Disability aside, there will be very few 45minute runners who work as hard as a 15minute runner. They may like to believe they are working as hard, but they won’t be.
I saw an IG comment saying the 6 hour marathoners work as hard as BQers.
An unpleasant gaggle of overweight, useless sad sacks making sure everyone else suffers.
The top brass at Parkrun have tricked people into blaming the slow out-of-shape runners for this decision by suggesting they only deleted the stats for them, and to encourage even more out-of-shape folk along. This is, of course, absolute nonsense. They deleted the records because they were under growing pressure to address the alarming number of female course records that were held by male runners; one of these was notably held by a male since jailed for violent murder. Rather than remove the males from the female categories, they instead deleted the whole lot and came up with the excuse that they did it for the fatties- a nonsense claim given that a prospective nervous parkrunner would have had to navigate a myriad of sub-menus and filters to even find those records. There is a 0% probability that a first time parkrunner could 'happen upon' those records and be put off by them, it required way too much user interaction. Removing the stats was a complete fudge to deal with the gender stuff, and Paul Sinton-Hewitt himself confirmed this at his meeting with the authors of the petition.
I’d prefer it if they did away with results altogether.
I guarantee participation would fall >75% overnight. The motivating factor for most (yes, even the slower runners) is that there is a result at parkrun. If there's no result, runners may as well go on a group run with friends at a more convenient time and more convenient location.
They could always just enter an actual race instead. That way, money goes back into the clubs that host them, supporting the sport from the ground up.
parkrun has managed to avoid all of the costs associated with putting on a race on the basis that it is a run, not a race. On that basis, it makes complete sense not to have records. I’d prefer it if they did away with results altogether.
Which weekly race is this then?
And why do away with results? Just don’t look at them. It’s like picking something on a menu and complaining about the meal you chose not to eat.
So what if parkrun numbers drop? Those that want a timed run can enter a race and put some money back into the sport. Or they can look at their own watch.
There used to be a lot of club organised 5k races. They brought a lot of money into the sport. Parkrun killed them.
They cannot compete with the zero cost of parkrun entry, which parkrun only manages because it is technically not a race and therefore there are no licensing/venue hire costs.
park-run should be a mass run - that is how it exists in the licensing world. Races are the competitive events, whether that is competing with others, or competing with your own times.
They could always just enter an actual race instead. That way, money goes back into the clubs that host them, supporting the sport from the ground up.
parkrun has managed to avoid all of the costs associated with putting on a race on the basis that it is a run, not a race. On that basis, it makes complete sense not to have records. I’d prefer it if they did away with results altogether.
That is absurd! Costs have nothing to do with whether it's a fun run or a race.
Parkrun has avoided costs because they are run entirely within a public park, so no costs to close roads and direct traffic, and they do their own timing with a barcode scanner, so are not paying a timing company.
The top brass at Parkrun have tricked people into blaming the slow out-of-shape runners for this decision by suggesting they only deleted the stats for them, and to encourage even more out-of-shape folk along. This is, of course, absolute nonsense. They deleted the records because they were under growing pressure to address the alarming number of female course records that were held by male runners; one of these was notably held by a male since jailed for violent murder. Rather than remove the males from the female categories, they instead deleted the whole lot and came up with the excuse that they did it for the fatties- a nonsense claim given that a prospective nervous parkrunner would have had to navigate a myriad of sub-menus and filters to even find those records. There is a 0% probability that a first time parkrunner could 'happen upon' those records and be put off by them, it required way too much user interaction. Removing the stats was a complete fudge to deal with the gender stuff, and Paul Sinton-Hewitt himself confirmed this at his meeting with the authors of the petition.
When you say 'alarming number of female course records held by men', isn't the actual number about 3?
I appreciate that the number should be zero, but at the same time an organisation like Parkrun can't be expected to police something like this.
The fault that your little rankings tables are being removed is with the loonies like Mara Yamauchi who are having their little hissy fits online because they're addicted to the attention.
They could always just enter an actual race instead. That way, money goes back into the clubs that host them, supporting the sport from the ground up.
parkrun has managed to avoid all of the costs associated with putting on a race on the basis that it is a run, not a race. On that basis, it makes complete sense not to have records. I’d prefer it if they did away with results altogether.
That is absurd! Costs have nothing to do with whether it's a fun run or a race.
Parkrun has avoided costs because they are run entirely within a public park, so no costs to close roads and direct traffic, and they do their own timing with a barcode scanner, so are not paying a timing company.
Disability aside, there will be very few 45minute runners who work as hard as a 15minute runner. They may like to believe they are working as hard, but they won’t be.
No. They worked three times as hard. Faster runner only had to run hard for 15 minutes. They have it easy.
The fault that your little rankings tables are being removed is with the loonies like Mara Yamauchi who are having their little hissy fits online because they're addicted to the attention.
I don't care about the rankings tables, I never used them. I'm merely pointing out that parkrun's reason for removing them wasn't to make it more accessible for first timers (if I didn't bother with them then why would a first timer?) but was in fact in response to males identifying into the female category. This was proved right when Sinton-Hewitt said as much a few days ago.
Disability aside, there will be very few 45minute runners who work as hard as a 15minute runner. They may like to believe they are working as hard, but they won’t be.
No. They worked three times as hard. Faster runner only had to run hard for 15 minutes. They have it easy.
Park run courses are point to point so zero work is done. Basic high school physics…
I don't care about the rankings tables, I never used them. I'm merely pointing out that parkrun's reason for removing them wasn't to make it more accessible for first timers (if I didn't bother with them then why would a first timer?) but was in fact in response to males identifying into the female category. This was proved right when Sinton-Hewitt said as much a few days ago.
Yep, I agree they're not being honest about their reasoning, which was that it was a reaction to the harassment they were getting from online nutters.
I had run 25+ Parkruns at two local locations during the last few years. Mostly, I used them as a second or third harder efforts during my weekly training schedule. (also volunteered at least 25% as a payback for the opportunity to train hard with some other 'competitive' runners)
I stopped going a few months back when they stopped showing, age group and age-graded lists. (Striving to hit the top -or at least the top three in the AG lists- was a good motivator for me to run hard)
There is zero chance I will ever go back if they indeed implement hiding most of the rest of the results.
That is absurd! Costs have nothing to do with whether it's a fun run or a race.
Parkrun has avoided costs because they are run entirely within a public park, so no costs to close roads and direct traffic, and they do their own timing with a barcode scanner, so are not paying a timing company.
Do you think clubs get free use of a public park?
If a park requires a permit to use it, does the park then not charge for fun runs, but do charge if it's a timed race?
There's no difference in cost between the two if the only distinction is a "race" vs. "fun run".
I've enjoyed Parkrun, having raced about a dozen times in a ten year period in both the US and UK. I remember when local club races were free or just a nominal fee -- that's when I was a serious runner. Now, when my Parkrun times barely beat my 10k pr (from the 70s) I appreciate the chance to stretch my legs in a low-key race and compare my times to others. I have zero interest in paying a modern entry fee to embarrass myself even if I'm the only one who realizes it. As others have said, if you don't want to see the results, it's easy enough not to.
so all they’re doing is hiding your historical data unless you choose to share it with someone. event results will still be recorded and published weekly.
Interesting. I ran my first Parkrun last Saturday. I only went because I wanted to run tempo pace and I find it difficult on my own. I also like that it was on dirt trail, easy on my legs. I liked getting a time even though I have my Garmin. If they get rid of results I wouldn't care because if I ever run it again it would be for the same reasons ie I don't care how I compare to other runners when I'm running something not called a race.