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?

YANBU, they are selfish arseholes. Hassling elderly people really is the limit. If they want to run let them find an abandoned field somewhere, not where the public have to be inconvenienced by them. Can't fucking stand them!

People exercising, same time every week. Local people, so the benefits of their exercise may have indirect benefits as they have better health. Whilst some could have walked there instead of using their unnecessary SUV, visiting the area at another time of the day is not a great difficulty, surely?

It's not as if you are having to cope with the hordes of people who visit a place just outside Manchester on about 25 occasions a year whose times varies even on a Saturday who have no connection to the area at all.

I have never done a park run but isn’t it once a week for an hour? They never shit in the park and then leave it for others to tread in and they don’t chase and attack ducklings and other wildlife I would like to ban dog walkers but I realise I am being unreasonable because quite a lot of people like owning dogs.

No one is saying anyone has to wait until the park run is over. Posters are suggesting you change your time because you have a problem with the park run. Other people may be quite happy to share.

It's a public park, if the park run pisses you off but you choose to go to the park at the same time as the park run then you are choosing to be pissed off. Why would you do that to yourself?

She was trying to use the other car parks but they were full. Park run are definitely being unreasonable if they are denying people access to the only empty car park. Perhaps they should direct all runners to park in that car park and leave the ones which are not blocked by runners free? After all the runners would only need to park there once a week..

My local parkrun always emphasises respect for other park users. We have marshalls to pause runners at two road entrances. Most runners have finished by 9:40am and the course is practically empty by 10:00am. Not that big an imposition surely? YABVU.

One day a year she is inconvenienced. Nah she has no right to moan. She can get the bus or leave her car on another road and walk to it. We have a half marathon pass through our village once a year. If I need to get out I park outside the village and walk 15 mins to my car. It’s not a massive drama. Like I said. People love to moan

@Spinet

the cult of running” !?
lol
you should try it

My local parkrun did, and they changed the course to make it safer and easier to accommodate a lot of people but the new course is so much slower

Exactly.

Choosing to do the same non-essential thing every week even though you know you'll be pissed off is just bonkers behaviour.

What is ‘an abandoned field’? Do such things exist in Britain?

Why is this even an issue for you? Parkrun has been going on for years. If you are so bothered by it, go at a different time or walk your dog elsewhere. There problem solved.
I don't do Parkrun but it is on in our local park and advertised as so, so if I was bothered by it I would go 🤷‍♀️

There’s some right dickheads at parkrun, but don’t worry- they’re dickheads to the other parkrunners as well as you! That’s just life! It’s an hour (and a bit) per week, you know when it’s on, just avoid it then!

I agree 100% with you. The tyranny of the majority. This is the middle-class equivalent of gangs of youths terrorising a town centre with their weight of numbers.

YANBU

That’s very it’s timed early in the day rather than at peak or usual times for parents to be in park with kids. It’s also timed not too early so dog walkers can do their early walks

Yet Park runner still turn up every week.

Lol, no you wouldn’t.

Gobshite.

Hmmm there’s a park run near me and when I’m heading to my gym class around 930am people are already returning from it… I see kids, families, people walking their dogs etc in the park far more often which is fine but I think they all manage to get more than their fair share of the park free from park run runners 🤷🏻‍♀️

Well yes. Presumably they are not pissed off by Parkrun though, since they are participating in it.

On a sat am I go to the woods instead. The rest of the week I have the park. I think you are making a fuss. If I was elderly ( nearly there at 57) and retired I wouldn't choose to go at that time when I have all week to choose from.

Why do some people hate runners? Jealousy?

Practically, once you've hit a critical mass of people on a path travelling the same way, it's going to be difficult to use if you aren't travelling with the group even if people are trying to be considerate.

Exactly. It's a systematic problem that suggests that, however well-meaning and well-behaved the Park Run zealots think they're being, a massive running event is incompatible with the regular use of a public park.

?????

The park runners aren't posting about being pissed off with the dog walkers.

Oh fgs. It's an organised event, not a marauding mob.