Reality Rules Parkrun Launch 3 October 2026

[IwantToRetire]

Today was another Parkrun Saturday and like every weekend the achievements by women was demoted by men running in the female category.

We are hoping to change this! In only a few weeks time, we will debut Reality Rules Runners UK at Parkrun. We hope that many hundreds (hopefully thousands) of you will join us to send a clear and strong statement to Parkrun about the huge support there is for fairness and sex-based categories at their events.

All sports events are responsible for putting on fair events. This includes free, volunteer run, community events like Parkrun.

So please tell people about Reality Rules Runners UK, as we are hoping to attract lots more supporters before our debut at Parkrun on 3 October.

Thank you! 🙏

https://realityrulesrunnersuk.substack.com/p/another-parkrun-down-only-a-few-weeks

Came across this by chance, so dont know more than this!

They are also on X for anyone on X https://x.com/RRRunnersUK

R.e. "not a race" is a ludicrous defense when they publish weekly rankings and times. They stopped publishing records, but a lot complained and now someone just data scraps them onto a website.

If it's not a race, don't release public race times and rankings. Quacks like a duck and all.

@Wishesandhorses “Hard to think of one, honestly, beyond the feeling of I’m being treated as a woman, I have access to something men don’t, and I’m outperforming them and getting recognition for it.

The recognition certainly could be a motivation. They are are named, as female and get to hold the women's course record. Anyone Googling could see their race history, and not know they are trans as it's just a name.

The rest I'm not sure about. If someone genuinely has gender dysphoria, wouldn’t outperforming biological women actually highlight the biological differences that are supposed to cause that distress?

I genuinely don't understand why trans woman wants to enter Park Run in the women's category, rank first and get women course records, pissing people off in the process.

At best, affirmation.

At worse, a knowing and deliberate invasion of a traditional womens space and boundaries as they get off on causing discomfort and the control it gives them.

It started as Bushy Park Time Trial and was originally incorporated as UK Time Trials Ltd.

The idea that nobody cares about their relative time when they participate in a time trial is ridiculous.

Have you come here straight off Reddit given your user name is so transparently motivated by blind, rabid hate?

Perhaps they don't show it on the website but course records are still clearly shown for each event on the app. They don't state they are male/female records but each event has two records, one with a male name and one with a female name.

The whole 'its a run not a race' is part of the inclusivity, it encourages participation from people outside the traditional running world which is of course a good thing, but it glasses over the fact that for at least 10% of runners it's indeed a race.

In fact the whole point of having a tail-walker is not only to make sure everyone gets around the course safely, but so that no runner's name is last. The final finisher is always a volunteer tail-walker ( and often more than one person in this role) because coming last is discouraging. This fully acknowledges the 'race' element of the rankings.

It does seem strange that they feel the need to "organise", classify.

If as is suggested that it is about just encouraging people to run, why impinge on that by having categories and best times.

Many, if not all people have the ability to time themselves.

Why not leave it at that.

Those who want to record their own times can.

Those who want to run a group as a social activity can.

Its as though the organisers themselves no longer believe in the original concept.

(Although I am absolutely sure that if the organisers didn't do this, in no time, on social media, someone would set up an app or a web site or whatever where those who wanted to could post their times.)

Its as though the organisers themselves no longer believe in the original concept.

The original concept was time trials for club runners.

I joined up the other day. 'Gender' is a drop down menu that includes 'male/female/other/prefernottosay'. You cant sign up without making a choice, or without a DOB.

The average finish time in 2005 was 22:17
The average finish time in 2020 was 32:30

The idea people were running 5k in 22:17 (average, so many running much faster that that!) non-competitively is laughable.

The whole 'fun run' idea is how it has evolved but you can't say that's what parkrun is.

But you can run without signing up. You just show as 'Unknown' on the results page.

I haven’t run for years, but this thread has inspired me to do a park run. If only so I can join Reality Rules Parkrun Club. Thanks to @Doowoddy ’s tail walker info, at least I know I won’t be last!

