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.

Totally agree with this.
People who don't have the patience shouldn't volunteer.

Please don't let this thread put you off @IAmJaneDoe . There is a certain type of person who complains about times etc at a Parkrun and trust me, the majority try their best to ignore them.

Do give it a go if you feel up to it. You get your competitive runners who pay no one any attention lol, people who are their to beat their own personal best and the rest of us are there to get fit and stay fit amongst other like minded folk.

Yes.

I felt safe doing Parkrun. Training for it on my own - not so much.

I did one of my practice runs in the park a week beforehand. The vast majority of folk in the park were very positive. After I'd finished and was walking up the hill to the park exit, one woman asked if I was training for a hill run. ("Me!?" I thought, "Hill run?!")

There had been a few people out and about, obviously training. The only ones taking the piss were a couple of teenage boys out fishing and at my age it's easier to handle.

During the Parkrun it's very different - everyone is positive.

Christ they were 10 minutes later than the hour!
I think you are pretty nasty as a person and maybe shouldn’t associate yourself with something which claims to be welcoming and friendly!
I think if someone with Parkinson’s or a zimmer frame wanted to challenge themselves to take part in this INCLUSIVE activity then yes they should absolutely be cheered on at the finish line even if if takes them 2 hours because each step is painful!

I don’t agree that a 5km/hr is “casual walking pace”. I walk to work, it’s exactly 5k. It takes me a smidge under 1hr and I walk briskly. If the website says “walk run or jog” then you can’t put an hour time limit on it.

Anyway for me, the most valuable thing about parkrun is that women in particular, and fatter people of either sex, can run around without being heckled and hassled. You can generally walk around without being heckled by idiots, but if you dare to run, you often can't. So that's what makes parkrun inclusive - it's a safe space to run. Not walk, because there are other options to do that safely.

The other great thing is that it allows me to run in my local park for 30 minutes a week without being worried about off-lead dogs (dogs are allowed but there aren't many of them and they are with their owners and on leads).

We all get different things out of parkrun but we do need to be mindful of the volunteers because if they stop coming, there's no parkrun.

I am a walker. I usually do it in 50 mins. My adult children do it in 16-24 mins (DS often comes first). I love going along. Once a month they have https://www.moveagainstcancer.org/5k-your-way/
at our local park run. It is humbling seeing the cancer patients chatting with the medical staff before the ‘run’. I often chat to the people who are still undergoing treatment as we walk. It would be a hard tailwalker to tell them to hurry up or not turn up because of 15 mins.

For some people this one hour is not just about fitness, but connecting, well being and companionship. We could all walk round a park alone, but chose to do it together.

I'm afraid that I did, as did others. I'm told that there are flat courses in the area, but our park isn't one of them.

I'm so grateful to parkrun volunteers, including the OP.

I think it's reasonable for the event to have a cut off. Other races do.

Also it's called parkrun so whilst it's OK to walk, the idea is to get round in reasonable time. I do not see the point in getting a time for a 5k amble. Just use strava on your phone for free.

My local parkrun starts and ends in an athletics stadium which we probably have til 10am / 10.30 latest so yeah if you take a long time you'd arrive at the finish to junior cycling or something!

Volunteers are there from 830 and it can be all weathers so 2 hours is pushing it.

Christ on a bike. You’re actually suggesting an ideological purity test for parkrun marshals?

LOADS of regular marshals have issues with the way parkrun do things, but we carry on because we believe in its wider fundamental purpose. And we do it with a good grace (outwardly) or we wouldn’t bother. As long as I do my job well while I’m doing it, and I do, it hardly matters what’s going on in my head.

I volunteer for 5kyw and so many of our awesome runners and walkers are amazing, at al stage in their cancer journey. They would be horrified to think people were being judgemental and impatient. It is such an amazing social support, not sure the op realises her privilege at being well enough to be done in a hour!

See, me and my mate, we sprint the first quarter mile up to the pier, grab a bacon roll and a coffee there, then bimble up the promenade to the hill of doom, chat to our friends who marshall and then jog down the slope, round the park to the pier, grab another coffee and wander back along the seafront, walk up the hill again, jog down and sprint the final leg of the park. Usually a couple of minutes under the hour...but why should we be penalised if there's a queue at the pier?

There should be a park stroll for those who need more than 50 minutes and are therefore not doing anything which could be described as running.

what age are you OP? I assume young as your post and replies are staggering.

hilarious.
🤣

So if I can't join in an inclusive running event with on hand support and encouragement, how do you propose I get better at it so I meet your time limits? Seriously? No real clue where to start and looking to improve my fitness. Park run should be ideal, surely?

My two children were unsporty as youngsters, it was park run that made them love running for fun. Dd took up triathlon, DS not runs all distances from 5k to marathons. My Dd even did her university dissertation on parkrun ‘Is parkrun really for everyone?’ Looking at the barriers to participation in this community activity from a human geography point of view.

Yes because it has to be called something and most people try to run it. Yabu, it's not really a problem and if the volunteers need to go before they finish they should just leave.

Apologies if this has been asked before, but as someone old, unfit, and slow, who has attended a couple of Parkruns to see if it might be doable, starting with walking, which Parkrun do you volunteer at, @SummerAsh? (Asking for a friend.)

If you don't enjoy volunteering there then maybe offer your services to an athletics club ?!

People volunteer for park run because they want to support parkrun & their community rather than athletics.

There are running clubs that do beginner training and will do for example a 6 week block specifically for people learning to run. These would be great for people in your situation. There would be dedicated, patient coaches and others who are learning to run so you'd feel supported.

Honestly, the folk at my local Parkrun are marvellous.

Also, when I went along just to cheer the other running club beginners over the line a couple of weeks ago, there were people there who were clearly running with disabilities.

I just planted myself at the start of the last straight (having checked with the volunteers) and cheered like mad as everyone went past.

It was great fun, cold and rainy though it was. (I was well wrapped up.)

There were people running with dogs, people running with buggies (serious runners up front of course - finished in about 17 minutes).

And yes, the last time I ran I was lapped by a couple of dads each pushing a double buggy containing two children.

Or an athletics club or running club for those who have the ability.

We have always had those

The whole point of park run was to be inclusive of the people who don't have the ability or confidence.

I'd be very interested to know how many people moaning about OP being a poor volunteer have ever volunteered their own time, rather than just feeling entitled to someone else's.

Inconsiderate people will lead to less volunteers, which then means all of the considerate people suffer. But that's basically our society at the moment - always catering to the lowest common denominator at the expense of everyone else.

That's exactly how I started.

The other option - used by a friend of mine - is the free to download Couch to 5k app.