To think the National Trust should not let Park Run volunteers marshal the cars at a NT property

[ParkRunIdiots]

So rocked up a very large NT property with lots of parkland at about 9:25 today.

had gone through the payment control bit, then you drive for about another mile (no joke) to the car park. Just before the car park all traffic stopped in a traffic jam caused by two Park Run people in pink vests who would not let any cars through.

So I sat there and say there and sat there, not a single car moved through. I could see the runners approaching from the right, at times there were gaps in the runners but still no car was allowed through. After ten minutes still no car had been allowed to pass. Several cars behind me did a 20 point turn and left.

Then I realised that the runners weren’t even crossing the road as I’d originally assumed, they turned right and ran alongside the road edge, which has a massive Green verge they could run on . So in my mind no need to stop any car. Or if some risk assessment has deemed it too dangerous to have the cars beside the runners then it means there’s no access to the car park for about 45 mins, in which case the NT property needs to open later!

the runners were all strung out, no big wide bunch/crowd, so single file or in pairs.

anyway I honked at this point. One pink vest guy had obviously been waiting for this moment and charged up, ran past me and bollocked the car behind me who was mid 20 point turn and leaving. That driver grassed me up so the park run guy came and condescendingly told me “when there’s a gap” we will let a car through. I said it was ridiculous, that there had been plenty of gaps, nobody had been allowed through and the runners weren’t even on the road!

At which point he told me if I didn’t like it I could leave!

then the other marshal let some of us through, even though there were still runners running alongside the verge the same as there had been for the last ten minutes! I think they were letting cars through in groups of 5 or 6 as some had gone through just before I got stopped. Again when there were runners there! So nothing to do with gaps!

diagram for an idea.

I do feel like emailing the NT and telling them they need to have an NT person there overseeing it, and preventing the Parkrun people been rude to other users.

I may be slightly anti park run after my (on lead, walking to heel) dog was trampled on and tripped over by several park runners on the inaugural run of my local new park run on a narrow public bridleway and they shouted at me for been there with a dog (even though I’d stepped into the mud at the side). Still not forgiven them for that.

Probably, as there is no real way to avoid the main route to the shops etc. now. Which is why the PR should not be blocking it.

This post is ridiculous and ill-informed.

Yogi Bear doesn't work at Jellystone Park, he lives there.

I am not sure how acessible the actual park is for horses nowadays - and those at Clumber Livery probably stick to the periphery anyway.
I guess I was lucky back then - it was far less busy, we could go anywhere and my mother (as a NT employee and Clumber resident) got me the Annual Pass - which I think only would have cost us £50, and was very well worth it.
Fond memories.

It's perfectly possible to think Parkrun shouldn't have priority over, or be allowed to block, NT land which others have paid to access, without having to knock the entire Parkrun model.

I think it's a great idea and so good that it's still free for runners, enabled by sponsorship and volunteers. That said, one hears time time again how it disrupts other people going about their business with a gross sense of entitlement. Which was thoroughly corroborated by Mr No-manners @Manners23 VIP VBC race director.

don’t believe that at all - parkrun always states that runners don’t have sole use of the area and must be courteous to other users. They don’t block areas for other pedestrians or walkers in a public space.

no of course they never block areas for other walkers 🧐

Absolute bunkum! The event’s corporate sponsors support things like the results system that motivates people to come back week after week to try and improve their time or earn milestones. The events and their directors are all volunteers, every single
one (approx 30 at my event every week!) … big business isn’t even on our radar.

And it’s marshal with one L, they’re not fire dogs with little red helmets.

Those photos 😳

They are very obviously blocking the path and making it unusable for anyone else.

But not only that - how can they even run in that crowd? I know I wouldn't be able to without tripping up or bumping into other runners. The path is too narrow for the volume of people, so that any obstacle on the path however small can become a serious hazard. They either need a different "venue" or to limit the number of runners. It just doesn't look safe.

