The decision was taken to “remove barriers to registration and participation”, Parkrun told the BBC. They explained:
“What was clear is that there was a disconnect between the performance data displayed so prominently on the site, and our mission to create opportunities for as many people as possible to take part in Parkrun events – especially those who are anxious about activities such as Parkrun, but who potentially have an enormous amount to gain.”
I've just realised I've been railroaded into a political debate I'm not getting into at all. Last time I did a parkrun I got beaten by a 12 year old. I have no idea if they were male or female. Does that make me male or female?
I understand that parkrun receives funding from organisations that are pro transgender. if parkrun were to confront the issue, they could lose this funding, and this funding provides the salaries for those at the top. so, parkrun have taken the easy way out. By removing these stats, the records of men running as women becomes less visible.
The larger issue, is, how will athletics bodies, all the way up to the IOC, deal with the issue of men taking part in women’s sport?
They get an awful lot more funding from organisations that have nothing to do with transgenderism, and from local authorities that general taxpayers fund.
If park run really wants to be a pro-transgender, anti-women event, then this is certainly the way to do it. Because what they have done to alter their results as a response to the issue does nothing to resolve the issue of men identifying as women (not even necessarily genuine transgender people) and being listed as first, second, third or whatever woman.
But I agree, park run from its recent actions this last week in particular, what with asking for photos of female runners to be deleted as well, is looking like a pro transgender organisation at the expense of women.
The decision was taken to “remove barriers to registration and participation”, Parkrun told the BBC. They explained:
“What was clear is that there was a disconnect between the performance data displayed so prominently on the site, and our mission to create opportunities for as many people as possible to take part in Parkrun events – especially those who are anxious about activities such as Parkrun, but who potentially have an enormous amount to gain.”
I've just realised I've been railroaded into a political debate I'm not getting into at all. Last time I did a parkrun I got beaten by a 12 year old. I have no idea if they were male or female. Does that make me male or female?
Not unless you are affected by the issue. Did the 12 year old finish in the top 3 in their category? They would be affected.
Imagine if that was a 12 year old girl who had got a top 3 result (not unheard of in parkrun) but wasn't listed as 3rd female because a fiftysomething woman born as a man, who had lived most of their life as a man, had taken her place. Thats the type of issue we are talking about. How off putting for that 12 year old girl if they had to be told that the big bloke that looked like a man was actually in the same category as them, and they wouldn't be listed in the results because of it.
Do take time to consider how proud and brave that fiftysomething former man is though!
I understand that parkrun receives funding from organisations that are pro transgender. if parkrun were to confront the issue, they could lose this funding, and this funding provides the salaries for those at the top. so, parkrun have taken the easy way out. By removing these stats, the records of men running as women becomes less visible.
The larger issue, is, how will athletics bodies, all the way up to the IOC, deal with the issue of men taking part in women’s sport?
They get an awful lot more funding from organisations that have nothing to do with transgenderism, and from local authorities that general taxpayers fund.
If park run really wants to be a pro-transgender, anti-women event, then this is certainly the way to do it. Because what they have done to alter their results as a response to the issue does nothing to resolve the issue of men identifying as women (not even necessarily genuine transgender people) and being listed as first, second, third or whatever woman.
But I agree, park run from its recent actions this last week in particular, what with asking for photos of female runners to be deleted as well, is looking like a pro transgender organisation at the expense of women.
Wrong. Parkrun didn’t ask for photos of women to removed as well. Volunteers didn’t include photos of Mara, who was wearing a shirt with a political message, as per parkrun’s guidelines. The fact that some dimwits verbally abused volunteers at the event Mara was at is an added indicator of how the language she purposefully chose stirred up people on both sides of the debate.
The larger issue, is, how will athletics bodies, all the way up to the IOC, deal with the issue of men taking part in women’s sport?
The thing is (and what Mara et al have failed to realise), parkrun itself is not a sport.
parkrun employs self-ID. Whether it be a sport or not is irrelevant to Mara. This is an all-out culture war.
Mara spent her weekend cyberstalking parkrunners. How did you spend yours?
