parkrun defending their position

[Funtime2]

I used to be a parkrunner and do not understand how parkrun can defend their position of allowing trans identfying males into the female category.

I read that 280 published race winners in the female category are actually men identifying as women. How is this fair to women? Some women don’t care about this but some women do, just as some men take it as a race and care about the rankings and some men don’t

The other option of course is they could stop the timing, stop recording winners and records?

AIBU to genuinely not understand why parkrun claim not to be a race when they time the runners, publish times by category, rank times and runners, and have record holders by category.

Parkrun is not a competition. It is a weekly timed run. The timing element allows you to compare your performance each week. Yes, the first finishers are published but there are no prizes or recognition. Fast runners have as much right to attend as slower ones.

I fully agree that men should not be registering as women and that parkrun shouldn't allow this. However, I do wonder whether people commenting here, saying everyone should time themselves etc, have ever actually been to a parkrun or even run.

That is ridiculous, they’re not run under test or competition conditions.

as @BananaPeels said

Parkrun results are automatically passed to Power of 10 and Run Britain Rankings, which are the official databases for British Athletics

this mean these time can be used for ranking, handicaps and help qualify people for official races and events. Parkrun isn’t just a personal run it is an official time trial event.

regardless, doesn’t stop it being true though.

the whole event was set up specifically for the purpose of time trialling runners. The whole ‘it’s
a community fun run’ came much later

And herein lies the problem. Parkrun is trying to be all things to all people because its funding model depends on big numbers and roughly half the people want something completely different to the other half. When this all kicked off there was talk of not publishing results, until they realised that would massively reduce participation but they also need to keep emphasising the "public health, free and non-competitive" angle because a lot of their funding depends on that - they're not getting any funding specifically to get elite and club runners a bit quicker but their other funding (sponsorship/ grants) indirectly depends on those runners turning up every week. They're basically stranded in no man's land now but it's a problem at least partly of their own making because whatever they do now will look like a huge concession/ stand.

I agree with other comments that PR cant realistically be expected to police this- investing in verification technology will be prohibitively expensive and volunteers cant be expected to challenge people as they cross the line. However, I think in their shoes I would capitulate now and quietly change the registration to male/female and ask existing runners to "reconfirm their details" .

That’s on them -however Parkrun is not a competition or even based on any kind of test conditions. It’s run on a huge variety of tracks, manned by volunteers with very little overseeing power.

So, Lauren Jeska cheated himself into the top womens position at Aberystwyth parkrun on 22 Sept 2012.
He was jailed in 2017.
Jeska was still showing as the women's course record in their weekly news in 2023. Records were removed from the main parkrun website at the start of 2024, although I've heard a rumour they show on the app?
Women have been asking parkrun to correct Jeskas category to male for a few years and parkrun senior management refuse to do so.

"It's not a competition"

So why are rankings published?

I teach science- firstly I absolutely know that there is a difference between male.and female bodies.

But, secondly, when we give back test scores, yes, we celebrate those students who achieved or beat their target score, but we also celebrate the students with the highest score. And those students get public recognition when they move up a set.

We don't celebrate children who cheat, and get an artificially inflated test grade.

But this is what is happening here. Women, on average, cannot physically realistically achieve results equaling those of men.

Lauding and promoting the cheaters to a higher set is discriminating against those less academically able students who worked their socks off to achieve their target, even though they might never be top of the class.

Women have rights too. We want our stuff back.

Many of us seem to have done parkrun and a couple of posters said they volunteer.

The reason some are saying people should time themselves is because parkrun won’t back down and so they are probably going to have to stop times.

Why they can’t welcome everyone for the run but insist the paperwork s accurate I don’t know.

Oh give over, it’s tedious.

It’s not a competition. You can stamp your feet all you like but it isn’t and is widely promoted as a non competitive community, inclusive event.

Don’t like it- jog on, literally!

Thats not really true, PR results are not used for those purposes on those sites, no one gets ranked for PR's as a result of their PR's, let alone used for qualie's

Simply because very few PR courses are exactly 5k, the timing isn't accurate enough and unless you are already a serious club runner, with an EA number, you wouldn't be listed, which means you'll be doing EA competitions and getting ranked/picked for county etc.

But in any instance, if people don't like the way PRs organise things, they can boycott the event and/or set up their own rival community run, with their own rules.
PR's create joy and happiness for millions of people worldwide and continue to grow.

Why should a group of busybody activists be to wreck this? i'd never volunteer if i had to ask people to prove their birth sex and who would i decide to ask?

But why do the volunteers have to get involved? People should be asked to be honest about their sex and age . If they aren’t parkrun reserve the right to remove their rules from the app and ban them as and when any info comes to light about the person not being honest about the category they should be in. Simple as that.

It's the MEN that are ruining it. Blaming feminists for righting for our rights, instead of the men taking them away. That's vile.

🙄It really isn’t

@Bumb13B33

Your posts are like whackamole.

People keep proving your one point wrong and you post again saying the same thing

You “parkrun is not a competition’
Poster Then why do they declare winners
You “parkrun is not a competition’
Another poster “then why do the rank in categories"
You “parkrun is not a competition’
Another poster “they use timings for official databases"
You “parkrun is not a competition"

You haven’t once responded to prove why all these posters are wrong and that declaring winners means it’s not a competition.

Poll after poll after poll (done by official polling companies) all show the overwhelming majority agree with female only sports being by sex. Even a poll in the US shows almost 70% of Democrats agree.

You are in an ever-decreasing minority I am afraid, and you are being left behind.

Volunteers who are out in rain or shine of differing ages across differing tracks. Volunteers at every much needed. Park run don’t have to do anything. It isn’t a competition and that’s why people like it.

women ‘ruining things’ by wanting what men have at Park Run, and a murderer’s ‘record’ to be dropped

I mean why do volunteers have to police people’s sex? That seems to be the argument as to why sex categories can’t be enforced as volunteers can’t police it. I’m saying no volunteer should have to.

Agree but I think PR can't stop men registering as women.

Wrong! No matter how many times you tell the same lie, it's still a lie. And you know it! So why do you bother. It's a competition in which times are publicly listed. Go buy a watch. You will have to soon because they will be legally forced to stop publicly listing times, or fold. Their choice.

Males are not a 'vulnerable community', regardless of what they wear.

The only vulnerable community, is FEMALES.

You seem to accuse feminists of bullying. I have no doubt you would have told the suffragettes they were 'bullying' by DEMANDING the right to vote, too.... It's just a bullying oppressor sex class attacking the vulnerable and oppressed sex.

Do you ask peoples age?
because no one is asking for it to be policed, they are asking for the rules to require sex not gender

Rule no one of misogyny. Women are at fault for the actions of MEN.

The thing is @Bumb13B33 I do jog on.

I run public races, from 5k up to half marathons.

I'm not fast. I quite literally "jog on" and on and on.

I like to compare my results against my previous results. To see how I've improved, to see if I have reached my target pace.

I'm never going to win a race.

But, why should I be recorded as a lower position, because of incorrect data?

Just like the test scores in my classes, humans naturally assign "winner" to people at the top of a list, with a highest score or fasted time.

I have taken my children to Park Run. However, I no longer do so, and take them to a local, family friendly run, because why should I teach my daughter that she is less important than a man who thinks that he is a lady?

Words matter. So do women and girls.

If it isn't a competition, then there can be no rankings. Just a straight time, to each runner, individually.