Parkrun to remove course records

[Ingenieur]

In response to criticism of its "gender categorisation policies", Parkrun are now removing a suite of details and records from the site.

https://twitter.com/Cantspekl/status/1755170910787490028

One more thing taken away...

Perhaps I'll get my 17 year old son who's a great runner to identify as a 65 year old male and get an age record.

Love that some men's groups are up in arms about this!

Honestly, fuck Parkrun. All women should boycott them and that would make them reconsider how they've behaved. Or women should set up our own alternative.

The individual event results remain so your son will still be able to check how he did on each event. It's the course records and Top 500s that are going as far as I can see.

I honestly didn't know any of this about Parkrun and I'm sorry I have ever taken part.

I wrote this on another thread...

The 'parkrun question' isn't about how many males take the records or positions of females .. it is about whether women, women's sporting achievements and the participation of women in sport are less important than men's right to identify as women.

There is no need to police the categories, simply changing the language of the rules would be enough.

By removing the results, they are confirming that the feelings of men matter more than the feelings of women. Men will continue to be seen.

All women should boycott them
No, you can if you want though.
I love Parkrun and that it's open to everyone, regardless of ability, age, sex, gender, whatever
It's a great way for me to go out on a Saturday morning and get some exercise despite being really unfit 😬
Doesn't matter there though, so no I won't be boycotting them and other women I know won't be either

It's sad when women are complicit in our own poor treatment, but not surprising.

What do you want them to do exactly? There's no event registration. When you get your barcode scanned at the end of an event the volunteer scanning doesn't see any information about you on the Virtual Volunteer app and it would in fact be a GDPR breach if they did.

Parkrun is run completely on an honour system. If people want to cheat (incorrect sex, incorrect age, PEDs) there is absolutely nothing stopping them from doing so. And Parkrunners accept that as the cost of having a completely free weekly event. The one thing they could change, IMO, is that when you apply for your barcode you get a choice of male/female and the drop down makes it clear that it is sex not gender that is being asked for.

There are loads of running events with formal registration and ID checks and doping control if that is what you want: because of the extra administrative burden of registration, timing chips, doping control etc you will have to pay to enter them.

Of course I'm not going to boycott parkrun. It's still a good thing.

'The one thing they could change, IMO, is that when you apply for your barcode you get a choice of male/female and the drop down makes it clear that it is sex not gender that is being asked for.'

Well yes, exactly, they could do that. A step towards everyone accepting that sex is sex - no more, no less, sometimes relevant. That's it.

I'm finding this all very interesting. I follow Mara and Sharron on Twitter and recently emailed my local Parkrun to tell them that my daughter and I will no longer be volunteering (we are regular volunteers and really enjoy it) and I set out the reasons why, and that we would continue to run. I sent the email to them and also to Parkrun HQ and Sport England.

I can see on the Parkrun website that the event latest results and event history tables are still there, with their 'gender' and age categories, first male and first female finishers. I can't see my local Parkrun's course records any more - is that the only change they are making?

In my email to them I told them I wanted to have a pop at the age grade record by changing my age, but although I can change my gender I can't change my age. To change either would be a lie.

Will see what the effect of this is before we start volunteering again...

All they had to do is put a note on registration and issue a statement that specified that while anyone can run and will be most welcome no matter how they present or view themselves that people should be registered under their sex not their gender, since running is an embodied activity. Then cheaty cheaters would still cheat but parkrun itself would have made it clear that it considers women's sporting achievements to be more important than sad penii.

"The one thing they could change, IMO, is that when you apply for your barcode you get a choice of male/female and the drop down makes it clear that it is sex not gender that is being asked for."

This is what I said in my email. No, I don't expect volunteers to be asked to inspect the genitalia of the first finishers to see if they match their registration, I expect the tone to be set from the top that if they are having any kind of categories, sex or age, then the information is truthful.

The vast majority of parkrunners won't lie, it's a shame that such a small group of entitled males have abused it, and an even greater shame that Parkrun have enabled it.

Spot on

Shuffling all the records out of sight and just hoping that the badly behaved women will just shut up now is pathetic.

Exactly this. It's worth establishing a principle just as it's worth having a law against stealing even though people will still steal.

Personally I find the response from males who'd been sneering that "it's only a fun run" when it was only females affected quite hilarious!

I think they could offer a "NA" option for sex so that the person doesn't get counted in sex based rankings at all. I can see that making a TW tick male and everyone seeing it in the results could make them feel unwelcome and is a solution that will make life harder for the volunteers.

Also, everyone could opt in or out of being identified in the rankings, so the "just a fun run" group diluted those that identified as the opposite sex, or those who didn't want their age listed either, for example.

I don't think Parkrun can police everyone to check they are telling the truth, but could look more carefully at record holders, not allow people to change their sex on the records and make it acceptable for race directors to flag up dishonesty for further review.

Their are much better solutions that suit everyone than people losing out so men don't get upset at not being allowed to take things from women.

They do have an opt out option already which removes sex and age gradings from an individual’s results. One of the record holders had used this recently and asked for it to be backdated so her records had already gone from the website before yesterday’s change.

I just don't really understand it. If you are so ashamed of your natal sex then this is the individual's problem, not the collective. Parkrun isn't exactly asking you to publicise your personal details to the world. And the event is inclusive, no one is banned from running!

It's strange Parkrun has doubled down on this when.most people value fair play.

I wouldn't be surprised if an alternative was set up to catch all those who enjoy the stats - of which there are many. Competitive amateurs.

I was one of the people supporting Mara on Saturday.
she is getting lots of abuse on twitter- if people are on there could they support her please.

Should get everyone talking about the issue which is a positive
if everyone complains it puts a lie to the “it’s not a race! “ argument from those unaffected by gender ideology ( males) as it clearly is!

It's strange Parkrun has doubled down on this when most people value fair play

I think it's because they are a global organisation. They could have probably changed it for the UK. But I suspect they couldn't legally do it for Ireland, Canada or some or all states in Australia, for example.

Edited: I wouldn't expect volunteers to do any policing. But if a female course record was beaten by a very male-looking person, or indeed someone they knew was trans, they could flag it with parkrun HQ for further investigation.

But if a female course record was beaten by a very male-looking person, or indeed someone they knew was trans, they could flag it with parkrun HQ for further investigation

Ugh, it's attitudes like that that would put me off parkrun, not running alongside people who are trans.
Where do people get off deciding who is or isn't "female enough" looking?! Then taking it upon themselves to flag 🙄 for investigation.
Love how it is friendly and welcoming to everyone as it is when you turn up and run, which might not be so much so if you think there might be some self styled trans investigators there.

Thats the gender affirming way! didn't you get the memo?
The rights of 0.1% of the population outweigh those of 51% of the population because REASONS

Also don't ask questions because that makes you hitler.

Maria seems to be getting angry comments on Twitter of the “hope you’re happy now” variety. Honestly guys, if it’s not necessary for women to compete, why is it different for men?