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?

This is such a batshit take. A bunch of health conscious people kicking off their weekend with a 5km jog that is done and dusted while many people are still in bed is the equivalent of gangs of youths terrorising a town centre. You absolute muppet.

Just wait for a large enough gap and cross over. It's hardly a major issue, akin to waiting at traffic lights, waiting for a piece of playground equipment to be free or a space in the supermarket to view cheese choices.

If there's a flow of runners then stepping out infront of them is unsafe and unnecessary.

Just seen some of your updates.

you want to crack down on all park runs because I couple of people were rude, at a park you barely use anyway.

As I say, I live overlooking a park run start / finish and, throughout the week I see far more shitty behaviour from dog walkers then park runners. Perhaps we should ban all dog walkers because some of them are knobs eh?

Much prefer parkrunners to the puppy enslavers who let their pets round around and shit all over public spaces. I think the dog walkers would limited in the same way as parkrun may allowing walks from 1pm till 2pm providing they provide marshals and volunteers to pick up the poo.

What nonsense is this?

Just stand to one side as they come past or explore other paths within the wood or park?

I'm sure the locals footie training will be well pissed off if 250 people ran around the pitch in all weathers, churning it up.

But you know this, being a runner 😂

This is probably it, actually.

The problem is that people who don't do park run often don't know it is happening. It isn't advertised on venue websites as it is independent.

We turned up to a large national trust park and found ourselves in the middle of a park run takeover. Complete with traffic being held for ages, not allowing access to certain car parks and hogging the paths.

I think there are multiple questions here:

1. is it reasonable that once a week many public spaces are used for parkrun?
2. should parkrun be better at sharing the space with other park users?
3. is the behaviour of some parkrunners appalling?

the answer to all three in my mind is a resounding yes! Parkrun HQ are brilliant if you have cause to complain (as I have in the past due to verbal abuse from a parkrun volunteer). Parkrun sections have strict orders to share the space effectively. If that’s not happening then report!

It’s for one hour a week. The park is for everyone and this is a fabulous community initiative (I’m not a runner )

Park Run times are usually quite widely publicised, so if the mass of runners annoys you it’s very easy to avoid it.

Where did OP say she wanted to crack down on all park runs? Ive just looked at all her posts and all I can see is her asking for some consideration

It's an hour, at 9am, once a week...

Erm, yes.
What has the "older" couple's age got to do with it? It could be argued that they have all day to walk it if they're past working age?
Parkruns are part of life - and I think anything that encourages and promotes exercise and outdoor life is a good thing. There's room for all.

There should be more sensible numbers caps. There's one near me that has hundreds and hundreds of runners. Its too many for the size of park, local transport capacity to handle in a concentrated window of time, and its damaging to the footpaths.

It just needs to be capped. It would actually be less inconvenient if there were two sessions to spread the volume of people out.

A lot of the runners are quite arrogant and obsessive - so dead set on beating their time they'll expect anyone to leap out of their way with zero acknowledgement or apology.

Was that Wimpole Park? Entry to the carparks may be a bit slow at 8:40am, but then the runners head out into the park on pretty wide paths, and reappear 30 minutes later. Really not that awful.

@MaryRoze
This is a great suggestion

She thinks they shouldn’t get “priority” for parking, she thinks they take up too much pathway, she thinks that her need to park without delay overrides park run’s policy of safety marshalling. Sounds like she’s after some curb to it to me.

Three yesses from me too!

I will contact the organisers and mention what happened today.

As I was walking past the Parkrun tent, I saw a little girl about 3/4 years old in a Disney princess dress and a high viz vest. Absolutely bloomin adorable

Running is one of those things where some people managing to do it makes others feel defensive. Maybe a bit of introspection required for those who have such a visceral response to runners

I am sorry some of the parkrunners are rude. We are reminded every week at the briefing that we do not have right of way over other park users. Most parkrunners are courteous but there are always some selfish people. Report to the run director and they will speak to the people if they can be identified or to everyone via social media or next week’s run brief. It is a defined route at a defined time once a week and most of the crowds have gone after 30 minutes. At least you can avoid the time or the route if it is that bad.

is the behaviour of some parkrunners people appalling?

I imagine there are some appallingly behaved parkrunners but that's not because they are doing parkrun, it's because they're a common or garden idiot, who sadly you meet in all situations (some dog walkers are idiots, some parents are idiots, some van drivers are idiots, etc etc you get them everywhere!)

...but you're right, there is at least a facility to report anti social behaviour at parkrun!

Parkrun starts at 9am. Anyone still there after 10am is definitely not running and I can’t see how they’d be in your way.

How about the runners "run to one side" or "explore other paths"? No - they are determined to do what they want to do without compromise.

Your post is literally saying defer to the mob.

This. Go at a different time

@MaryRoze

Who should have priority?