by pretending to be women is astonishing.

That the man in question went on to try to murder someone who queried his right to cheat hasn’t made a difference to their opinion that the rights of men must always come above the rights of women saddens me.

Park run could easily , and cheaply solve this. By recording by sex not gender. The fact that they won’t shows they put men first.

Women being competitive in sport and treating a race as a race is so unladylike.

I wish sports would have 3 categories biological female biological male open category where anyone can compete.

Parkrun needs to scrap all categories and ranking. They don’t ask for id for any characteristic so what’s the point? You get your result that only matters to you. No need to see it ranked against other competitors.

How would they stop people though?

it’s a long time since I registered for Parkrun and I can’t remember whether it asked for my sex or gender. I totally agree that it should say sex. But if a transwoman were to put ‘female’ there would be nothing stopping them and, unless anyone else has some better ideas than relying on volunteers to decide, after the event, based on their memory of the appearance of the person who came ‘first lady’ that morning, no way of checking it.