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/

I'm not volunteering this weekend. DS is but I'm on strike until they start treating women better.

The male record for parkrun has been broken in Edinburgh this weekend. Twitter account parkrunuk retweets someone announcing it and they remark "Brilliant achievement Andy 😍👏👏🧡". Tell me again that parkrun do not see it as a race and that records are important and valid... But only for men.

So true. Bloody awful hypocrites they are.

Fair point

You must have missed the announcements when the female parkrun record was broken (I mean the international fastest - like Andy's was the fastest men's internationally)

It was even covered by the BBC

Samantha Harrison: Athlete breaks female Parkrun record - BBC News

Fastest at one individual event doesn't get that level of shout-out (esp as the one at the start of the thread was over 2 minutes slower) though some other exceptional achievements do get them eg Alex Yee attracted a lot of attention when he ran the (then) second fastest men's time internationally when he was barely out of his teens. Ditto oldest ever parkrunner (at all, or to a milestone)

If you look at what parkrun blogs and tweets about, fast running is a tiny fraction of it. But the national/international record times would feature whenever a new one is set.

I think you misunderstood the point that MrsJamin was making. When women complain about males taking female records we get told Parkrun is only about inclusion and being the best in class or fastest doesn't matter.

Clearly it does to both sexes (and Parkrun when it suits them) but only one sex has fair competition thanks to Parkrun rules.

That's exactly what I mean @OvaHere . I remember seeing the news about the female record too but it just reeks of "we care about achievement when it suits us and about community engagement when it suits us." They're trying to be all things to all people and this is an untenable position.
I still haven't had a single response to my many emails about this. Pathetic they can't even try and put into words what their position is as they know it doesn't make sense.

They care about inclusion all the time. Look at the sheer volume of their output about that.

They mention the setting of new records on the (pretty rare) occasions when one is set.

So if you look at the blog, the top posts are:

• celebrating 5k your way
• junior parkrun and National Sports Week
• job ad for fundraising manager
• tips for running in the sun
• octogenarians at parkrun
• modernising some of the underlying admin
• tackling loneliness with parkrun
• chair of parkrun global running the Ulster Way for charity
• junior parkrun legends
• parkrun and NHS

Most recent tweets (parkrun)

• modernising some of the underlying admin
• story of a 78 yo who started parkrun volunteering after cancer diagnosis
• story of parkrunner with breast cancer
• 10 year anniversary of Ambassador Programme
• another on parkrun ambassadors
• this week's junior parkrun records: 500,000 different finisher; 31380 participants in one weekend; highest number of events 416
• story of a parkrunner from C25K to endurance events
• milestone news - now over 500 in the 500 club
• junior parkrunner's story, participation with Down Syndrome

Most recent tweets (parkrun UK)

• milestone images (and merch)
• parkwalk special event
• parkrun barcode wristbands (merch)
• junior parkrun this weekend
• retweet: 95yo finisher and a parkrunner returning after cancer treatment
• parkrun magazine latest edition out
• congrats comment on Adrian Stott's tweet: men's record-setting run at Edinburgh
• retweet: parkrunner celebrating MSc by running in gown
• retweet: Mildenhall parkrun's 1st anniversary
• retweet: story of parkrunner coping with depression

Now, why such a long list? Because I thought you might want to see the context. And the content that parkrun puts out itself v what it retweets and comments on

They don't care about inclusion of women FFS. Have you read any of this thread? Parkrun have to make a choice. It's either:
A) parkrun is a race. Times are public. Comparisons can be made between people in fairly defined comparable groups. Fast times are celebrated.
B) parkrun is a run/walk. Times are private. No public comparisons are made. Anyone can participate however they like because their time is their own and are never compared to others' times.
A and B are not compatible to be held together. If parkrun insist that people can self-declare into a group which would be a central part of how a race (A) is organised, it cannot remain to be A. If they are clear that parkrun is a run (B) then it doesn't matter how someone defines themselves on a form.

They've chosen C - an inclusive timed event, which celebrates participation above times

If you want A, there are loads of events to choose from, with affiliated events which follow the Sports Councils' guidelines on sex/gender

If you want B then there are also plenty of clubs and fun runs, or you could just run. Or even parkrun without registering or taking a finish token

But it does have times, divided into categories in a way that disadvantages one group. So really not inclusive.

They've chosen C - an inclusive timed event, which celebrates participation above times
So why do they have men and women's categories? Why do they measure times?

