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...

I've seen a good point made this evening which I hadn't thought about - many early events (and indeed my home parkrun) were set up with the help of, and funding from, local running clubs.

Yet they seem happy to tell "runners" to go away.

It does seem bizarre that Parkrun now positions itself as anti-race, anti-competitive and anti-running.

I suppose all good things come to an end.

Another thought.

By removing the records lists, parkrun also remove evidence that men are faster than women. Which is convenient. The female record at my local was around 4 or 5 minutes slower than the male record. I can't check this anymore though, of course. I also can't go and re-count exactly how many women were in the "fastest 100"... I think it was about 7.

The comments in response to this are worth a read. She's putting a lot of people off with her speed

Of course, you only have to turn up at a park run and see who crosses the finish line first. One week I did a rough visual estimate - the first 20-30 finishers were all male. In the next 20 or so there were only a couple of women. About 2/3 of the field were men, 1/3 women (I took that part from the web results, rather than counting 300 people!).

Another article in the Telegraph's opinion section

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/10/parkrun-erase-women-than-admit-that-biology-rules/

https://archive.ph/R2yxv link avoiding paywall

I know this is a rhetorical question but I'd dearly love one of the organisations (Parkrun, M&S, the Body Shop, etc.) who are guilty of it to provide an honest and sensible answer

Why do organisations constantly seek to pander to a tiny minority rather than accommodating the majority who keep them afloat?

You can see it in any individual results list. I was 5th lady at my local event last week, but about 50th overall.

As for Sophie Raworth, she's just not human with her speed!

I was at cannon hill last week and I’m the person who took the photo of the photographer taking a picture of Mara.
pictures of 1st male finisher. None of 1st female because it was Mara wearing a Save Womens Sports top.
Photographer admitted he was told to delete photos.

I think the only person who can reasonably ask (not tell) the photographer to delete the photos of Mara is Mara herself.

The park is a public space.

Yes, but what I mean is that you lose the overall picture. My parkrun is a smaller one and it's not so obvious on some days. I think one week we we're on a 1:1 ratio male to female for the first 20 finishers. Obviously that's not the norm and of course you can usually see it but the power of the larger data set collated over time is lost.

I'm annoyed that they've hidden the age catagory lists in particular, they were clearly going to keep them but the clickable link on age categories is now gone too.

Just seen this posted on a running group I'm in

https://www.change.org/p/reinstate-statistics-on-parkrun-for-all-participants

I haven't read the rest of this thread but the only way this can be resolved is for all participants to be honest when they self-declare their age and sex. parkrun doesn't and realistically can't check, so there has to be a return to a consensus that for sport sex is what matters, not gender, and anybody deliberately misstating their sex is cheating, just as they would be if they misstated their age. They should ask for sex, not gender, when people register, and only offer the options M, F or Prefer not to to say. Anybody in that latter category gets excluded from the M and F results. All of which will only work if the vast, vast majority of the population find their spines and start saying out loud that transwomen have no place in women's sport, at any level.

Very interesting watching this blow up on social media and running groups. I’m really hoping the backlash makes parkrun HQ reconsider just how important those stats (and fairness) are to people, even to people who will never beat them!

I am secretly glad that they’ve they pissed off the men who care about stats too.

@Needapadlockonmyfridge I don't know where you are but I know of a great run in South Manchester that does timed no pressure 2k and 5k and just lists name and time, no other stats.

Although one week I was told by the two older women taking registration numbers at the end "well done, and first women too." It's a joke to pretend we don't all know boys and men are faster and don't care how well we do.

I was thinking a thread with a list of local alternatives people know of might be a good idea but then realised maybe it would be a bit outing?

The narrative seems to have changed now from 'it's just a fun run' to its 'a charitable community based event'. I guess the latter sounds a bit more earnest and fluffy. The former line of defense has been torn to shreads in recent months as it is clearly demonstrable that Park Run is what you make of it, a competitive sprint with recorded times and rankings or a social jog with no pressure to perform. It's astonishing how those in charge have managed to fuck this up so completely.

Wythenshawe park on a Sunday? Used to be great run local but independent now!

I'm annoyed that they've hidden the age catagory lists in particular,

I guess because they're trying to distance from the sex and gender aspect, and are making a nod towards the idea that self ID records aren't reliable as they can be false, without dealing with the inherent sexism.

@mcduffy yes! I don't know the history of it though, only started participating last year. Hope it's not murky....
If you know of any others too I'm interested, 9am on a Sunday doesn't always fit with parenting.

The Times and Telegraph have run stories on this today. Its picking up traction

Oh dear parkrun Australia

🤣

The narrative seems to have changed now from 'it's just a fun run' to its 'a charitable community based event'. I guess the latter sounds a bit more earnest and fluffy.

They needed to categorise their victimhood more clearly in order to rely on it as a defence.

People would be so mean to criticise a charitable organisation that has such kind intentions of bringing communities together - I mean, what kind of monster is against charities trying to bring people together?

Oh dear, surely shouting about "records" is intimidating and will put people off volunteering. Some people can't volunteer as fast as others and might feel altruism-shamed. 😭

(Also find calling volunteers at parkrun "heroes" rather laughably much 😆 - I volunteer a fair amount by the way, and thoroughly enjoy it... possibly more than jogging round and definitely more than running a fast 5K effort which is definitely Type 2 fun.... but I'm not a "hero" for doing so. Bit much. Also makes volunteering sound a bit scary and exclusive when it's really not! Mostly it's just putting a hi vis on and doing one very simple job for a little over an hour.)

Ha yes about the volunteering. I think it can be more intimidating than running. Some are quite cliquey, I’ve seen volunteers turned away before and I find it really unusual that volunteering for parkrun is the only volunteering role I’ve seen that gets so much validation and praise. No where else do I see volunteers bang on about it than I do with parkrun.

I've never understood why volunteers are put on a pedestal so much.

I volunteer at junior Parkrun and, my god, the core team are so cliquey. The first time I went one women was so rude to me. If I was made of weaker stuff it could have tipped me over the edge.

It's weird how some volunteering attracts a degree of valorisation that other volunteering doesn't.

The volunteers for the 2012 Olympics come to mind. At the time I could think of people who'd turned out every Sunday for decades to cook for charities that home delivered Sunday lunch and tea to the homes of people with HIV+ or Aids. Similarly, the sports coaches who turn out a couple of times a week to train young people and even talent spot them for youth squads for County or Olympic teams.