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 agree with this.

Although my local parkrun is busier than it was, there's only a short part where faster runners need to overtake, most of it is out and back along a scenic path. So it's manageable.

I think there's a weird snobbery about faster runners now driven by people who are only there for a chat and a social. Most of those faster runners belong to clubs who are actively encouraged to volunteer at parkrun.

And as for "professional runners are just showing off if they go to parkrun" - no, parkrun is for everyone. All the runners at the New Year parkrun loved it when Innes Fitzgerald turned up and smoked everyone and took selfies with people at the finish.

I don’t think ParkRun was ever designed to be a social run during the run itself, it’sfor for chatting and catching up with mates during the run itself, although afterwards yes it’s social.

The slower runners should start at the back and should be aware of their surroundings and aware the faster runners coming through to lap so not a wide group hogging the entire path if it’s a lap based course … the fastest will be completing it in 15 mins or so and will need to overtake.

However swearing and shoving isn’t acceptable either. Racing itself isn’t the problem so YABU to ban people wanting to get a decent time at a Park Run - and it will have been a tiny minority of runners behaving badly, but both fast and slower runners need to be considerate.

My friend and I did a 10k ‘race’ and got repeatedly run at and barged past by some male runners, knocking us in to a ditch on one occasion and nearly into a river on another. Arrogant pricks. I have no issue with trying to get your best time (I wasn’t running for fun either 😁) but their refusal to run at the edge of a path was insane. And yes, we did try to stand our ground hence the ditch/river situations. Not sure why I didn’t take their race numbers and complain TBH…

Isn't Parkrun for everyone? I thought that was its ethos. Fine to run along chatting to your friend, fine to race for a PB or top spot. It would be equally unfair to ban quick runners as to ban slow ones, and these terms are relative. Pushing, shoving and swearing is totally unacceptable in any running or other environment and would not be tolerated in any races I have taken part in. My local Parkrun has a complete range of runners from top ranking athletes to walkers and we all coexist pretty well. After a couple of weeks I think you get a sense of where to start. I am pretty slow so am only ever chasing a PB or recently, avoiding a new PW, but I would mind out of the way of people overtaking. There is a bit of racing etiquette about start positions. If you are going to finish in 16 minutes, you know this and should start at the front, and if you're going to finish nearer 40, at the back. Run on the left and let people pass by maintaining your line and not weaving about the place if it's busy.

Antisocial behaviour is never acceptable and this should be made clear to anyone shouting, swearing or laying a hand on anyone else. However, I think suggesting this means men ruin everything is unreasonable. It reminded me of comments about women drivers when I was a kid. This is about the behaviour of individuals and shouldn't become a gender issue, or a regional one if they were from a different Parkrun locality. That might explain the unreasonable votes.

Teams pay to use a pitch that is a football pitch designed for football bit like the tennis courts designed for tennis. The paths are for everyone.

They are reminded of that in every race brief at the start.
Sadly there are twats everywhere. Sometimes it’s the shouty runners, sometimes it’s the dog walkers deliberately allowing their extendable dog lead across the marked course to cause trips & as much carnage as possible (yes I have seen this!)
As a general rule, park runners are friendly and wholesome folk. There will always be exceptions sadly (and yes, 99% of the time it’s men)

It's a shared space. Being on the same path is not 'getting in the way', unless you think that Parkrunners should be allowed to take up the entire path. The rules of Parkrun specifically state that people need to remember that the space is shared. Unfortunately loads of the runners and organisers at my local one seem to forget this.

My local is Bushy Park which is great for slower runners like me. It's hugely busy but it's one giant lap so I start at the back and never interact with anyone faster than about a 35 ish minute finish time. I've done out and back ones and multiple lap ones and do find that more stressful.

The main focus is your own time. The app tracks your PBs at different locations etc. Yea there is a “position” recorded but honestly unless you’re top 10 who cares about that? The crowd changes every week so it’s meaningless to compare. The only race is against yourself.

We live next to a beautiful park that has a regular park run event, for the first few years it was lovely, seeing everyone enjoying themselves (all ages & abilities) you’d hear little children cheering their parents on or see young couples holding hands afterwards. Now, it’s turned into some super serious event, they take over the whole park, we’ve had a few issues in the park were runners have shouted at children playing or screamed at dog walkers & one of the stewards tried to close the car to runners only!

lots of parkrun courses involve loops (makes sense really because how many local parks have 5 kilometres of empty space) so it wouldn't work, the arseholes would still end up barging the slower people out of the way on their second loop while the slower were finishing their first (and then third and fourth etc).

