To think Parkrun should have an hour cut-off

[SummerAsh]

200+ participants, all but two completed in under 54 minutes… but the last two women ambled around chatting and took over 1 hour 10 minutes.

I appreciate that Parkrun should be inclusive, but that’s taking the piss, and unfair on the 20 or so volunteers who give up the first part of their Saturday mornings…. It’s hard enough getting volunteers as it is, without expecting everyone to be saintly martyrs with endless patience.

To complete in an hour requires a pace of 3.1 mph (I.e 5km = 3.1 miles)… According to Google, that’s a casual walking pace.

AIBU to think that if you can’t or won’t complete a park”run” at even a casual walking pace, then parkrun isn’t for you. I think that an hour cut off is more than accommodating enough, and an appropriate line to draw.

Otherwise, what is reasonable? Is it reasonable to accommodate a 90-year old taking 3 hours with their zimmer? If not, where the line if not an hour.

I didn't return at all in my second one as I took a wrong turn and got lost.

Indeed. I do 12 minute miles running so that's a fast walking pace.

I’m sure those who volunteer are aware there’s not a cut off. If they have an issue, it’s optional to return.

This. You should probably stop volunteering. How rude with that comment.

I like the parkwalk initiative (and groups like 5k your way) because it has changed the distribution of finishing times and increased the proportion of participants (running, walking or both) at 45- 65 mins. When volunteering it's more awkward waiting for an indeterminate time with a long gap (particularly if on your own marshalling) rather than the time itself, so it's nicer that the slower times have filled out with a steadier flow of people.

I'm struggling for time after parkrun and it's tight enough to do my injury pace run/ walking at the moment, so that's impacting my avaliability to volunteer and I'm not currently able to do roles like timekeeping that are required until the final finisher. I don't think there should be caps on time (and 1hr and just over is very mainstream) but if someone is going to significantly be after the usual finish time range for an event it is worth giving the RD a heads up so the volunteer team are aware of the time commitment involved. There can also be time pressues such as parking access and landowner permissions at specific events that affect core teams. Weather conditions are also a different consideration for volunteers standing still for a prolonged period to participants keeping warmer as they move.

Except - park run doesn’t promote itself as suitable for wheelchair users or that they provide interpreters. However - they do actively promote themselves as suitable for walkers

I agree that's what parkrun says. Although I would interpret walking as fitness walking and not ambling along feeding the ducks and having a go on the swings as you go round (to be clear, I've not seen this but I did hear of a podcast where a woman said she did exactly that).

But everyone else bangs on about inclusivity as if it means you have to accept everyone and nobody can be excluded (other than those horrible fast people who should go and find a race).

Nowhere do I see Parkrun:

• encouraging feeding docks and having a go on swings
• discouraging (or excluding) people from running

🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s not ‘the elephant in the room’ is it. Parkrun is for everybody and that is that. That is what inclusive means. Volunteers and participants should understand that.

Exactly! It's entirely clear that parkrun is very inclusive and volunteers can either understand that or not volunteer.

I've just checked and there were 14 people over an hour at my local parkrun last week, including someone in the 95-99 age category - should we really be telling him not to bother turning up?

You sound like my daughter’s PE teacher who rather than make any effort to be inclusive, told her she could be the referee.

If Parkrun themselves have chosen not to put a time limit on it, maybe Parkrun isn’t for you. If you want to run (or volunteer) for less than an hour, start your own group rather than insisting someone else changes rules to suit you. Also, if you are so convinced you are right, what’s the point of an AIBU, just keep complaining to Parkrun organisers about it.

I found parkrun to be a lifeline when i was recovering from an injury. Which was a broken leg. It took me 65 minutes on the first parkrun after my injury and i walked with the tail walker. I've now improved to 52 minutes. As one person pointed out, there are a lot of parkrunners who are convalescing or recovering from illness or injury.

And I bet its benefit went way beyond the actual physical exercise.
To help with any sadness and frustration, knowing you had that weekly event planned, where you'd have to get up and out pretty early for a w/e, be with other people outside - it must have done you a lot of good. I hope that doesn't sound patronising.

I'm in a blip in my life where I'm making myself do my sport with other people because I know it will give me a boost.