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?

I'm interested in how you got from "there was an incident at my park run this week" to "park run everywhere is being ruined by competitive men".

Gosh it all sounds very competitive for something that I thought was supposed to be a "fun" time for everyone no matter their standard.

I'm glad I don't involve myself with any competitive sport, it seems to bring out the devil in some people!

Almost everyone at park run is trying to beat their time. It is timed for a reason. Almost everyone is racing, even if it's just against themselves. Almost everyone behaves fine. YANBU. Being fast isn't a license to behave how the fuck you want.

But they don’t push and /or swear at 99% of park runs. The op states that she’s been going for years and it seems to be the first time she’s seen this crap behaviour. I’ve never seen it at the many park runs I’ve done.

So the only solution therefore is to simply have everyone gets a time and that’s it. Job done. No categories and no competition. Don’t set it up as a race and then say it’s not a race.

Probably because men do ruin a lot of things.

For me, it's just the entitlement that they matter above all other park users. I've been shouted up before because I've been walking with my dog and a park runner told me that they couldn't run past me because they were afraid of dogs and I was holding up their park run.

Quite cheeky of dog walkers to get in the way of people enjoying a casual jog.

In case anyone forgot, parks are multi purpose by design.

I’ve got no idea. I’m not a park run organiser. But if I lived near a park and I was an athlete and I wanted to see how fast I could run around said park, I’d go on a quiet Tuesday morning, not on a busy Park Run day when it was full of amateurs. Unless, of course, I wanted other people to see how fast I was……

I’d like to ban the same bloody woman who brings her dog every week that barks and barks and barks incessantly for half an hour before and after the park run that starts outside my bedroom window. I’m not running at the moment and would Like to sleep beyond 8:30am.

Hmmm well regardless of what you say, lots of serious athletes do parkrun every week. It’s not about beating the amateurs, it’s about getting a good time, which is why the spelling contest example isn’t that good. Parkrun is free whereas most other races have a fee to enter. Also a lot of races eg London Marathon have both elites and amateur runners.

I don’t like Park Run, I went a couple of times but there was always someone who would slow themselves down to run alongside me shouting ‘motivation’ at me and pushing me to run faster. I don’t need that, I’ve been running longer distances that 5k since my teens, I run at my own pace and I’m not interested in being faster, it was supposed to be a gentle run.

I’m at park run most weeks with the kids, they leave me for dead! I’ve never witnessed that kind of behaviour but I’ve seen plenty of groups run three a breast or with a dog on a long lead that is not quite under control which is irritating, and no care that people are trying to pass (including me at quite a slow pace).

You are not being unreasonable to complain but this is a really tough call on the organizers. They put on a great event only for some to ruin it but most volunteers do not want to act as race police

The London marathon doesn’t involve the athletes lapping the slower runners and shoving them out of the way.

I've always found park runs full of rude and aggressive people, not all obviously but lots of them. Going for a walk with disabled husband became dangerous as he was pushed and jostled. Why can't they hire a venue instead of making parks no go areas?

Intrigued by the description of your area as that could apply to ours, but our parkrun very definitely is inclusive. We get fast runners and also some very slow plodders (e.g. me) at the back. Plenty of people running or walking with buggies and/or dogs and/or young kids. Plenty of decrepit older people (me again). I've never seen the behaviour the OP describes, but then our run directors always stress that we don't have exclusive use of the park so to be aware of other people and be considerate. If I did ever observe twattish behaviour I would make it known to the run director asap so she or he could act on it.

I’ve never said it’s okay to do that. I’m just taking issue with the smug proclamation that if you do parkrun you can’t be a real athlete (whatever that means as even the top club runners won’t be professional athletes). You can be. Nobody should push or shove or swear at people.

either park run needs to decide what it is, fun social way to get to 5k or allow people to race and manage this, like the marathon and almost have two starts with the people wanting to run like this start at the front

I stopped doing park run when they let men who identity as women into the womens

I enioy Parkrun. Sorry it was spoiled by those men.

Even running fast can cause problems like accidents - I had one after tripping, running faster at Parkrun than I should have!

’They’ are volunteers and it must be difficult to deal with antisocial behaviour. They have the names, scould communicate with them afterwards.

Not at all happy with Parkrun as an organisation for not having a single sex women’s category.

We bumped into an old running friend at Sainsbury's yesterday. He introduced us to Parkrun years ago but we haven't been for a long time. He told us, though he still runs and had just returned from doing the Boston Marathon, he and his wife have totally given up the parkrun cos there are too many people. It used to be a regular group of about 300, everyone was very friendly, no one berated me for being too slow, I was always last through the funnel, then we'd all split off into our own friendship groups, some would leave and some stuck around for coffee and cake. Apparently now there are over a thousand and most people we knew don't go anymore. It's just too busy, its takes too long, and there will always be a bunch of awful people trying to make it competitive.

Yeah. My question is how did OP know these were men behaving like this? I assume they didn’t reveal their gender identity. They could have been NB or women for all we know.

I don't have much sympathy for this point of view. A park is a community asset and Park Run is a community activity. It takes an hour and it doesn't take up the whole park - just one path through a park (and parks generally are big enough to have several paths running through them). Park Run is held at the same time every week so you know when to expect them and you can avoid them all together if they upset you.

If there is a run through a city which is big enough to involve roads being closed, I find it hard to believe it took you 'by surprise'. These events are publicised for weeks beforehand. It's one day a year; get over yourself