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?

Our park run always reminds people that paths are shared. But, in any event, parks are shared spaces. I don't particularly like dogs, but accept that I'm going to share a park with the.

Just go at a different time.

To be fair the other poster stated they would dawdle in front of them . Don't agree with pushing them over fair enough but to spitefully block someone's path who is trying to run is pretty passive aggressive.

No skin in the game . Boobs are too big to run!

Yabu to the original op. It's a short period on a Saturday morning plan around it

I agree they should be considerate of others already using the park. They should’ve running people off the paths or anything like that.
However, I do agree with many others, that if you know what time it happens and it’s in your way just go at a different time. For the most part it’s over in an hour isn’t it?

A runner coughing in your ear as they passed is highly strange behaviour. This is nothing to do with being a runner but instead being an idiot

You know when it is so just avoid. I get annoyed by inconsiderate dog walkers unable to recall their dogs or having them on long lines which trip up runners or walkers (not the dogs, I like dogs) but don't ask them to be banned. However, it's literally in the standard briefing for every event that runners don't have priority and should respect others so if that is not happening, contact the organisers.

Surely this is about some runners being selfish? That's not down to a park run.

Some people are awful whether they're running at a park run or queuing at Tesco.

Well it's 10.25 now and that's the bulk of the runners heading back to their cars. I'm surprised by people saying that kids/families/other walkers should wait until 10.30 before using the public park. I don't think it's particularly early. Lots of kids here already.

No you wouldn’t 🙄

Absolutely. The volunteers are very keen to work with the public and want to know if things aren't working well. I'm sure they'd listen to your concerns and suggestions

If you did that to me, I’d push you over.

And you'd be guilty of assault. Clearly you're one of those runners the OP is complaining about.

Totally agree with being civil - I used to marshall the route at our local one and part of our job was asking the runners to move over so that they were single file around certain narrower bits of path. The runners generally did it, and the public normally seemed to appreciate that we were making an effort, even when a few ignored it.

I agree that an email to the organisers asking them to consider the route in light of other park users might be a good idea, but also be mindful that they have mapped out the route for distance (obviously!) so taking away the stretch down path X will add more runners to paths Y and Z because they will need to run the distance somewhere else - it may be that isn’t practical in your area?

Can you say which parkrun it is? I can't work out whether it's a small or large space.

Yup I agree. One of them swore at me and my dog a few years ago. She was just standing on the path sniffing at something, not chasing him or anything, but running around her was clearly going to cost him his PB 🙄

I'd complain about their attitude but not the run itself. They do have as much right to be there as anyone but I'd not be cooperating with this stopping all the traffic and getting out of the way shite. They can wait to cross the road like everyone else and run in single file. Just don't move for them, look them in the eye and make them go around you. If they swear remind them it's not a running track and tell them to fuck off.

Amazing what people choose to get annoyed about! Just go at a different time. Its a public park, not your back garden.

That's not parkrun, that's a horrible person. Report to the organisers.

That would make you look like an unpleasant person with anger issues.

I agree parks are for all and everyone should be courteous. 9.30 is not early when you have small kids and need to do something to get rid of their energy, it’s also better in hot weather to walk dogs early so they don’t burn their paws (obviously this isn’t every week but some animals like routine).
OP I get that you’re saying big park, save some space for others, I think you should email your park run and suggest that they look at the route.

Your parkrun is pretty unusual starting at 9.30. Most in the UK start at 9 so are completely done and park emptied by 10.

It's not just parks. Some runners are dicks. I hate the ones that expect you to walk in the road with your dog just so they don't have to break their stride. We have a large run near us and avoid it but they churn everything up and it takes ages for the vegetation to recover.

I don’t think the runners should be rude or stop people from using paths. But I do agree with a PP that it’s only for about an hour and it’s the same time every week so others can plan accordingly.
It sounds like you must live in a particularly busy place because my local park run only has 20-30 people and I thought they were quite small affairs. But people are very passionate about them and they’re run by volunteers.
If I knew there’d be loads of runners I would make sure I’m either in the playground before it starts or out of the park until it finishes

The park is 400 acres. Plenty of space for any and all users to do their own thing.

I never thought about the runners selecting the paths based on distance. I thought it was time based, not distance.

Even so, there are plenty of paths they could use on a loop rather than using the ones designed for kids and dog walkers.

Ours is another one that tells us to give way to other park users but I can see that in practice a large group of runners is going to cause issues if others are on the same path.
I’d definitely recommend taking part and walking the route with your dog. You won’t be the only one

The comment about crossing the road was about an organised road race (not parkrun). In that situation the roads have been closed by the council and the run has paid a lot of money for the privilege so actually the run does have right of way.

I think we found the aggressive runners from your park OP. 'Dregs' and threats of physical violence? That's the entitlement people hate.

And PP said she would dawdle IF the runner was not polite. The runner does not have the right of way so politely say excuse me or, better, move yourself.