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.

I, I and I

Not everyone is you

So you want me as a run director to police whether someone who has ticked the "female" box when they registered is really a woman? Or if not me, parkrun HQ? has this very long thread suggested how that would be done, are we going full producing copies of birth certificates?

The word 'inclusive' almost always means excluding women from fairness. It's a word that is the enemy of womens rights. Womens categories are not meant to be 'inclusive' of males. That's the whole point.

Exactly!! ♥️

It's not important for you. It hasn't come up for you.

But surely you can see that if 280 men have been declared 'best female' it is an issue for some women.

Why don't these women deserve the right to top their category without being elbowed aside by men?

No, how many times!

Do you police age??
No

Then why would police sex??

It’s about fair rules for registration

I volunteer now and absolutely would not if I was expected to do anything like that.

No. I want all categories, rankings and timings removed. And it just be a fun run. If anyone wants to track their PBs, they can do that with their phone or watch. Those still exist in 2026.

The course records used to be on the bottom of every event page, those were removed. So it's no longer "promoting" them. Are you looking on the event history page and filtering the finish times?

Many things in life rely on trust, truth and honesty.

We should be able to expect that trans identifying men should be capable of telling the truth, just as the majority of people are who have no gender identity.

If you say - the category is biological sex, and yet you are expecting trans identifying men to lie, then you are assuming the worst of them.

And if the category is biological sex, then breaches of this can be removed, just as breaches of the age categories are.

I would expect the doctor treating me to be honest about their training. I expect parents registering their children for my school to tell the truth about their age. I would trust the train company to have appropriately trained drivers.

Why, if you say that trans identifying men will just lie about their biological sex, are they not honest?

Women have the right in law to single sex spaces and categories. This is for equity as well as equality.

Women matter too.

But surely if you have rules and they aren't being policed, that is itself unfair?

NO ONE NEEDS TO POLICE ANYTHING

You don’t for age so you wouldn’t for sex.

They just need to change the box and make it clear on registration

If there are no categories, no rankings, no timings, then it is for everyone.

Okay you're back on my I'll get rid of the timekeepers and barcode scanners and 9am start proposal then. Everyone just go and cover 5km in the park at a time of your choosing.

You don't police age because being trans-age isn't a thing. So volunteers know they won't have to police that, whereas they might well end up having to police trans-identified individuals and I would not feel comfortable, as an occasional Parkrun volunteer, doing that. At the moment you don't have to police anything and that's what's best for something as large and non-competitive as Parkrun.

I tell what is more unfair having rules that freely allow men to register as women.

Let’s start there shall we.

Or are you saying that trans identifying men en masse will cheat? I don’t think so

No. You're not getting it. It's not possible to police since men will always lie and cheat.

Having no categories at all, no timings, no rankings, no barcodes (I'm not a chocolate bar, I don't need to be scanned); is the exact opposite of being policed.

Jeez, the irony

It's a pointless rule if it's not actually enforced.

Do you police age at parkrun?

No but the rules are to enter your age not how old you feel, for obvious reasons.

Nobody needs to police anything.

As opposed to a pro-trans/anti-women echo chamber? Ever tried Reddit?

Great, on that basis I'm parkrunning right now at my desk! For the second time today, I actually completed one earlier as well. Haven't even left the house. Amazing, this free-for-all untimed non-specific parkrun lark.

So basically no Parkrun. You're suggesting we just get rid of it completely as that's the only way to be fair to women?

Yes, freely available for men to see their position but women are not afforded the same opportunity

Who said anything about a smart watch? An ordinary two bob watch will do. Or a stop watch. Which many phones, not just smart phones but non-smart phones have.