Park run email today - "Living as myself"

[wantmorenow]

blog.parkrun.com/uk/2022/07/27/living-as-myself/

Today of all days after Allison's victory!

Another form asking us to choose a gender or prefer not to say when I just want the word sex. Or non-believer in gender identity woo.

Who do we email to put our protected beliefs to?

We're always being told that including transwomen in sport doesn't matter as there are so few of them. That argument is being made a lot atm in regards to the rugby ruling - apparently there are currently 7 transwomen registered to play women's rugby. Apart from the fact that one woman negatively impacted is one woman too many - each of those 7 will effect everyone on their team, everyone in the club who didn't make the team, and every team they play against (taking it quickly in the hundreds) not to mention the girls and women who watch and then decide rugby isn't for them.

But Parkrun is a good example (like athletics in general) where it just takes one single semi-decent, but not exceptional, male to set a record that takes that away FOREVER from women.

Great point

I've actually done over 50 parkruns - not been for the last 3 or 4 years for various reasons - and never going to challenge any record.

It's selling point is that it is inclusive, and it is to the extent that all runners, whatever your speed and fitness level, are included and welcomed. And they also have runners at the back of the field to encourage slow runners and everybody cheers on the slow runners as they come in.

BUT as pp have said, it is always women's records and achievements that are downgraded by the inclusion of transwomen in the female category, the men's records are never threatened by a transman. And that is why I have emailed parkrun to complain. It's not a big thing in itself, it's just the cumulative downgrading of women in everything where transwomen want to push in.

It doesn’t matter how many TW there are - although obviously the more there are, the more this means that real, actual women and girls miss out on recognition for the years and years of hard work and dedication they’ve put in (not to mention the support of their families and coaches) - there shouldn’t be ANY males competing against women in women’s sport.

It’s actually really black and white, like a rule. People don’t argue for “just a few” people being allowed to be over the alcohol limit when driving, or “just a few” young teenagers being able to buy cigarettes etc, so why, in this case, do some people argue that “just one or two/ just a few” biological males in women’s sport is ok, when it really isn’t. It’s mind boggling 🤯

This came up on my social media timeline this morning....who is going to mention this to them?

www.fastrunning.com/events-and-races/parkrun/10-fastest-uk-parkrun-times-on-30th-july-2022/34675

The thing about saying that parkrun is just for fun and not a race and therefore you can skew and muddy all the results and stats is that for a very significant number of people it is a time trial by which they test and compare themselves and unless you're going to wholesale change the way results are recorded and shared then last week's changes and email are just a way to negatively impact women.

That "record" at Parke has wound me up. Even more as I know how amazing the woman who should be in 1st place is.
Email incoming to parkrun HQ.

I’d add a third option, that they are well aware of their male advantages and enjoy hurting women.

Parke is local to me and the trans woman in question has some publicity online. It does make it personal but I guess that works both ways and it is interesting to read her human story too and where she is coming from

I have read an article about her too and I know she was a very good runner when she was a man (I can't really believe that I am writing that sentence!) but does not enter races unless there is a non-binary category. However, she's still happy to sit there with the course record at Parke (and there may be others). I think Charlotte Arter (or Charlotte Purdue) need to pay a visit to Parke and get the course record back for the females. Jo Meek is relatively local too - she could potentially get it back, as could Jo Pavey.

If anyone has a good template for an email to parkrun I would be interested to see it. I would like to raise this with them, but don't want them just to come back with "parkrun isn't a race so it doesn't matter".

I’d love a template as well, so many excellent points on this thread , I wish could send parkrun the entire thing

They stopped people being able to run with dogs using a waist harness to remove the advantage of a canicross setup.

They recognised that was unfair on non-dog owners and realised some legitimate course records might be unfairly broken.

Funny how the same consideration isn't applied to women.

Was it because of the advantage or because there were accidents? I thought it was a safety thing.

