To think ParkRun need to consider banning racers?

[justletusrun]

My local parkrun has been overtaken by drama this week, after some men attended and basically turned the entire thing into a glorified race for themselves. They were pushing people out of the way, swearing at them and shouting at them to let them through.

I always thought the point of parkrun was to go and enjoy a 5k run and some socialising after. But it seems that across the country they’re being overtaken by people who are obsessed with “winning” it and getting the PB as a “chip time”.

i understand the sense of achievement you get from getting a PB, but I don’t think parkrun is the place to do it. Myself and many other women who have been attending for years are now considering not going again because it is so unpleasant.

AIBU to say they need to clamp down on this, before it becomes a big men’s club?

So much of this thread doesn't apply to me due to the nature of my local park run. It's a single lap so there's no overtaking, unless runners are where they shouldn't be in the pack. That's not too much of an issue though as the start is wide and there's a couple of hundred metres before it narrows meaning the racers have opportunity to get to the front. The start/finish/milling about area is huge and not in the way. It's also on a common on the outside of town big enough for a 10k, without ordinary pedestrians about.
I've done multi-lap runs and thought them OK, but not a patch on single lap runs. Try others and maybe you'll find one you like more.

That's fine until you get the mediocre club runners placing themselves near the front, thinking they want a clear run, but then causing a logjam.

ive never done a park run as I find the excessive competitiveness in what should be a friendly jog-along spoils any enjoyment of the event.

The women should stop, let the blokes in frocks go through, head back to the start line and set off again without them

Sadly my running days are over. I did 2 marathons, 2 10ks and loads of half marathons. Never did a park run.
Sadly the fun could be spoiled by the wanna elites.

Parkruns don’t tend to be a one-lap course, so the overtaking will be on the second etc lap. Even parkruns near me held in pretty big London parks like Battersea are 2 laps.

Totally agree racers shouldn’t all be tarred with this brush. @justletusrun my DS14 is a club runner so I know a bit about competitive parkrunning! The mini London marathon, which was this morning topically, up until this year had some London boroughs requiring a parkrun time for qualification. There’s nothing wrong with it, and racing is not synonymous with rude behaviour, quite the reverse! It’s these individual idiots who are the problem and someone needs to have strong words.

There are always speedy people at our local one, I wouldn’t be positioning myself in the way of the sub 20 runners, its a bit idiotic to expect someone moving so fast to try and dodge you, one of you could get hurt.

YABU as women do this too.
YANBU no one should do this.

Park Run is for everyone. So new runners, ppl
who walk, ppl who run and walk, experienced older runners, fast inexperienced runners, super fast runners, competitive runners. Everyone.

In most multi lap courses they’ll tell you to keep to the right (or left), and overtaking should be on the opposite side. Often faster runners or Marshalls will call out “lead runners coming, keep to the right” or similar to warn of their approach. Quite often in a loud ish voice cos they do so ahead of time.

Most times the father runners will thank ppl who’ve moved over.

Swearing or pushing is obviously wrong, but that is pretty rare. usually the race director will warn about it on the next run.

I have also seen ppl refuse to give room for ppl overtaking, again no excuse for shouting or swearing, but it’s also anti social.

its perfectly acceptable to race at park run, iagain its for everyone, t’s how you do it that counts. Not everyone can afford to pay into a race every week or even month, so it’s a good place to test yourself.

I only do Parkrun once every year or so as I am usually busy on a Sat am so when I do I usually aim for a decent time. I would never push or swear at anyone else though as I'm not an absolute arsehole.

@justletusrun by excluding others, saying they shouldn’t use the space, their arguments aren’t valid etc you are being just as bad as the people you are complaining about. Either it is inclusive or it isn’t, you cannot have it both ways.

People are doing a park run & taking their dogs running next to them?? 🙄🙄 that must be lovely for the people running who dislike dogs/are scared of them or are allergic to them then.

In the last few years they tightened the rules about taking dogs.
They are now "Whenever someone is walking, running or volunteering at a parkrun event with their dog, the dog must be on a short, handheld, non-extendable lead, in control, and at the participant’s side at all times. The use of waist harnesses is prohibited."

I can't imagine it's particularly fun for the dog tbh. I also don't know how well the rules are enforced.

How do you know this happens if you've never done one?
It's not just a 'friendly jog-along". It is that and many other things.

I'm not embarrassed to put my hand up and say I'm a park racer! I wear my racing shoes and treat exactly the same as I would a race - and I do also enter paid for races. Shouting , swearing and shoving is not acceptable at parkrun, races or any situation. That's just antisocial behaviour which should not be tolerated.
Having said that , as a faster runner I find it really frustrating when I am blocked by social runners, 3 or 4 abreast across the path - this is also anti social behaviour.
As an aside many people have suggested that faster people do a proper race , but since the explosion in popularity of parkrun , there are now fewer paid for 5k races available.

