Marshalled my first Parkrun NYD and realised I'm a terrible human being

that's your problem.

you read it from here.

Well, you do raise a good point. Afterall, it is not called ParkWalk. Volunteers should not be expected to put in more than 45 minutes (approximately).

Walkers should be encouraged to do their walking in a different assembly, if they want the social connection, no?

Walking 3.1 miles @ 22min/mile pace can possibly help someone lose weight, if they also count calories, and if they do that walk EVERYDAY. In which case, that walk would NOT be an exceptional occurrence.

Somebody obese doing a once/week walk of 3-4 miles really shouldn’t be championed; they should instead be encouraged to try and walk several times per week.

It seems ParkRun should put there foot down, and have a time cut-off, and NOT encourage walkers to participate, agreed?

*their

On the other hand, I do favor some type of exercise social outlet, if they desire, for the obese that are making an effort. But ParkRun is probably not the proper venue for that.

This is it in a nutshell, we are simultaneously told that championing the elite runners and having winners is bad and calling it a race is bad and at the same time it is vital for people casually walking to be doing it as part of a timed event where they are making no attempt to cover the ground with any urgency.

When I have had long term injury, I have stayed involved by volunteering and walking to and from my marshalling spot as briskly as I can. If I absolutely had to walk exactly 5km I could walk the course every day of the week including Saturday (after 9:00 am).

I used to regularly volunteer at Parkrun knowing at most it would take 45 minutes and was happy to see the tail enders expend some effort doing their best. Then they encouraged walkers to take part and 45 minutes became 75 minutes as the last finishers dawdled round having a chat and in no hurry. 75 minutes in the rain, snow, wind, in the corner of a park on your own is not much fun when waiting 30 minutes between the last runners and a couple of walkers. I stopped volunteering.

Then I stopped taking part when Parkrun UK said men can call themselves women and take the womens records on courses.

Inclusion has resulted in me excluding myself from parkrun as a volunteer and runner. Such a shame.

A shame for you, but not parkrun I reckon.

I think everyone other than the hard core fanatics understand the problems here but the reality is that it is much easier to not challenge this than risk the wrath of these people.

Not sure what to make about this. So should we just have a single open category in all races? No gender divisions, no masters, no juniors/U20 divisions? Get rid of gender categories for college sports scholarships? In a way that would be the fairest and purest form of the sport where competitors are rewarded solely as a result of their performance.

On the other hand, I have heard the argument that having different competitive categories enriches the sport. Weight categories in sports like boxing or weighlifting do seem to have enriched those sports and increased the following and interest in them in the media. Overall, I would say that distance running would likely benefit from weight categories and this would increase the media interest in the sport. A heavyweight olympic marathon would certainly receive a huge amount of media coverage.

Good post. Running is a sport for all people, regardless of how fast they are. The toxic culture promoted by certain letsrun users who are sour about not being good enough to reach the elite level is damaging for the sport. Running needs a culture that encourages people to just get out there, work hard and enjoy themselves. Passion like how it is in africa, not immaturity and insecurity

You want divisions for gender?