Which begs the question, if it's not competitive as they claim (although we know for many taking part it is), then why ask people to sign up?

When I went for the first time I wasn't given the option of not signing up - I was just scanned in, directed to the starting area along with the 300-plus others, and off we all went. I'd been under the impression it was a fun thing with everyone going at their own pace, whether that was running, jogging or walking with buggies and dogs. It could not have been further from that - multiple running clubs were jostling for position at the front and then went off at a rate of knots. They finished as I was at the half way point, with many checking their times and taking it very seriously. I was really surprised to get an email later showing my time in my sex category, along with everyone else's- I had no desire to see it, it served no purpose whatsoever other that to show me where I was compared to others, which is exactly what happens in a race. Non-competitive and fun it was not.

Milestones have always (or at least for a long time) been a thing for parkrun so signing up allows you to work towards those. You used to get a free t-shirt when you hit 25, 50, 100, 250 etc (somebody just got 1000 which means he barely missed a run in 20 years!). You now pay however to order them you need to enter your number to prove you've done the runs.
There are also lots of silly challenges to take part in.
So there are definitely non-competitive reasons to sign up, but the competitive side is of course still huge.

Now, I wish I'd known that. I could have looked out my giant inflatable knob costume specially.

With a fetching wig and some stick on eyelashes for max effect. Got to make an effort, after all.

actual footage.

That the average is now much slower suggests the competitive element is greatly reduced.

Ah, is this one of those times the "I don't care about X therefore no one gets to care about X" sideswerve gets rolled out?

Women's sports? "Oh, but really any competition is so gauche, we should all just participate for the joy of it"

Women's prisons? "Well prisons don't work anyway so I'm not going to get into whether women's prisons are worse for including men"

Women's toilets? "I don't want to share with anyone thank you very much, single enclosed rooms for everyone please"

Women's changing rooms? "I think we should all have individual lockable cubicles anyway"

Women's boxing "That's a barbaric sport, we should just ban it altogether"

And so on

So what.

It is still very much there. The slower times can simply mean more slow walkers are coming. Doesn’t mean the runners are not still competitive and not still a majority of the attendees.

No, parkrun has exponentially grown since 2005 as well as adding walkers. The fast times are still very fast.
Honestly you could have looked that up before commenting.

That would require effort though.

When I went for the first time I wasn't given the option of not signing up - I was just scanned in, directed to the starting area along with the 300-plus others, and off we all went.

This is not true. Anyone can turn up and run at parkrun - you do not have to sign up. You are not scanned in before the event starts - your barcode is scanned at the end. However, you can choose not to have a barcode.

I love parkrun. When I started, the categories were sex-based and I do think they should remain so or there should not be any categories at all. However, that would be a shame as it is nice to see how well you've done. As I get older, I tend to look at my age grade more because my times have slowed but my relative performance hasn't. FWIW the age grades are sex-based as they are based on world records.

In reality, all parkrun times are unofficial and, imo, there are various timing issues which affect slower runners. There are no records. Some people may call them that but they are not official. There are no prizes.

Parkrun is always at 9am on a Saturday, which allows you to compare your time in the same conditions on the same course. Yes, you could just time yourself, but it can be easy to miss the start when you are near the back of 600+ people and can't hear what is being said at the front. I've also forgotten my watch and stopped it halfway through by mistake amongst other errors.

Giving everyone a numbered finish token matches time to runner and makes it easier to publish results.

Parkrun isn't perfect, but the positives do far outweigh the negatives.

Being ‘not official’ still doesn’t mean it is not competitive. It still doesn’t remove the onus of parkrun changing the policy to make the female category protected as per the law.

Nor does the amount of positive benefits to parkrun change the obligation to follow the EA 2010 guidance.

Where is the facepalm emoji?

See, I'd have been interested in Parkrun as I need to get fitter and it seemed a nice way in.

Unfortunately this whole sneering at women thing has put me right off. I get the impression its full of laddish blokes and women are tolerated/dismissed/used as useful volunteers.