Glad Parkrun are finally driving the elitism out of Parkrun

Run4Partyattheback · 2024-04-30T03:14:41-04:00

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2024/04/29/parkrun-doubles-down-in-record-row-as-statistics-face-more/Looks like Parkrun may make further inroads to driving the elitism out that is scaring people away from this fun, community event.ALL runners work as hard regardless off 15min 5k or 45min 5k.Imagine meeting someone who thought an Age grading counted for anything in a running event! lol.Do away with the timing volunteers; just use your Garmin, or more likely, Fitbit/Apple watch.

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2 years ago 04/30/2024 8:53pm EDT

re: MelRnr

MelRnr wrote:
The cool thing about Park Run was that it was a free race that you could just show up to any Saturday morning and run it .
If they go through with these further changes, then what's the point? What's the point of a 3.1 mile group run? They think they are being so "inclusive", but I really think this model will provide less incentive to go and they will draw less and less people.

parkrun has never been a "race", a point they have emphasised time and time again.

The irony is that if it draws less people, that will help to curb the increasing popularity and overcrowding at parkruns.

To those threatening to boycott this free event, what alternative are you going to do instead? Trick question: it doesn't matter, you can do whatever you want, parkrun's still going to be there, offering a free service.

2 years ago 05/01/2024 12:00am EDT

re: Run4Partyattheback

If "elitism" bothers people, just get faster lol

2 years ago 05/01/2024 2:48am EDT

re: Hot Takes

Hot Takes wrote:
Is Parkrun a UK/European thing? I've never been in an area that had a weekly 'parkrun'. The only races/runs were official races that just happen annually for each event.

It started in the UK as a free weekly timed 5 k. It's now in many other countries, including the US, Australia, Japan, Italy and others. The Athlete Special has "won" a parkrun in the US and made a YouTube video about it although parkrun is officially not a race. It became a nonprofit charity in 2018 and has a turnover of ten million pounds. Since some female records in the UK have fallen to trans runners, headquarters has decided to scale back the competitive aspect of parkrun by not publishing records, stating that records intimidate and scare off new runners.

2 years ago 05/01/2024 3:07am EDT

re: kiltedrunner

kiltedrunner wrote:
Winthorpe53 wrote:
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.

Important post well articulated 👍

2 years ago 05/01/2024 3:12am EDT

re: Run4Partyattheback

As an American, it was really cool to travel abroad and have a free race in every town, on every Saturday. As much as casuals want to go on and on about how it’s not a race it’s a run, the opportunity was there for it to be a race for those who wanted to treat it that way. It’s really sad to see that aspect get taken away, no matter what the reason is. I am actually sad about this. Parkrun was special.

2 years ago 05/01/2024 3:12pm EDT

re: Really sad thing to lose

Really sad thing to lose wrote:
As an American, it was really cool to travel abroad and have a free race in every town, on every Saturday. As much as casuals want to go on and on about how it’s not a race it’s a run, the opportunity was there for it to be a race for those who wanted to treat it that way. It’s really sad to see that aspect get taken away, no matter what the reason is. I am actually sad about this. Parkrun was special.

As an American, I am sad about this as well.

2 years ago 05/01/2024 4:20pm EDT

re: arunnerinwa

Dunno if it's reliable but some stats are here statsmeifyoucan dot github dot io

2 years ago 05/01/2024 4:29pm EDT

re: Hot Takes

Hot Takes wrote:
Is Parkrun a UK/European thing? I've never been in an area that had a weekly 'parkrun'. The only races/runs were official races that just happen annually for each event.

The nearest one to me is two plus hours away. It's not a big thing in America.

2 years ago 05/01/2024 4:30pm EDT

re: gidbob

gidbob wrote:
Ukresi wrote:
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.

What a great story.

2 years ago 05/01/2024 10:13pm EDT

re: MelRnr

MelRnr wrote:
Ukresi wrote:
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".

parkrun events require land owner (local government in most cases) approval to operate and will only enter into an agreement for the use of the area at no cost. Any other activity (running club for example) that approached a land owner with the intention of hosting an organised event would be expected to apply for and pay for a permit to hold the event.

It makes no difference to costs whether parkrun is considered a run or a race. parkrun applies that no-cost policy across the board. It's a free, weekly event and as long as it remains "timed" people will go because ultimately whilst there are people that are unhappy with the removal of certain statistics (myself included) most people don't care enough about these stats to change their weekly, 5k routine.

2 years ago 05/14/2024 9:45am EDT

re: Ausmarathonfan

The website fastrunning seems to have closed this week at same time as parkrun Top 10, became no longer a thing. is this permanent?

I just read something where some recreational parkrunners met the parkrun CEO to 'discuss' the ending of its stats. He came over as a guy with minimal interest in sport so it's maybe just as well that he's taken the agency away from the world of sport.

2 years ago 05/18/2024 11:49am EDT

re: Correlation?

Well this sucks. My son is getting into running and is really happy with his times. We wanted to see what the age group records were for our local parkrun, to potentially give him a little motivation/inspiration in the future, but this information is no longer available.

I'm sure the data was a tremendous motivator for many people in all age groups. I know it was for me. How could any sane mind possibly conclude that the good outweighed the bad when it came to removing these stats?

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