My husband has attended lots of parkrund around the country and not seen this.
The run director and the marshalls should take this on board and out a stop to it.
It's a shame you have experienced this, but how do you know it's happening across the country?

Perhaps it was for the same run but I saw a post by a Parkrun on Facebook last week reminding people that this behaviour isn't acceptable, Parkrun is meant to be fun and requesting that the guilty parties didn't return.

Statistically if you have a gathering of hundreds of people, if 1% of society are knobbers, there'll be a couple of knobbers present, whatever activity it is.

Report people breaching the parkrun expectations of behaviour to the RD and they'll record as an incident to HQ and they'll take action such as emailing the offender and potentially removing their result.

I've been a parkrunner for over a decade and seen the change from my 30 mins to being relatively near the back to parkwalk being embraced. Some runs are victims of their own success. While it's brilliant that so many people are getting active and getting involved in the parkrun community, there are some courses I now avoid because of the density of the crowd as a mid-pack runner, or number of laps on tight courses. I'm happy with 2 laps, but find 3 awkward as I can end up lapping the tailwalker as I'm being lapped.

I've seen an elite in action running at her (then) record breaking pace, and loved that as a mediocre veteran age grading, I could run at the same event as an elite and see what they do in action. At a race I wouldn't because they'd be umpteen pens ahead of me and finishing before I'm halfway.
I don't care what pace people run at as long as they respect the other park users around them. Personally my pace/ intentions will vary by the week; sometimes I just want to participate, sometimes I have a specific workout/ pace in mind and sometimes I do want to test myself which is easier when surrounded by peers.

Why do people keep saying it’s a fun run?? No mention of that at all on the Parkrun info, and certainly I’ve never found it fun.

I don’t do it much these days (too broken) but when I did I never found it fun, if I went I went hard! I’ve been first lady a few times, I ran pregnant, I ran pushing a buggy and none of those time I’d say it was fun. Once I ran round with one of my kids - it was slower than I’d usually go, I didn’t feel like I was going to die all the way round, I guess maybe that was fun 😂

Each to their own though, and if you do it for fun - good for you. I used it as a measure of my running fitness, running in a group made me push harder so I’d always be quicker than if I ran 5km on my own, I was competing with myself but comparing myself to others. It was and still is a race. No question.

However, pushing, shoving or being a dick in a public park - never ok.

I think ( despite complaints) that Parkrun does pretty well in being all things to all people. Ours is a fairly big one (1200 people) but is only a partial “relap” and quite wide so avoids the log jam issues. Recently they started marking the start line with expected times so you know where to start and that has actually made a big difference to the smoothness of the start and people not starting too far forward or back. Personally I use parkrun as my weekly “all in” effort so I am essentially racing but happy to report that I’ve never sworn at or pushed anyone or seen anyone else do it

Really hope you aren’t put off and decide to keep going. What a bunch of idiots ruining everyone’s fun.

Park Runs have been taken over by the running club elites. They can run into me if thy like. I am built like the proverbial brick out house. It will be their problem.

YANBU OP. Our Parkrun is partly on exclusive to Parkrun (from 9-10am Saturdays) ground, partly shared space, and there are regular pre-event reminders that it’s not an Olympic qualifier and everyone has the right to use the shared section. Shoving and shouting is not ok, for any reason (in the same respect that cyclists using the shared space and yelling at Parkrunners isn’t ok either, but does unfortunately happen).

This has not been my experience of a park run. The fast runners start at the front the slower people at the back. It's a long course so there's no lapping so there would be no need for pushing. I find it hard to believe that anyone would behave that way, totally unacceptable and if it was a proper race they would be disqualified. No issue with people racing on park runs, the idea is they are for everyone, fast and slow and most people who go regularly want to improve thier times each time weather that be a 17min or a 45 min run. What does annoy my is when people take thier dogs, one lady tripped over her own dog one day. There's too many people in a close space for it to be safe plus they stop and start some places ban them but many don't.

My experience of park run, not doing it but walking along a track I'd joined at a different point totally unaware park run was on, is that it is full of self centred people. I was nearing the end of a walk with my dogs (on leash). Wide, shared cycling path. Come around a corner to the path totally blocked with not one runner moving to their side. Someone knocked into me and I ended up going down like a sack of spuds. All because selfish people couldn't share. Given I've got degeneration (moderate at that time, now advanced) in both hips and knees, let's just say I was pissed.

It’s fine for people to go fast and try to get PBs. However, it’s not a race.

To me that means people shouldn’t be racing other people so they aren’t jostling for position, and they need to accept that other parkrunners or park users might be in their way and behave respectfully without any shouting or pushing. It’s a free event and there’s always another week and another run, people shouldn’t be treating it like it is an Olympic final.