To think Parkrun shouldn't take priority over the rest of the public?

[MaryRoze]

9.30am every Saturday, our biggest park is inundated with Parkrunners. There are hundreds of them.

They take up the 3 biggest car parks (including the one at the start of the dog walking trail), meaning I need to park at the furthest away one. Not a problem except I can't get to the furthest away one because volunteers stop the traffic to let the runners go past.

Once I get parked, I'm pushed to the side of all the main paths because they're running 3 or 4 abreast. I try to go down the muddier gravel paths, but they're down there too. An older couple today got a "fuck sake" because they couldn't move out of one runners way quick enough.

Parents are being stopped from crossing the path between car park and playground with their kids because the runners are passing by.

I get that Parkrun is fantastic for people's physical health and mental health, and it's clearly very popular but AIBU to think they need to be courteous of other park users too?

You have (deliberately?) misunderstood my point.

It should not be incumbent on a vulnerable victim of anti-social behaviour to have to take action to get the anti-social behaviour stopped.

It is incumbent on an organisation that allows anti-social behaviour to take place to monitor, police or reassess how it operates. Making an announcement on a website or over a tannoy that participants should be courteous clearly isn't working.

The complain to Parkrun who can pass that on to the local run director!

If you don't tell people there has been an issue how would they know? Hundreds of people run our local parkrun, Mr Monkey is not able to closely monitor each one. However if someone tells him about uncceptable behaviour of either runners or volunteers he will take action.

So you expect them to control the behaviour of everyone? And know there is a problem without actually being told there is a problem?

you get rude people in all walks of society. there is only so much that can be done to control it!

Because a lot of people work on weekdays and will have weekends off.

To have a big fitness event like a Parkrun, it makes sense to host it at a time where most people can make it.

I’m a park runner. It is always announced in the briefing to give way to other users of the park. I think park runners are generally very courteous to pedestrians. My local one is rural though, and it sounds like you have a busy one there. I would just walk your dog earlier.

Our local Parkrun is huge. It starts at 9, probably by 9.30 the numbers left running aren't enough to cause any big issues.

So this "couple of hours" of all the paths being unusable really is more like half an hour.

YABU in that a regular 30 mins or so isn't that big a deal and is easy to avoid.

That said, it does sound like yours is run differently to the majority. Ours are very strong on the "respect other park users" message and have marshalls stationed around the route reminding people to keep left. Runners definitely should not be rude to other park users, that's awful and YANBU about that.

Ours is also organised so you do the same loop twice, minimising the number of paths that are being used, and not crossing any of the main car park entrances.

I do think parkrun is a lovely thing, but also agree with the OP. Our local park is effectively off limits until 10.30. Be nice if parkrun started/finished earlier.

No, ParkRun is free. There are no charges and it's a charity, not a commercial organisation.

I love and fully support park run . It gives so much to so many people

if it causes you such an issue, can’t you walk slightly earlier or later?? Our park run only really causes disruption for an hour.

or join in and run with your dog?

you get rude people in all walks of society. there is only so much that can be done to control it

I think this is pertinent here. And OP, if you have a volunteer telling you not to be somewhere that you're entitled to be, approach Parkrun about it. Perhaps their training wasn't clear or that volunteer isn't very good at doing what they're meant to. It happens everywhere. I'm sure even you must have made one or two mistakes in your life? It's not uncommon. It's unfortunate that everything isn't perfect, yes, but you'll cause yourself a lot of misery trying to live in a society and expecting it to always meet your needs. Sometimes, you have to actually SAY SOMETHING, rather than just complaining into thin air.

.

they can’t be both
taking up all the trails
and
spread out to use other parts of the park.

which is it?

why do you think you should have priority?

Victim-blaming.

As someone who Park Runs, I may be slightly biased here. However since Park Run is always at the same time on Saturdays does it not make sense to just avoid these parks at this time, maybe push the dog walk back a couple of hours and have a cosy morning with a coffee? :)

Victim blaming.

But their intention was to prevent you driving into people?

Well it is incumbent on the 'victim" to address the behaviour. How can the organisers be aware of it it the 'victim" is not even raising it through any recognisable channels? It would be incumbent upon the victim of any serious antisocial behaviour to raise it with the police, wouldn't it, not report it anonymously on Mumsnet? How else do things get addressed?

This isn’t always possible. Plus it’s not exactly fair that other people have to work their days around people running. Maybe if the runners could be kind and courteous and the dog walkers/cyclists/horse riders/walkers then all would be fine.

No one should have to adjust their own use of the park to benefit you. It’s there for everyone.

So you expect people to have psychic powers?

it’s not victim blaming to suggest that in order to sort a problem people need to be aware of a problem. If someone is being bullied then they need to tell someone who can help them - that’s not victim blaming. If someone is victim of a crime they are responsible to report it - that’s not victim blaming.

@MasterBeth

It's not victim blaming to suggest that if OP has a complaint regarding the Parkrun, she complains to the Parkrun.

Just out of curiosity, I have looked up the Parkrun map to see which route they take. I won't share the image because would I even be a proper Mumsnetter if I didn't claim it was outing? but their route takes them across vehicle access roads 5 times in total.

It does say in their rules that they need to be courteous of other park users though, which is good.

I'm going to drop the organisers a message to flag up the swearing and anti-social behaviour.

It's literally 90 minutes a week. Dog owners seem to take precedence over everyone else the rest of the time. Get up earlier and get your walk done before they start?

You would say that... If you were in a cult

Interestingly, it's actually the only Parkrun in our city. The next closest one is almost 12 miles away. That would explain the volume of cars if that is the case!

Plus it’s not exactly fair that other people have to work their days around people running

But they don't have to, @GoldfishSoup They may prefer to, if they want to be responsible for their own feelings. It's like getting in a huff because town is busy with clubbers on a Friday night. If things are spilling over into disrespect, then you might issue a complaint to the nightclub in question, and otherwise, if you don't like it, you'd just stay away for that period of time.