Unfairness for females at @parkrunUK continues! 😡 Thread.
I have found four males who ran in the Female category at parkrun today. I’m sure there were many more. Parkrun’s new hiding data regime makes it harder to find them but I have.
10 fastest UK parkrun times on 10th February (2024) | Fast Running
At least he's willing to identify his own views on this matter so fair play for transparency. I believe he believes all he says. I don't agree with his view on the parkrun decision being discussed. The comment about 'if one person is put off.....' etc seems emotive rather than rational.
The comment about 'if one person is put off.....' etc seems emotive rather than rational.
Bowing to the morons of inclusivity and woke.
Parkrun was fine for years and then the DEI nonsense approach to everything has corrupted it. With these guys saying they will gladly stop doing their articles. What about those that actually enjoyed reading them?
The irony of this is that we will see from the participation data how this affects them longer term. Perhaps they should hide that too, so they don't get upset looking at it if the numbers go down.
Mara & her accoylytes like Twister are proberbly gutted their banners and T Shirts didnt deter many runners who just enjoyed a nice inclusive community event. They i predict will be creating little Petitions and sharing them on any forum they can to try to gain traction.
Meanwhile the rest of us had a lovely run and went home to our wives and children.
They get an awful lot more funding from organisations that have nothing to do with transgenderism, and from local authorities that general taxpayers fund.
If park run really wants to be a pro-transgender, anti-women event, then this is certainly the way to do it. Because what they have done to alter their results as a response to the issue does nothing to resolve the issue of men identifying as women (not even necessarily genuine transgender people) and being listed as first, second, third or whatever woman.
But I agree, park run from its recent actions this last week in particular, what with asking for photos of female runners to be deleted as well, is looking like a pro transgender organisation at the expense of women.
Wrong. Parkrun didn’t ask for photos of women to removed as well. Volunteers didn’t include photos of Mara, who was wearing a shirt with a political message, as per parkrun’s guidelines. The fact that some dimwits verbally abused volunteers at the event Mara was at is an added indicator of how the language she purposefully chose stirred up people on both sides of the debate.
parkrun guidelines say nothing about t-shirts! The policy around protest/demonstration only covers things that may risk the safe running of an event. As long as the t-shirt doesn't breach community standards then parkrun shouldn't be censoring.
Mara & her accoylytes like Twister are proberbly gutted their banners and T Shirts didnt deter many runners who just enjoyed a nice inclusive community event. They i predict will be creating little Petitions and sharing them on any forum they can to try to gain traction.
Meanwhile the rest of us had a lovely run and went home to our wives and children.
End of
You're a passport bro!
Heres some posts from mumsnet today about what happened at the park run with Mara Yamauichi and the t shirt:
"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."
"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 f*** this up so completely."
"Apparently parkrun policy is to not promote political causes which is why they deleted the photos of the women... I hope no parkrun has ever published a photo of someone wearing a pride flag on any kind then"
"Does anyone have a link to parkruns policy on political statements, protests etc? Because, yes, there are potential many t-shirts that qualify as political statements."
And on the competitive or not question:
"It started out as a time trial. The fun run (walk) for everyone started when they realised they could unlock a lot of health-related funding and encourage lots of people to take up exercise (as well as volunteering and having a social outlet). But its origins were in a time trial. And "inclusive" means for everyone, including the fastest runners."
"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."
Theres a lot, lot more.
I'm not a member of mumsnet, but I do use google and search terms.
I'm looking forward to a bunch of mainly men on LetsRun telling the women of mumsnet how nasty and abusive they are towards men etc - its a reliable trigger for a few!
I think this is only getting started.
I'm not being funny KoshJerr, but judging by your spelling and lack of intellectual ability displayed on here, I earn a lot more money than you, and pay a lot more tax, and you don't get to tell me what to do. I don't think a former Olympian is going to be influenced by you either.
Know your place, son, and stay in it. Leave those of us with functioning brains to do the hard stuff.
If the goal was to increase participation from slow runners, perhaps they should have begun by changing the record-keeping for a select group of sites, and then looked at the results after a year. It looks as though instead a top-down decision was made without real evidence.
