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.

If the driver of a vehicle clips someone as they pass or someone stumbles into the path of the car or indeed a stone is thrown up from a tyre and hits someone then the driver would be liable

No, if I clip someone with my car, I may be liable.

But if someone stumbles into the path of my car travelling at reasonable speed, I am not.

Where are you getting these legal opinions from?

I’m not surprised to hear about the attitude of the volunteers, sadly. I know that the organisation say that they prioritise shared space, but that certainly didn’t seem to be the case with our local one. If you weren’t taking part, they wouldn’t let you walk on the public footpath, which was also the main pedestrian route to and from the station for a lot of people. They’d physically block your way. 5 - 10 minutes hold up when you need to catch a train isn’t great - I know a number of people complained, but I don’t think anything was ever done.

@Manners23

I wasn’t sure whether anyone was being unreasonable until I read your response, but OMG the entitlement! You don’t have more of a right to space than anyone else.
ParkRun need to accommodate other park users. If that means telling people to run on the spot for a few minutes to force a break for traffic or other users so be it.

Parkrun directors seem to think they're organising an Olympic marathon, not a jog round the rec.

I would have been happy to talk to you yesterday if you wanted to raise it or you could, still can, contact me by email [email protected]

@Manners23, it's a bit ridiculous to say OP was supposed to divine that you might have been there and searched you out rather than getting on with the visit she went there for. It might have been helpful if you had gone out to talk to the visitors being held up. It seems to me pretty unacceptable that people were driven to turning around and leaving - that's a waste of their time and a loss of income and goodwill for the National Trust.

If the driver of a vehicle clips someone as they pass or someone stumbles into the path of the car or indeed a stone is thrown up from a tyre and hits someone then the driver would be liable.

The driver might be liable if they clipped someone. They wouldn't in the other two circumstances you describe.

@Manners23 oh dear I cant help thinking a quick post giving the OP your email address and asking her to email you so you can discuss would have been a better tactic on your part.

A Man has arrived. A Very Important Parkrun Man. That's the OP telt!

Well, if anyone was in any doubt that Clumber Parkrun organisers feel that their group is far more important and worthy than anyone else who may be at Clumber, and they should all just get out of the way then I think that's cleared that up completely.

Particularly like the touch of berating OP for using the National Trust's own map.

I think ParkRun's PR people are currently cringing in horror at the damage @Manners23 has managed to do with one single post.

What a very odd thing to say. I love parkrun. It's done a lot for me and I give something back by volunteering every so often. I can reassure everyone that when I don the high viz there is no rush of blood to the head and I don't become power crazed! My role is to encourage parkrunners and watch out for any accidents or other problems.

The parkruns in our local parks are all there by permission of the council or they wouldn't be happening. It took a fair amount of negotiation and discussion before ours could start up, I believe, and the clincher was the evidence that it is a really good way to improve physical and mental fitness for people of all ages and from a wide range of backgrounds. No expensive equipment needed for participants, no charge to take part, just a group of volunteers and some basic equipment provided by parkrun HQ and stored in a shed at the edge of the park.

In my experience, quiet enjoyment is not really possible on Saturday mornings, in our park, anyway, as it's full of kids heading to football practice or the playground or just running around, dogwalkers (who tend to move in packs and are not quiet), and runners/cyclists/walkers not doing parkrun.

If that was how OP wanted to spend her morning she wouldn't have left her house, would she?

Well there's always two sides to every story isn't there. Not very often we get to read both.

@Passepartoute The OP is apparently a past Parkrunner, so it's reasonable to assume they'd know there is a Run Director on site to speak to at every Parkrun.

Can you really not see the difference between football being played on designated football pitches, children playing in a children's playground, individual joggers and cyclists using paths as they do through the week and a crowd of 100/200 people gathering from 8.30, blocking pathways through the park, then roping off a finishing area, again on public pathways?

Oh @Manners23 i do think I love you.

So it turns out that not only could the op not see the whole picture from where they were, but that they in fact didn’t have to wait as long or when they said they did.

And I do not think it’s unreasonable for a few hundred park runners to have the the run of the place for two hours a week. Everyone else can have it the other 95% of the time.

op simply leave your house 15 minutes later and all this angst could’ve been avoided. Park run is the same time every week as you know so there’s no need to get caught out again.

I would contact Parkrun in the first instance. The organisation is very hot on not inconveniencing other park users - it is mentioned in every start briefing I have ever been to (except Fountains Abbey, which doesn't open until 10 a.m. anyway). It may be that the volunteers have misunderstood their remit and just need a reminder or redelpoying to roles where they don't interact with the public.

It's incredible isn't it!

You seem to have a very strong aversion to parkrun. They are all different, in my limited experience. And no, I can't really see the difference. In our park, the area where the children play football on Saturday mornings is used by adult footballers later in the day and by all park users at other times. The council agreed to the football coaching and team use and that means other park users don't get access to those areas then. Parkrun participants in our park are on the paths and trails for under an hour, nothing is closed off to anyone else, shared use is not a problem at all as far as I've ever been aware, and the finishing area is off the path and inconveniencing nobody.

The two incidents took place at two different locations. The first is a large park but the park run course is by the main visitor car park so access to that is impeded during the event. I’d ask why the park run can’t pick another route in the large park?

the second event is not in a park at all but along a public bridleway, which starts off as a wide track and the second half is a narrower path. The narrow path is jammed full of runners in both directions during park run. On the wider bit of the track the runners could keep to one side but instead insist on using the full width of the track. Seems they’re too intent on their times to drop back and let others pass.

Having already been held up, why on earth should she flog back from the car park to find the director who could, frankly, be anywhere along the route of the run? Indeed, if he was doing his job he would have been doing something to prevent this situation arising.

As has been pointed out, most park runners work on the basis that inconveniencing other users is an absolute no-no. Yet @Manners23 clearly believes that the runners have priority, despite the fact that this was National Trust land where people visiting the National Trust property clearly have priority.

I know Clumber Park well and as others have said, there is plenty of space to have the park run without impinging on the traffic routes. To the poster who said that OP should not complain as she wasn’t in a hurry and was comfortable in her car, she needs to realise that we do not pay our, not inconsiderable, membership fees to sit in an unnecessary traffic Queue. We go to enjoy the beauty of Clumber.

Register for Parkrun and you can enjoy it for free 😉

It’s an hour a week where thousands of people across the world can improve their mental and physical health and spend time socialising. Just go later, I would walk my dog somewhere different or at a different time because I’m not so self important that I think my needs are more important than the couple of hundred people doing the activity I’m against.

I really hate runners . Nusciennce and a menace

If OP is a previous parkrunner they would absolutely know that the run director is always at the finish line (to supervise it) and will be wearing a special high vis which says ‘run director’ on it in big letters to identify themselves.

I honestly can’t see why people get their knickers in a twist about this. parkrun has
been called the greatest public health intervention EVER. It’s free, forever, for everyone. It’s prescribed on the NHS. It’s proven to improve lives (there’s an academic group producing peer reviewed papers on the topic). Even if you’re not doing it yourself, surely that’s worth 10 mins of your time.