Exactly. Which was the situation I was in when people were tripping up over my dog. They’re all trying to jostle past each other and me, they don’t notice a small dog. Trip over the dog and then get snarky with me for being on a public footpath.

What absolute nonsense. What parkrun pie?

Oh no, you might have to wait a minute or walk on some grass! How terrifying. Quick get in your car and run them all down. You’ve paid £70 annually for the right to drive over runner’s toes after all.

The now withdrawn post was from the volunteer Run Director of the parkrun in question. Nobody gets paid for being a Run or Event Director. They give up a lot of time to organise these events and co-ordinate the volunteers. I'm not an RD or ED but I know some of ours. I don't have the impression that they get much training from parkrun. It's very much a case of working it out as they go along.

Since you like a diagram

Obviously

I'm not sure stealing picanic baskets is technically work.

Does he have an employment contract? What's his annual leave allowance?

Anyway, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that everyone in the UK has heard of ParkRun and knows the exact day and time that it meets. I didn't know any of this stuff until this thread. And Park Run might be on a weekend morning but there are other runs that affect commuters more, and it just doesn't seem like the culture of competitive running is one of tremendous awareness and concern for not negatively impacting others, which is a shame because clearly it's very healthy and does a lot of good for those taking part.

Being a volunteer does t excuse the attitude.

*doesn't

People frequently run in a crowd and manage not to fall over. Haven't you ever seen the start of the London Marathon? I've been to maybe half a dozen different parkruns and in all cases there are a lot of people bunched up at the start for a couple of minutes and then the slower people like me fall behind and the faster people strike out far ahead and there is no difficulty at all for other people to get past. Obviously every course is different, and there are hundreds of them across the UK, each with its own challenges.

I said walkers. It’s a bit difficult when you’re already on a narrow footpath and a crowd of people like in those photos come charging towards you. Can’t get in a car at all when you’re a mile down a narrow footpath.

Yes I know I was being sarcastic I obviously don’t think you can hop in your car and run them over. But you can step onto the grass and avoid them, walkers can simply walk to the side or step aside and wait. Runners will be gone in a minute they’re literally running past not standing around causing an obstruction. A few minutes after that photo was taken that path would be practically clear again.

And as I said in my post when talking about the time I was with the dog I did step off the path and was on the grass. But faster runners were also running off the path to try and weave past slower runners. I literally had nowhere else to go as there was a massive bramble hedge. I’d no problem actually with walking on the grass, even if it was long grass, my feet were getting wet and the ground was really rough (I’m mobility impaired). But I was still get banged into.

So it’s ok for people to run into me and my dog if it’s only for a few minutes? Ok, fine. How silly of me to have an issue with that.

Obviously that’s terrible etiquette and they should not have been barging into you.

However that experience doesn’t have anything to do with your original post except for the fact that on two completely separate occasions you’ve been annoyed by runners. Yes the runners who ran into you were wrong to do so. But that doesn’t mean you should be allowed to drive your car on a path with people actively running on it during a parkrun event at a NT site which your post was actually about. You were still unreasonable in that instance.

Not at all what I said I was commenting because your photo examples of an obstructed path literally had meters of grass to the side and was a pretty rubbish example of the runners being unavoidable.

I’ve never said I wanted to drive my car on a path with runners. That would be very silly.

For a start there were no runners on the road. There were a sporadic strung out handful of walkers on the verge. Nobody was on the road regardless of what the gaslighting run director wants to say, the verge was wider than the road. There were gaps between the walkers on the verge where you could have slotted a bus inbetween them but still the marshals didn’t let anyone through.

If they’re really so risk averse that they don’t want a car going along the road beside the runners/walkers even though the cars would be about 8ft away from anyone they either need to play nicely and take it in turns. Or plot a different route avoiding that stretch of road. Or block the road off and direct people to the other secret car park. And not be talk to people so rudely.

Some of the parkrun advocates on this thread are kind of proving the OP’s point about attitude.