Interestingly the comments on the tweets from GC posters have been left standing in a way that the FB ones were not -

twitter.com/parkrunUK/status/1552693871141949440?t=2OexYqARQVOsUofF5LDBWA&s=19

Waist leads were banned on safety grounds.
The confusion may be due to records set with a dog on a waist lead previously being noted as assisted.

Thank you x
A flat course, being fitter than I have been in a long time and unencumbered by dog (no more canicross) or chatty runners.
I'm still mulling this over. It goes to show how easy it is to surrender values & red lines when we are not personally bothered by something even when other women are.
Food for thought.

Me too if there is something someone more articulate that me is able to mock up, doesn't have to be war and peace. But could gain some traction.

Parkrun have been deleting comments on their Facebook post. Not a good look for them.

I noticed that too. Plus anyone even raising a query is shouted down. Was interesting to see the same editing hadn't happened to the almost universally sceptical Twitter commentz

I’ve followed one of the high ups on Parkrun and tweeted him. I’ve also sent a letter to parkrun using one of their contact forms on the web. Below is what I sent to park run, you’re welcome to use it as a template and improve it as well.

Sex not gender!

It’s great that you are welcoming to transgender people, however it is important that women are not excluded from Park Run as a result.
Parkrun say that it is a run not a race, but yet you do post results for participants as a motivator and benchmark to run against. .
Someone born with the physical advantages of male puberty will skew the results for the women with whom they are grouped.
This can demotivate and exclude women from the run
If transwomen compete with women this is immensely upsetting and demotivating to women,
Trans people should participate in their own sex class not gender identity or participate in a third group
Whilst Parkrun is not competitive it is motivating to be able to compare and benchmark your individual performance with your peers
I feel demoralised that my results mean that if I were to compare myself to transgender people in my group I could never see an improvement in my results. The results mean nothing if you are not comparing yourself by sex and age with your peers.
It is important that your form reflects the difference between sex and gender, and participants should run in their sex class.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that they can’t compete.
This is impacting grass roots runners and may prevent the next generation of female runners coming through if they can never get a fair result.
The class of female is being eroded.
Did you consult any women’s bodies before you changed your policy?
Sharon Davis or Daley Thompson are sporting people who would give you input.
Sex Matters are a body who can give advice. sex-matters.org
Equal but not the same.
I feel that because I am neither male nor trans, my feeling don’t count.

Great letter and could you keep us updated on any response or non response please?

Oh yes - parkrun has many strengths, but its HQ is pretty bossy and unyielding.

The decision on dogs was so obviously wrong (what was needed was lead length to keep dogs right next to their owners, not banning of waistbelts, which are actually safety kit!!)

Their direction on inclusivity has been perfectly plain for a considerable time (read back issues of blogs).

What's the course record at Parke? DH is a handy parkrunner (16ish mins PB), wonder if a little campaign by some speedy male runners (but women for the day, like Zuby did with the weightlifting) might draw some attention to it. Play them at their own game... but that would put it even more out of reach for the women if parkrun didn't reset it.
Outing for anyone that knows me, but six months post partum and on my 40th birthday, my goal was to run sub 30 and not get lapped. Made the first but not the second, but it was only DH out of the fast runners that lapped me. I was torn between irritation and pride

Female course record is 15.45 (Paramatta, Australia) previously 15.49 (Cardiff)

Male record is 13.48 (Bushy, by an Olympic 5000 runner) second is 13.57 (Dulwich, by an Olympic triathlete)

(As an aside, when Kipchoge ran a sub 2 hour marathon, his average 5k split was 14.28 - at the time only 4 parkruns had ever been faster than that)

That needs to happen, men competing as women eon mass and Women competing as 80 year old men

This is the thing @AuntieStella - if ANYONE has a lot of data about the impact SEX has on your athletic ability, it's parkrun! Can you imagine how they could use it to show the very important differences between men and women, especially when it comes to a second variable of age?

Just for a bit of further topical context, if Eilish MColgan ran a parkrun at the same pace as she ran last night (new Commonwealth Games record) she would set a new parkrun record of 15:24

The World Records for 5k are 12:35 for men and 14:06 for women