Stupid Park Run question

[ThelastRolo20]

I have my first park run on Saturday - genuinely can't wait! But confused how they know your time? I have my barcode on a wrist strap, do they scan as you literally pass the finish line? Or they give you a token or something?

It'll be all I think about if I don't know 😂

trolley yes, tokens are all handed out in numerical order.

Results generally come through on the 5K app before the email. The app has info on the different parkruns plus loads of personal stats and challenges. It's very addictive.

Enjoy parkrun however you choose to do it (run, jog, walk) it can be life changing in a positive way. The park walkers are there to give you company if you want to walk round and just check it out the first time.

Everything is done on a volunteer app now which has timing and barcode scanning

Timekeepers (there are usually 2, so always a back up) tap each time someone crosses the finish line which records numbered finish place and time.

Token person then gives you the number etc token which is your finish place.

Barcode scanner then scans your personal barcode (physical or on screen both fine nowadays) and then the finish token (which you give back, we use the same ones each week). This matches you to a finish position .

once everyone has finished timekeepers and barcode scanners upload results from their phones. Then IT magic matches the 3 bits of data to give at listing of everyones time and place.

In the volunteer team there will be a results processing person (often the run director on the day) who checks the initial result on the parkrun, has a chance to mend / adjust anything. Once happy, they submit the final version and the central computer sends you your results with time & placing .
Here’s a few photos! Timer file is a junior parkrun one !

It’s all really simple to learn as a volunteer with the app. Smartphones have made it so straightforward.

It’s improve a lot since the days of stopwatches, special little barcode scanners that hated being cold and having to physically plug things into a laptop.

Well done for getting yourself to Park Run / 5k level!

Did you do Couch25k? I did it a few years ago and loved my first Park Run. Felt like such an achievement!

Hope you enjoy it 😀

most importantly ….enjoy! I cannot say enough positive things about parkrun, it’s a super duper wonderful thing. There will be a first timers briefing if you arrive about 8.45 explaining everything, and people are friendly. I only walk these days and enjoy it even more !

Thanks everyone 😊 I've done casual runs in the past and have hovered around the 28 min mark (when I was actually fit - been a few years since my daughter was born). Following a couple of missed miscarriages recently I've decided not to put my life on hold and have given myself the target of working towards sub 25 and I figured park run would help me do this! Will let you know how tomorrow goes 😂

I'm not sure whether I'm happy to finally have solved the mystery of PR timing or a bit sad to have to think of something else to ponder while I try not to die on the last km 😂

Yes! Someone has to sort all the tokens back into the right order every week!
The timekeepers set the stopwatch going at the start of the run. Every time someone crosses the finish they click the stopwatch and it records times and finish positions. Then you stay in order through the finish funnel to collect your finish token which has your finish position on it. Then that gets scanned against your barcode. When the results are processed the system then puts together finish stopwatch and barcode scanning files so that the time for finish position 1 goes with the person who scanned finish token 1 etc. It doesn't matter when or in what order you get your barcode scanned.

No, the only time there might be a delay is that if an event is particularly busy and you have to queue to cross the finish line, so you might lose a few seconds then.

It's a good job really because sometimes it takes me a few minutes to get scanned eg if I am chatting to people or needed to sit down at the finish for a couple of minutes.

I've not actually timed since they moved away from the stopwatch, I much preferred the stopwatch and always think I could miss-press on my phone screen.

But the barcode scanning on a phone is a million times better.

I found the old scanners a nightmare (far too easy to accidentally wipe too!) but yep I preferred the stopwatches

middle & trolley the first time me and DS took the tokens home (xmas eve saturday).to sort we realised it took a bit longer than expected and we had to rush to sort them to get them back for the next days Xmas day run.
I was slightly fascinated with token 1, the only time I'd ever hold it 😁.

At our Parkrun each barcode scanner has a little drawstring bag so the tokens come back in totally randomly, but we went to one in London that had boxes marked '1-50', '51-100' etc so you dropped your token in the corresponding box and aside from presumably a few anomalies from carelessness I thought that must make things much quicker in sorting terms!

Just completed it with a pb of under 27 mins, don't know exact time yet 💪🏻

Hope you all had a good run if you were taking part today!

Amazing time OP!! First of many Parkruns for you?

I remember my 27 minute days in the distant past!! I slid in just under 50 minutes today but pleased to still be getting round at 36 weeks pregnant

Thank you - I've started doing after a couple of miscarriages to remind myself of what my body can do 🥰

Best of luck with baby's arrival!! X

Well done @ThelastRolo20 I hope you enjoy doing hundreds more parkruns.

Amazing time, well done! You going to go back next week?

I'm planning every other week so I can alternate with my toddlers football class! On the off week's I'll do 8-10km runs instead 😊

Well done OP 👏

Well done OP!

…and, the scanning marshal said that digital bar codes were fine and he asked me how to get it on his watch.