Besides which how would you define competitive vs fun? Lots of competitive people are not complete arseholes and can share the course appropriately. Would it be fair for competitive women, who will still usually be slowly than a man at the same level, to be treated badly? And most fun runners are still competitive to a degree, even if just against themselves (i.e improving their own times) otherwise they wouldn't bother going to an event or logging their times at all.

Not to mention PR is all done by volunteers offering their time for free - people who would probably not prefer not to have to deal with extra faff and additional time of organising multiple races and aggression from the idiots.

And more races = longer time other park users can't use the area (or risk getting shouted at/barged out of the way if they do) to play games, take the kids out, walk the dog, use the field for sports matches etc., which given the fact they take place on a weekend morning (the busiest time for most parks) would be a huge issue!

Why should the 99% have to make changes and put themselves out just for the 1% who can't behave properly?

The London marathon is a huge event, with a lot of financial backing, plus support from the council, police, that takes place once a year, in the same place. Not thousands of events taking place in different areas every single week run completely by volunteers. It's completely different

With the greatest respect, if you clearly have never been to a park run, don't you think it's a bit arrogant to chime in with how you 'can't work out' how it could be better run? Without thinking the people who have been organising it for over a decade at this point might have magically thought about these things themselves if it were possible?

I voted YABU - racers should not be banned.

However, those who behave badly like this should be banned.

Many will be able to race at events like this without behaving like the entitled arseholes you describe.

Why should the decent racers be penalised due to the arseholes you saw?

Any yet people on here are complaining. So it isn’t perfect and clearly there must be a better way to some of the park runs to be organised differently so everyone is happy. The status quo of having some people barge past either deliberately or inadvertently seems a problem with a solution. Just because something has always been done one way doesn’t mean it can’t be changed to accommodate people better.

It's easier to run fast when others are running fast, they pull you along and you've a tangible goal, so if there are say 20 really fast ones that will help you.

To add, I used to race, and it's perfectly easy to race in a park run with a bit of awareness of your surroundings, mutual respect for all and a bit of common decency, all of which will prevent any issues.

The spaces are for everyone's use, and no one should dictate who should or should not use them.

Anyone acting badly and entitled in a public space should be banned, everyone else should be able to enjoy the space respectfully wether they are sports participants (competitive or for fun) or just out for a stroll, with the kids, walking the dog, etc.

I imagine they cycle as a large group too, swetving across country lanes and going through red lights.
I know someone who had a lycra clad cyclist of this ilk drive striaght into the back of their car at high speed as he was looking at his speedometer and failed to see the red light and crashed.
Its the same kind of idiots I imagine.
They should piss off to a running track or velodrome.

All my local Parkruns are lapped courses, so there is always an element of faster runners overtaking slower runners like myself.

In my experience, the fastest runners - ie the ones going for the win - are really supportive, give loads of space, encourage other runners, and many of them volunteer to bar code scan once they have finished.

The arseholes are the upper-middle tier in my experience… those who finish in the top 20-30% range (not place, that depends on the PR). I think they have low self esteem… they know they will never win a PR, so make themselves feel better by making the point they are faster than at least some people.

The one exception to my “quick people are nice” is a certain YouTuber who has multiple videos of “last to first” at various parkruns, who is an entitled arsehole of the highest order.

Lol at serious runmers don't do parkrun.

Mr Monkey and some friends are in Hamburg for the marathon this weekend - all sub 3.15 runners, a couple sub 2.45. They did the local parkrun this morning.

I've done almost 250 parkruns over the years and have never been pushed or nudged. I am surprised at the OP as I have done parkruns in many different locations and never seen the sort of behaviour reported.

I would like to say I have never been sworn at but one time a young woman told me to "oh fuck off" as I ran past her in a puddle and plashed her but that was the only time. And I didn't take it too personally then! She was out of order but I understood her frustration.

oh no you don't. It's a fun run. Trying to get a PB is for running clubs, surely?

Why don’t they register for actual races then?

Social media is responsible for this, and that includes strava. Competitive and nasty and that is why I run alone. A few ruin it for the huge majority of people.

have you told PR that? they receive money to increase women's participation in sport. If your daughters don't go because of the racing men, PR - who claim it is not a race - should know about it and take action on it.

Any rudeness or inappropriate behaviour towards other parkrunners or members of the public should be reported to the run director and you should expect action to be taken.

Aside from this, parkrun is for anyone who wants to come along and can complete the 5k in a reasonable time (yes this is not officially a thing but if you're going to take two hours this may cause a problem if volunteers are expecting to be done in around 70 minutes max). Policing who is too experienced to come to the parkrun is just as bad as saying that people are too slow to take part in organised races. As long as people are being polite, respectful and considerate, we have no need for gatekeeping.

Lol, well done, only took 8 pages before cyclists got bought into a moan about runners..........