C isn't an option. It's not inclusive as it doesn't include women who believe that their sex is real. Try again.

I don't think parkrun will "try again". I think they'll stick with option C

There are oodles of other running events and clubs for those who don't like what parkrun does

There are oodles of other running events and clubs for those who don't like what parkrun does
I find this sort of comment infuriating. No, there are not oodles of other events. Parkrun is probably the most widespread event and in lots of areas it is the only regular event. In any case, park run is enjoyed by many women. Why should only men get the option of running and comparing their scores within their own sex class? This is discrimination not inclusion.

Discrimination not inclusion.

That's exactly what it is.

Their position is untenable. See support.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/articles/200565263-What-is-age-grading- ... It states
"Age grading takes your time and uses the world record time for your sex and age to produce a score (a percentage). This score allows you to compare your personal performance against other people's performances even though they might be a different age and a different sex to you - the higher the score the better the performance."
This is an outright lie. They have publicly encouraged people to self-identify as a gender whereas this states the age grading is by sex. There are so many hypocritical aspects to their position, they clearly don't care enough about women to make a clear decision one way or the other.

If ParkRun records don't matter.

Then no-one will mind that the woman's record time is held by an actual woman. It doesn't matter does it?

The TQs can just get their own group of records that don't matter, because it doesn't matter.

There aren't. There was a similar Great Run Local event, but there were about 10 across the country and in any event they don't exist anymore.

All parkrun needs to do is say that you run/walk/jog in your sex category - or it could have open and female.

Despite what people like to say on here, you can tell transwomen from women in nearly all situations. And someone who broke a course record would stand out, so people would look at them. No it's not that easy to police generally, so I might come fifth in my age group when I should have come fourth. But for course records, the organisers would know and could report to parkrun HQ to deal with.

parkrun should comply with UKA rules on this as the results go onto the Power of 10 website (the official record of athletics results)

I tried contacting them about this months ago and have never had a response. It is another of those organisations who don't make it easy to contact them about anything.

Some confusion here between two different transgender male-to-female runners: Siân Longthorpe and Lauren Jeska. Respectively, these men hold Parkrun records in the women's 45-49 age group category and the women's overall category.
Siân Longthorpe is the transgender male-to-female runner who broke the Parkrun record by one minute and 13 seconds in the Porthcawl Parkrun on Sat 20 May 2023 (18m 53s) in the women's 45-49 age group category. She was a married man until 2019.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12120333/Trans-athlete-smashed-womens-Parkrun-record-married-man-four-years-ago.html
www.spectator.co.uk/article/parkrun-have-got-their-trans-policy-very-wrong
The overall Parkrun women's record is held by Lauren Jeska, a transgender male-to-female runner who is a convicted attempted murderer.
A report dated 24 May 2023 at www.lbc.co.uk/news/feminist-activists-outraged-as-womens-parkrun-record-holder-revealed-to-be-trans states:
Lauren Jeska, 41, was jailed in 2017 after repeatedly stabbing UK Athletics official Ralph Knibbs, 48, after he questioned her eligibility to compete as a woman … the Parkrun website still shows Jeska has the record for the Aberystwyth Parkrun, running the 5k in 17 minutes and 38 seconds.
See also www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12118371/Fury-Parkrun-womens-record-revealed-held-transgender-attempted-murderer.html

That's not true, the parkrun women's record is held by a woman.
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/aberystwyth/results/latestresults/ it's Aberystwyth parkrun where Lauren Jeska holds the record.
Sian holds it at Parke parkrun.

I agree that parkrun results should not go in to any of the accumulator/ranking websites.

The times aren't particularly accurate in the first place (inherent in having volunteers in the role) as well as all parts of the demographic information being unverified, plus no checking that you've actually run the distance (Runners World did a fairly notorious piece a while ago about how very easy it is to short cut). So quite a long way from affiliated standards in several areas

It would be so easy for parkrun to change those two records.

But even better would be if someone like Sam Harrison or Melissa Courtney-Bryant went to those parkruns and beat those records. Parke is a tricky course, but an elite woman would make short (fast) work of it. I don't know Aberystwyth but there are some fast Welsh ladies like Charlotte Arter (who I think may have held the worldwide female record briefly or came very close to it).

Parkrun stops showing fastest finishers after row over trans athletes posting records in female categories

I'll be interested to see how attendance is impacted.