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.

What an utterly ludicrous and offensive comparison.

Not nearly as ludicrous as your suggestion that walkers and the disabled taking part in Parkrun are being 'exploited' FFS.

Anyway I'm off for a run. Have an evening.

@TheGhostofLoganRoy was this Run the River? It’s the only one I could find that was in that general location at the time. Bloody stupid route for a weekday evening in Central London and I imagine would have annoyed a lot of people.

If you want to avoid park run in the future, i'd recommend taking the hardwick village entrance and parking at 21.

I've just had a look at the course and I'm surprised they've chosen a route that's going to conflict with other users when they've got literally acres of space to play with. Anyone wanting to use the central bark car park or the field car park has to cross the route.

Wow, that's a terrible response @Manners23 .

Stop replying and go for a run then

I'm sure most park runners have the best of intentions. But obviously it can cause problems when 100s people descend on a smallish area that they aren't even paying to use, and then assume the area is for them only.

When someone feels unhappy about something I find the best way for them to get satisfaction and closure is to speak directly with the people or organisation concerned.

absolutely no skin in this game whatsoever, given that I’ve never seen a park run or even know where clumber park is, but whoever though it would be a good idea to let you reply on behalf of the organisation must be holding their head and weeping right now.

😂😂😂😂 every bloody time!

And another point is I had no idea of the route or start or finish point, so I’d have no idea where to find the run director. I suppose after driving to the car park I could then have walked/biked back to the rude marshal and asked him. But I had no desire to talk to him again and it was some distance from where I’d parked my car.

Never mind the thought of wasting more time and pretty much being guaranteed to have to deal with yet another condescending, patronising idiot as the race director has absolutely demonstrated.

Yes it was! Thank you - I couldn't find anything about an organised run in London that evening (I must not have been googling the right terms), I was starting to think I'd hallucinated it!

Honestly who organises a charity race through central London at prime commuting time on a weekday evening.

If that is the set up on the bridle path it sounds incredibly dangerous. As in, horse bolting trampling people potential death type dangerous.

I support park runs and other organised outdoor events but, if this is the case, there really does need to a review of how these routes are agreed.

This is a photo of the path my local park run uses. It’s a Sustrans multi use path so popular with cyclists and horse riders. It’s an out and back route, so runners in both directions at the same time for a good portion of the route.

and yes for anyone local I know that actual route doesn’t go as far as this bench but it’s the only photo I can find and the path is the same width all the way along the sustrans path. Maybe 4ft?

I'm completely unsurprised that this is Clumber. I rarely walk there now as I feel less and less welcome. They've also stopped most parking on Limetree Avenue and if you want to walk on the side without the gardens that's where you need to be - the public car parks are so far from the edges that it takes forever to reach the far side walking. They have effectively blocked off a lot of the park to their less able visitors with this decision. The other concern also being that the car parks aren't open all the time so that prevents you going there too!

If you do write to NT and Patkrun please make sure you include the directors post. You can certainly see where the marshalls's attitude comes from.

@ParkRunIdiots , so the Director of Park Run has spoken. 🤷‍♀️

In your shoes I would be writing to the NT, ignore the man who has posted on your thread. This NT issue is much bigger than him.

Ask NT for copies of risk assessments and traffic management agreements with park run and if the local safety advisory group have reviewed them.

Ask if park run volunteers receive training in traffic management, for instance if they were doing this on a public highway the persons concerned would need something called a Chapter 8 qualification.

Ask what measures are agreed with park run re mitigation of the risk of their runners/moving vehicles.

Send a copy of your email to the Highway Safety Officer at Nottinghamshire County Council.

Make a fuss. Copy the Director-General of NT in

[email protected]

Oh god, the verge is huge! It is like the bloody M1!

Aside from the specifics of this case, I don't think any group should be able to prevent other users from accessing NT land, and certainly not after people have paid in good faith.

To everyone saying it's only a small portion out of seven days, most people work, most people are busy, most people don't have truly spare time. My weekends are precious, my time is precious.

I don't think Parkrun should have any right to be preventing access or causing disruption, no matter how worthy a cause.

I'm with you on this. It is very unwelcoming now.

I would not like to pay £5 per person....! for entry; I have had membership for a good few years, but rarely use it for what is my closest NT property. And one that I have always loved.
(I have a very long personal history with the park, and can remember the days when the café was in the Library, and the shop was opposite the Cricket Ground. One of my first weekend jobs was trying to get people to stop and actually pay to get in - no speed bumps and just a little hut to sit in for shade.)

I watched with dismay as the little wooden stumps went in, lining most of Limetree under the trees (although it does actually go right into the Welbeck Estate, I have discovered. But the land does need protecting and conserving, and this seems to be at the cost of accessibility - it is not so long ago that it was possible to drive right over the bridge and onto the other other side, but that was of course, abused, and the bridge damaged terribly.

I can think of nothing worse than encountering the Park Run.

Yes, such a shame the bridge didn’t reopen after the vandalism. I have fond memories of parking up the far side of my bridge with my boys when they were young. I assume there’s no way of driving that side of the lake now?

I think you need to become better at sharing.

I loathe running but recognise that Parkrun is a force for good.

How about they become better at sharing?

But they weren’t sharing, that’s my point. I’d have been happy if both parties had to wait for a minute while the other had priority like a traffic light system.

There was no communication, I had no knowledge of how long I was going to sit there. I’m aware park run can take 45-60 mins for some people. Should we sit there waiting that whole time? I had no idea if I was going to have to sit there for that long.

Bloody hellfire you’re still going on about a 10 minute wait, 48 hours later! 🙄

Parkrun is fairly easy to avoid, given it’s every Saturday starting at exactly 9am. If you don’t like it, go another time. If you like having things to complain about, then keep going when you know it is on. Seems like you chose the latter.

So are you and you weren’t even there 😁

Why come back to the thread if this is all you have to contribute? What on earth is wrong with an OP continuing to engage with people who are responding to the thread? This is a discussion forum, people can discuss things as long as they want to.