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?

You've just told the fat kid to go somewhere else and time/motivate themselves when they were clearly getting lots of health benefits and confidence running with others.

It is timed so a race for the individual.

You do you and allow others to do their own Park Run.

If groups are rude l/physical mention it to the organisers so everyone can be reminded it's fun and to be considerate.

It's called "Park run" not "Park Race". That tells me it wasn't meant to be a "race". Duh

When I walk it I shout up ahead to let people know the faster runners are coming through and lapping us. Better to shout than there's an accident.

The only person who really pissed me off, and is now my nemesis, is a woman in my age group who stepped in front of me after the finishing line and took the 1st in our age group when it should have been me. I make sure I beat her every week now. Silly cow never even volunteers either. <<bitter 😁>>

Came here to say this

So the ‘Great North Run’ isn’t a race and doesn’t have records?

The beauty of park run is that it is whatever you want it to be, a casual social jog or a fast competitive sprint, nobody really cares what you opt for.

My local Parkrun is Bushy Park where you get several hundred people participating. If watch the start line the first 100 people are most definitely taking it seriously as they tear off down the course jockeying for position and ultimately a fast time. At the back you have people pushing buggies, walking, jogging with dogs etc.

Schrodingers Parkrun - simultaneously so trivial for women that its ridiculous and weird for them to want to change the rules yet so important for men that any suggestions of rule change has life destroying consequences for a whole group of people.

Nonsense. Parkrun is no more an issue than a game of football or a pilates group or the local nursery bringing the kids down for a picnic. All things that take up space for a short period but make the park more accessible to all. People who complain about it are usually those who see the park as their own personal dog toilet.

Amazingly my disabled husband has never been pushed or sworn at by kids from the local nursery. Never seen a Pilates group in our park so can't comment on how violent/selfish/foul mouthed they might be. I can say how runners behaved because I've seen it.

If this has happened contact parkrun and the owner of tbe park. Event directors are in regular contact with the owners of the park and parkrun HQ and can clamp down on any poor behaviour by participants.

Nonsense. Those things you try to compare to ParkRun just aren't analogous, as they take up a small, confined, area of the park. ParkRun takes up loads of the paths in the park (or woods, as per the one nearest to me), some of which are really narrow and barely have room for the runners, let alone anyone else wanting to use the paths at the same time.

It's quite clear if I happen to be in the woods at the same time, that many of the runners don't appreciate that it's shared space and will quite happily run you off the path. One bloke tutted and glared at me when I was keeping to the grass at the side of the path, because he chose to cut the corner and run across the grass straight at me instead of following the path. No hope with people like that!

Its one hour a week and pretty early. Thousands of people use it as a great way to get motivated, start being healthier and feel far safer as part of an organised event. On balance, I think.one hour out of 24x7 is a fair trade off.

Park run occupies some of the path for for about 20 mins when you get the initial surge of runners. After that the field typically thins out to single runners or those jogging in pairs. Its not really an issue unless you deliberately and knowingly decide to take walk against the tide of runners 5 mins after the start. Over the course of a week when said paths are available its hardly a big inconvenience.

Not true. Loads of the paths in the woods near to us are so narrow that they're not really usable for the whole time, due to the pack spacing out. And the runners really don't like giving way where the paths are wide enough to share.

Then, the finish line stretches across a 12ft path, and people congregate round there, blocking the entire path, instead of just moving down the path a bit and standing to the side so they don't create a blockage / pinch point.

I think I'm well aware how bad it is for the run near me!

But the part of the park you use is the paths - i.e. the part of the park that everyone else needs to use.

In my local Parkrun, they monopolise the paths. I think that is unacceptable.

Same here. Expecting others to modify their day to suit ParkRun really isn't acceptable. If the location really isn't suitable to be a shared space, they shouldn't hold them there.

It really is an issue and the fact that park run participants claim it isn't shows an unfortunate arrogance.

Many other groups (football teams, open water swimmers, personal trainers, groups of people playing frisbee, dog training) use the park during the week. Park Run is the only one that makes the park actively unusable while they are there (8:15. - 10:30 every single Saturday), marking out their territory and blocking the paths.

That used to be a real issue for my local Parkrun as well - don’t know if it still is as I’ve moved and no longer need to go through the park. The path that they were monopolising was a footpath through to the railway station, so well used by others even on a Saturday morning. Organisers weren’t at all interested when people complained - it wouldn’t have been difficult for them to leave a small space for people walking through, but they wouldn’t.

So, hang on, are you saying these "saboteurs" walk through your coned-off area before any runners go through it?? This is a problem how?

And can you show us some pictures of this narrow coned off strip of a very wide path?

I’m really surprised that parkrun got authority to start up - taking over the whole thoroughfare to a train station seems very unusual.

The incident will have been reported to HQ by the Run Director. HQ takes these sort of incidents seriously. They will give warnings to those involved and will enforce a ban if it comes to that. Although they can’t actually stop anyone running in a public park but they can remove times should they continue to take part.

And this is instructive.

Who are "HQ" to tell anyone to do anything in a public park? By what authority do Park run cone off park footpaths? Who selects these officious little jobsworths barking orders through their noisy megaphones?

If a group of 500 teenagers decided to ride bikes round and round a public footpath the Daily Mail would be screeching about mob rule. Park run is the same in principle. A middle-class self-appointed gang deciding that their fun trumps the needs of regular park users.

By the authority of the landowner, obviously. Sometimes the local authority sometimes a private landlord. They don't just turn up where they feel like it. And they will be overwhelmingly also "regular park users".

It's so weird to be sneery about something so positive.

And the post you're replying to is perfectly clear on what HQ can tell anyone to do in a public park - which is nothing. They can ban them from getting a time though.

It's weird to hear people's legitimate concerns about your activity and to dismiss them all as weird.

I don’t think they have any authority to cone off footpaths. I think it happens by consent. You’re free to ignore it as far as I know. Go on the wrong side of the cones for example and see what happens. They can’t force you out of the way. Your rights are not being infringed by some cones on the ground.