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.

No, the OP's was. That paragraph in bold was from the end of her first post.

ParkRun people sound really annoying, like those entitled cyclists you get everywhere, or men who dominate the swimming lanes. What's wrong with ParkStroll or ParkLoafing? *

*Not being entirely serious. ParkRun peeps keep your knickers on.

She’s quoting my post . It was my dog. I’m sure it normally is dog friendly. But when there’s 400 runners channeling down a 3ft -4ft wide path where the runners are going in both directions (it’s an out and back route) and I have a spaniel size dog they didn’t see her and were literally tripping up over her. They were in such a hurry trying to get past me (i was walking not doing the park run) and tutting and getting cross trying to get past me.

I do find a lot of park runners totally self absorbed and they don’t give a shit about anyone else.

the one near me (same one with the dog incident) the start line is on a wide tarmac path. I have cycled up there before just before the start time and they take up the whole width of the path milling about. I cycle up, ringing my bell and shouting that a cyclist is coming through and they stand there. I’ve literally had to stop before and jump off with my front wheel 6” from people. Then they glare at you and begrudgingly move across. And yes, it is a cycle path.

Parkwalk exists alongside Parkrun @MsRosley. Everyone is welcome

I'm sorry you've had bad experiences OP but they don't mirror mine at any of the 5 Parkruns I've attended (although the London runners were noticeably less vocal in thanking the volunteers than others are).

At one time in my life Parkrun basically kept my mental health on the right side of the cliff edge it was balanced on.

Different runs have different rules. Ours is part tarmac around a public sports facility and part compressed gravel track. Parkrun has official priority over the tarmac part from 9-10 Saturday mornings, just like the accessible cycling group have priority from 10-11 and the speed cyclists have it for time trials on Thursday nights. It's public space but there's give and take for different activities.

Absolutely this.

Parkrun like to talk about themselves as friendly communities and then take over public parks with their self-appointed park police, roping off public walkways and crowding out regular park users.

Being a volunteer is not an excuse to act the cunt.

I think a tiny bit of power does go to people's heads sometimes. It was amusing seeing the eagerness with which the volunteer marshals were ordering people around in a pop-up covid vaccine car park once. Most of them were totally unneeded as it was bloody obvious how you should park and which way the clinic was. But give someone a yellow vest and they suddenly turn into a seargent major.

I agree.

When I went for one of the covid jabs I got told off for pausing to put my notebook (containing a code number that they needed) in my bag, as I had stopped too far from the temperature measurement machine.

There was no queue behind me, and in fact the entire place was deserted apart from over zealous, self important volunteers with clipboards and far too much power.

Park run is 1-2 hours once a week leaving 6 days and 22 hours for other users of the park. There are people who do take things very seriously but most people are just trying to get round in a good time and enjoying the experience.
I would like to echo the thoughts of another poster who said that park run had helped her mental health. PR has helped me in the same way and aided my recovery from serious health concerns.
You will always find rude and entitled people doing any activities . Cyclist who ride 6 abreast blocking paths and roads, dog walkers who don't control off lead dogs or people who let dogs amble about on long leads tripping people up. I could go on .
If we're all a bit more considerate of others we could get on quite nicely. I do think the NT could be doing a better job of advertising when park run is on and directing people to parking places.
I will now go and tend my sore limbs after my stunning 35 mins 5 k yesterday!

I understand it was annoying but now you know when the park run is you can just avoid that time period.

My local park run uses most of the same route I use for my morning dog walk, I make sure I'm out of the way by the time the runners are starting to gather. It's an hour, maximum, once a week so it doesn't feel like a massive sacrifice.

Absolute tyranny of the majority thinking: "We reserve the right to take over the park for two hours a week and prevent your quiet enjoyment of it."

Yanbu about being held up for seemingly no reason. The volunteers could have let cars through even just warning them to go slow etc. some volunteers can get a bit power hungry (I say this as a Parkrun volunteer who doesn’t, I promise)

yabu calling the vests pink though, they are clearly raspberry 😉

Because the National Trust don’t give 2p for the or members, or anyone else who might want to visit their houses or other properties in the way in which the donors intended and agreed.

Next year they will probably just shut the estate for the convenience of the runners ( who probably include some of the staff).

Wow! It might be a reason not to call then cunts though 🙄

Sad that there's so much negativity about Parkrun here I love it, in my experience the volunteers are amazing, and a central tenet is to give way to other park users. There will always be people who don't follow those rules, but I'm very proud to support the amazing contribution to the health of our communities that this charity represents.

Is the park really that small you couldn't have cycled elsewhere in the park?

Why? You don't get a free pass to be a cunt because you're not getting paid for it. You particularly have no right or authority over people who aren't part of your gang

Why should she? Are the parkrunners really so selfish that they believe they can just block off public paths because there are a lot of them.

(The answer is "yes", in my experience)

Completely agree, I support these charity runs in theory but in practice they can be very obnoxious and entitled.

I was walking home along the South Bank last week (on a weekday, around 6pm) and there was some kind of large scale 10k charity run going on, hundreds and hundreds of people running along very narrow pavements and alleys barrelling into normal people just trying to get home.

I don't understand why these events aren't organised so as to avoid the public! If they're using an NT property, then they need to close it to paying public for the day. If they're using public streets, do it on a Sunday and close the roads so they're not running on busy pavements.

'Been' & 'being' are two different words

An ampersand is not appropriate in this context, but a full stop is.

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

The Marshall had absolutely no business saying that. It's not Park Run's land, and its primary purpose is for people to visit the National Trust properly. The NT needs to tell them that if they can't operate without inconveniencing their members and visitors, they will have to go elsewhere.

Incredible verbose patronising "I know best" self-important response.