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

Hypothetically, if it were exactly the same number of trans identifying men complaining as women, why side with the men?

A community event which times runners and publishes their results showing the fastest to the slowest has introduced a competitive element. If it's truly a fun run tgen times are not important. If anyone does want to know how fast they ran then they could a) time themselves or b) have the option to log into PR and view their own time in isolation.

It’s true I’m not particularly a runner, but I do 2 sports - 1 team, 1 individual; one at local level for fun, one competing at national level.

So I have given some thought to fairness and community at different levels (although I appreciate we’ve reached different conclusions).

If parkrun and run clubs are more about doing training runs/ not racing each other every week, then I imagine the most important thing to know is your own time? I don’t think most runners get particularly worked up about categories at parkrun, do they?

Perhaps they don't. So why have male/female categories?

I don’t think most runners get particularly worked up about categories at parkrun, do they?

So sex discrimination is okay if not enough people get worked up about it?

This has already been discussed at length using the examples of doping and age.

Nobody is expecting there to be any kind of testing, just an expectation of fairness.

Organisations like parkrun and the London Marathon don’t test for doping outside elite competition, but they don’t encourage it either. They also expect competitors to be honest about their age.

If the competitive element is important, it is important to both men and women.

Again, your focus on outing people is not compassionate when it’s not realistic to suggest that sex can be hidden. At least a third of people who identify as trans identify as non binary and as much as anything it’s the outlier results that suggests the sex of trans participants in parkrun.

It’s kind to encourage acceptance and self acceptance of people as they are. It’s not kind to tell them that their happiness depends on being accepted as something they can never be.

If it is all just a bit of fun why don't these men put themselves I'm the other categories. If it doesn't matter?

Or does it only get to matter one (their) way?

So just share individual results and drop the comparative statistics. No need for any categories if nobody cares.

Yes, if a man is worried about being outed then perhaps winning the women's category is not the best strategy.

A lot of runners do care about times, rankings and categories. I very much doubt parkrun woukd have taken off and become successful without these.

I suppose a trans identifying woman taking testosterone could do very well!

Some may mistakenly or deliberately answer as if gender had been requested and, without some form of testing, this may not be apparent to anyone.

Then the mistake or deceit would be on that individual, and not a deliberate choice by an organisation in receipt of millions in public money.

All that is being asked is that parkrun start off with clear categories designed to give useful data to both men and women.

Parkrun are not responsible for the actions of participants, but participants certainly can't be expected to give information that parkrun haven't requested in the first place.

Thats kind of how discrimination claims work though. Something unfair happens, some people are more affected than others. You wouldn’t say that if it was racism, would you?

Exactly. All that’s needed is that Parkrun make a clear statement. We all know they won’t though.

Strong overtones of "Of course I wasn't being racist mate, everyone else was laughing! Can't you take a joke?"

Women wanting men to permit them their own category and equality of race times are being racist now.

<gets popcorn. Thinks fondly of that batshit moment when lesbians being told they were sexually racist for being... homosexual and not wanting to sleep with men to validate said men's egos with their bodies because THAT was batshit reaching whole new glorious heights of lunacy.>

I think they will at some point. They list it as a risk in their annual report. They will either have to through their own volition or they will be forced to through legal action.

I run everything in a different name, so violent stalking ex can't find me, and neither can the violent men who are a risk thanks to my work in child protection related fields. There are a lot of professionals in similar jobs who use different names. Now I have the added insult that when I see my results in not my proper name to keep me safe, my achievement is possibly unfairly ranked against men. Thanks, men!

The unfairness and discrimination I’m talking about is to women, not trans identified men. The point about racism was to highlight the double standards I imagine this poster has.

Oh I hadn’t picked up that they see it as a credible risk! Interesting.

Your statement is simply untrue.

In fact marital rape was made illegal by the House of Lords, then the highest appellate court in the UK, IN 1991. Prior to that, the right of a man to have sex with his wife at will was a common law assumption.

The Supreme Court started its work in 2009.

None of them pass. None of them. Even actors with thousands of pounds of fancy cosmetic surgery do not pass.
We can see who is pretending to be a man / women with our eyes.

So you still won't have groups determined by sex but you will be happier because the label is a less accurate reflection of what it claims to represent for a fun run?

I can't decide whether such pettiness is more pathetic than ridiculous...