Women's Park Run Record smashed to smithereens

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The way to beat records for men to self ID and run as a female. Straight into the record books and stand aside females whilst man in dress sets the record. Is nothing safe from men anymore?

Was a married man until just 4 years ago.

I think the answer could be for a time to not be included as a record if it was found a transwoman had recorded it. At one point, a time couldn't stand as a record if the person had a dog on a waist lead because it was classed as assisted. Perhaps this could be similar.

I agree with this in principle but who would police it? The Event Directors are all volunteers. The course record being broken wouldn’t become apparent until the results are processed so it would then need that —cheat— parkrunner to come forward and say ‘despite the fact I’m in the 40-44 women’s category I’m actually trans so it doesn’t count’.

it just wouldn’t happen. The event director wouldn’t know at the time to be able to stop the result being submitted. They wouldn’t think oh that female looks a bit mannish so I better investigate further 🙁

I did say if "it was found" a transwoman had broken the record. I wouldn't expect the run director to realise at the time. I suppose it could fly under the radar for a bit.

I did know someone who took his wife's barcode by mistake once. She was briefly recorded on the results with a really fast time!

I took my daughters barcode once too! It was a good time I ran so was disappointed not to have it recorded!

Thanks for all the replies. Interesting.

I do wonder whether I have been pushed down the results by transwomen without realising. I've done parkruns where you can see who is front of you very easily due to out and back sections etc (an example would be Teignmouth Promenade in Devon) and thought there were x women in front of me but when the results have come in I've been further down. Now of course it could just be I've made an error and missed someone, but it could also be that someone looked like a man - because they were.

There is a little movement here. parkrun still saying they are in the right but saying they will do a review. Hopefully they will talk to more people than Stonewall:

Yes, I would but parkrun isn’t a race is it?

You are being disingenuous imo. Parkrun may not call itself a race, but it is set up like one. It has a finishing line. People get their times, and they are given a position tag which says whether they came 1st, 2nd, 250th etc. There are records for fastest man, fastest woman etc.

Runners (or walkers!) don't have to regard Parkrun as a competitive event, but that doesn't mean that it is universally regarded as non-competitive. If there were not an element of competition, why would there be record-holders?

Fucking fraud.

Part of me wishes Eilish McColgan wakes up one Saturday morning and decides to do a parkrun.

Yes. Maybe we should start tweeting the elite female runners and ask them to go to parkruns where the female course record is held by a male-bodied person once the World Championships are over.

I did a run in London on Tuesday evening - the winner was a lady called Lucy Reid who I'd not heard of but is right up there with the other elites. I reckon she could take a few parkrun records down as she can do 16 minutes on a flat 5k course.

Although I only know one parkrun where the course record is held by a transwoman, and that's Parke. And the holder is listed on the UKA website as being female. Not sure if the holder has a GRC, it's possible as they were featured in a Womens Running magazine article a couple of years ago - they're not someone who woke up last week and decided to wear a dress and compete as a female. But in any event, that needs to change back to male.

Shame. I thought he looked like a really sweet man :) kind of cute! But clearly she's a knob with no regard for women :(

Parkrun is a race for some people. And for those people both racing against themselves and others that is important. It isn't a race for others. This is fine for both groups of people.

For the women who want to look at their statistics against other women then this is important. I occasionally parkrun and I like to look at my statistics against my age group and my biological sex. I am not a particularly speedy runner, but I am ak. And even at my level it is important to me. So there should be a trans category or people should enter as their biological sex.

Nice 👍

If it were that important, runners would do something else. Noone takes parkrun seriously and the self registration with no policing tells you all you need to know.

The only winner from this is the Daily Fail. 7 pages of bickering.

Can you imagine the uproar if it was the other way round: women overtaking men in their category? Something would soon be done. Wat absolute nonsense this is being allowed to happen and perhaps encouraged. Male category, female category and open category. Simple

BCBird this actually happened:

https://olympics.com/en/news/zhang-shan-the-only-female-shooter-to-win-gold-in-a-mixed-competition

Banned from shooting against men after winning gold.....

I doubt it because park runs are fun and not remotely serious, other than on a personal level.

I doubt it because park runs are fun and not remotely serious, other than on a personal level.

Are we only allowed to expect fair play in things that are really serious? I don't think so. If a 10yo entered and won the infants' egg and spoon race at primary school, would that be fine on the grounds that it's not serious or professional sport?

Yes, but this is about women, @Fairislefandango . We're supposed to put up with unfair shit and not complain.

This. I would be embarassed to win this if i was her.

That's not what I'm saying.

Now that it's come to light, Park Run HQ can decide if they need to do something about it. But as I mentioned upthread, Park Run is a self registering event and noone polices it.

If the runner had remained anonymous then we'd be none the wiser. Same if I entered a different age category and came out top.

My OH and I run. He's passed and beaten by women all of the time, as are hundreds of other men who enter events all the time. It's really meaningless as most are just challenging themselves, not battling for their sexes.

That of course is different depending on the type of event you're entering. Park Run could start policing and increasing scrutiny but it may end up ruining the event for the rest of the entrants. It's probably not worth it for the zero fuss it brings 99.99% of the time.

Yes, but this is about women, @Fairislefandango . We're supposed to put up with unfair shit and not complain.

True. But quite aside from that, I find this 'Oh what does it matter - it's only some people jogging round a park, it's not a competitive sporting event' attitude very irritating. Things don't have to involve prize money or official rankings to be important to people. The whole point of getting your time, and of the age-ranking statistics, is for people to be able to measure their own achievement. That doesn't work if cheats like this man come along and skew the stats.