Parkrun failure

[MyGastIsFlabbered]

I stupidly signed up to Parkrun and did my first on Saturday. I just wanted to die of shame, I walked the whole way round, was so far behind everyone else (bar a couple) and just feel defeated about the whole thing. I came 454th out of 457 and it took me 54 minutes. My boyfriend is a very keen runner which just made it so much worse. I want to hide my head and never go back. To make things worse I can only go every other week so I'm never going to get any better. And I can't go at all for the next 3 weeks.

I don't really know why I'm posting, I just feel so embarrassed about how unfit and fat I am.

I’m a run director at parkrun. My personal running times vary between 30 minutes and 50 minutes. Depends on my mood or how hungover I am 😂😂😂

I always say to people not to push themselves on their first parkrun as that virtually guarantees a pb next time 😁

parkrun is ace. It’s changed my life 🙂 if you are in North Devon come to mine!

Huge gratitude swampy for all the time and energy you and others put in to make this a success.

I am still plucking up courage to go along to my first Parkrun, but the idea of doing it has been a motivating factor for me doing couch 2 5k.

There is a very encouraging Face Book group called ‘Walking at Parkrun’ - lots of stories to help get you started.

I've been last at parkrun (and other races) before in 59.45. My PB on the same course is 24.48. Just because you're not as fast as you want doesn't mean you should stop - if you go you're lapping everyone on the sofa. You can always train on your own if you can't make parkrun. Lunges and sprints are great for building leg strength and speed - start with where you are now and build from there.

You finished. Not a failure in my book! You could have just sat at home and ate cakes!

I joined a running club and it’s a 12 week course, building up to Parkrun at the end of the course, so jumping straight into the park run seems optimistic! I’ve also done c25k previously and it was great. The current course (I’m back to being a beginner after a loooong break!) is much the same. You can do it MyGast!

I’m a ru; director at juniors and I echo everything everyone has said.

You CANNOT fail at parkrun, and you cannot be last, unless you are the tail walker.
I have run 105 Parkrun’s and only two of those have been faster than 30 mins, it’s not about speed for me, it’s about my mental health, it’s about the friendship, it’s about the coffee and scone afterwards, it’s about not being in bed on a Saturday morning.

And juniors is awesome for your kids if you have one locally, mine are too old now, but I love love love juniors.

Do you have a local junior parkrun? They're in Sunday's and kids age 4-14 can run / walk.

They're 2k and you can run/ walk with them too!

Well done OP my first park run was forty something minutes, a dozen more runs and my times are more respectable. I am happy as long as I improve by a few seconds each week and l am over the moon if I improve by a minute.
When people say well done, I say not too good and they reply, better than those still in bed!
Keep at it.

Please don't feel bad. I came last in my first race, I thought it would be easy but it wasn't & everyone else shot off at the start, I lost my pace trying to keep up & was a breathless wreck very quickly. I still cringe a bit but I was determined not to give up. I signed up for another race a few weeks later & trained in the meantime. I wasn't brilliant (far from it!) but I got better & it led to years of running which has bought nothing but good to my life. There's some very competitive people at Parkrun! Keep training at your own pace, there's no way you're a failure.

another vote for C25K ...i started in january on the cross trainer in the shed, so have basically cycled (and not even outside!) for 3 months and you really do noticed the improvement pretty fast which is really gratifying.

I was just hanging for the first week, not even managing "running" for the last couple of runs, but I repeated the week and from struggling to get to the end and having 7k show on the display, I ended up with 20k for the last run ....I have no idea of the accuracy of that, but you can see and feel the difference in pace and fitness as each week passes

I am starting over but with less sitting and lots more standing...I have flimsy ankles and iffy knees, so I am very cautious, I am repeating W1 as the first three resulted in my knees feeling like they would pop apart like popper beads, but this week I have improved distances wise, and my knees are not popped! And I'll probably do w1 again next week just to make sure!

So the moral of the story is go at your own pace, take credit for any small improvement and just keep on doing it!

Can’t be worse than when one of the volunteers dotted around the course had their little boy standing with them, and as I limped past he said very loudly “mummy that lady is reeeeaaaallllly slow”

You should be proud of yourself...you did it! I met a lady at a park run who had done it over 150 weekends without a break ...she told me she had lost 14 stones since she started...her first one took over an hour and a half. She said it it genuinely saved her life. Powerful stuff.

9 and 6 are old enough to take part themselves. I think you should try to get them to do it too.

Well done! Hope you are going back tomorrow. It will be my 4th Park 'Walk' tomorrow, I have got a bit quicker, but still at around 47 minutes. I don't run at all, a tiny bit of jogging perhaps, but only for a minute once or twice. I'm not last, there are usually a handful between me and the tailwalker, but even if I were last I don't care. DH has completed C25k since Jan, and now runs a couple of times a week for pleasure. I think me just doing PR once a week 3 times has meant I have caught the bug.

Keep at it OP! Well done! :)

This is a bit cheesy, but I thought you might like it MyGast

Most important bit is that it's not a race, it's whatever you want it to be.

And when you get to the Riverdance bit, do remember that a troop of Morris Dancers did a Parkrun last year. Yes, it can be that weird

OP well done for completing your first park run! Park run is for everyone- runners, joggers and walkers. When you go next all you have to do is try and beat 54 minutes. Don't worry about anyone else. Go for it.

I was gonna say yes get the kids involved too as it’s healthy for them as well. My DD was 6 when she did her first PR, we ran between lampposts and she got a jelly baby every km. We now do one PR a month as a family (my 11yr old too) and I run them most weeks as it’s the only way to make myself run faster. I too was mid-40s overweight when I did C25k two years ago, I’m still overweight but I run 25k a week, and I’ve done 3 HalfMarathons. It’s been life changing not just physically but more mentally being able to run to keep me sane in early menopause and with work /family stress.