If the goal was to increase participation from slow runners, perhaps they should have begun by changing the record-keeping for a select group of sites, and then looked at the results after a year. It looks as though instead a top-down decision was made without real evidence.
They didn't do it for this reason though, did they?
They did it because they were getting harassed by a bunch of internet activists - it's essentially just a middle finger to them.
How many times on this post have we seem a woman being mocked forcsaying she has run 19.30 or has won a park run? Why is it always the wonen who aren't fast enough for the critics of Lets Run, but they would never dream if telling Mr 21.55 he's slow?
We all know this is because there's a certain element of slow male runners out there who.see women being recognized for winning races in times they think they could do themselves. Because they've never won anything in their lives, they think its unfair. So they support people who were born as men having 2 categories to run in because they really don't think that women should have a category of their own. Life's always favored men until recently and they don't really believe it should be any different now.
If there's one category of person I truly don't understand it's heterosexual men who dislike, hate or resent women. I honestly think I get where everyone else is coming from more or less, but not them.
Of note, this current category of man is wholly of the left.
A sleight of hand will take place, and ‘patriarchy’ will be blamed, as if this is another example for centuries old conservatism. But it’s not. It’s progressive, liberal men that cannot stand women who aren’t prepared to be sacrificed to their righteous cause.
Thos is typical Daily Mail reader idiocy, sad people getting unnecessarily angry about something that probably doesn't even affect them
Down with that sort of thing....
Steady now....
On Mumsnet checking other people whos lives are fraught with this and other such heinous crimes as Self Service tills in Waitrose, & the local bin collection.
Just imagine having this sort of person as your parent and then actively counting down the days till they can legitimately ignore them and sever ties
I've just realised I've been railroaded into a political debate I'm not getting into at all. Last time I did a parkrun I got beaten by a 12 year old. I have no idea if they were male or female. Does that make me male or female?
Not unless you are affected by the issue. Did the 12 year old finish in the top 3 in their category? They would be affected.
Imagine if that was a 12 year old girl who had got a top 3 result (not unheard of in parkrun) but wasn't listed as 3rd female because a fiftysomething woman born as a man, who had lived most of their life as a man, had taken her place. Thats the type of issue we are talking about. How off putting for that 12 year old girl if they had to be told that the big bloke that looked like a man was actually in the same category as them, and they wouldn't be listed in the results because of it.
Do take time to consider how proud and brave that fiftysomething former man is though!
I really don't think a 12 year old would waste time on the same thought processes as you. For one, she would have bigger competitive fish to fry. Second, you're assuming her parents equate pro-transgenderism with anti-women - or anti-girl. They might think it obsurd, or irrelevant, by comparison. That says nothing for what the girl will make of it in her own time.
The comment about 'if one person is put off.....' etc seems emotive rather than rational.
Bowing to the morons of inclusivity and woke.
Parkrun was fine for years and then the DEI nonsense approach to everything has corrupted it. With these guys saying they will gladly stop doing their articles. What about those that actually enjoyed reading them?
The irony of this is that we will see from the participation data how this affects them longer term. Perhaps they should hide that too, so they don't get upset looking at it if the numbers go down.
The participation numbers will continue to increase. This will infuriate the GC lunatics and the some parts of the rightwing press, but the benefit that parkrun brings to the health & wellbeing of communities will not be stopped.
If you have a constant burning hunger to prove your financial or athletic superiority over others as Twister Times and many other insecure LRC commenters seem to, there are other arenas to do that.
Wrong. Parkrun didn’t ask for photos of women to removed as well. Volunteers didn’t include photos of Mara, who was wearing a shirt with a political message, as per parkrun’s guidelines. The fact that some dimwits verbally abused volunteers at the event Mara was at is an added indicator of how the language she purposefully chose stirred up people on both sides of the debate.
parkrun guidelines say nothing about t-shirts! The policy around protest/demonstration only covers things that may risk the safe running of an event. As long as the t-shirt doesn't breach community standards then parkrun shouldn't be censoring.
Wrong again. “parkrun and parkrun events in every country are apolitical and should never be used to publicise political campaigns or causes.”.