I'm not sure, but I kind of think Charlie Spedding has the Fresh Pond record for men, at least the five mile one, and maybe Lynn Jennings has the women's one.
DC Brit,
Where are the DC Parkruns happening?
I'm not sure, but I kind of think Charlie Spedding has the Fresh Pond record for men, at least the five mile one, and maybe Lynn Jennings has the women's one.
DC Brit,
Where are the DC Parkruns happening?
I'm not sure, but I kind of think Charlie Spedding has the Fresh Pond record for men, at least the five mile one, and maybe Lynn Jennings has the women's one.
DC Brit,
Where are the DC Parkruns happening?
A mate of mine tried to set one up in in your part of the world .
They just couldn't understand why there was no money to make, technical t shirts snd medals
The almighty dollar and all that
HRE wrote:
I'm not sure, but I kind of think Charlie Spedding has the Fresh Pond record for men, at least the five mile one, and maybe Lynn Jennings has the women's one.
DC Brit,
Where are the DC Parkruns happening?
Fletcher's Cove, out and back towards MD on the towpath.
The DC parkrun is at Fletcher's Cove, on the C&O Canal Towpath (National Park Service land) a couple of miles from Georgetown. I ran the first one, and it was well done. Big turnout for a US parkrun.
My wife, Andrea Zukowski, is currently working on trying to create a second DC-area parkrun, in College Park, so I'm learning a lot about the process. You can see what we're up to here, and come join in if you're in the 'hood.
https://www.facebook.com/collegeparkparkrun/
Various things could explain why parkrun hasn't yet gone viral in the US (permits, weather variation, commercialization of races, insurance, news spreads poorly across huge distances). But parkrun is working to change this, and they have a fairly careful system for establishing a new event. Andrea has been getting a lot of guidance from parkrun's US ambassador, James Kemp, and from the organizers of the new DC parkrun. Here are some of the things that you need to do, in rough order.
-- Find a course. No road crossings, as simple as possible (to minimize marshals). Parking necessary, bathrooms preferable. - DONE. But despite a great trail network around here, we were surprised how hard it was to find something that fit. We have a super simple out-and-back on a local bike path.
-- Start meeting up every Saturday with some friends to try it out. Parkrun encourages organizers to do a bunch of test runs first, to see if it's really going to work.
-- Get permits, for free, for every week of the year. - DONE (mostly). This is the tricky part. If you're turned down, then you're out of luck. Andrea did a great job of working with local elected officials to convey the benefits for the community, possibly for local businesses. Then those officials helped her to get permission from the parks department. It was presented as a partnership with the parks dept., and it was made clear how it could benefit them. There's no way it would have worked out without advice from well connected people. This could get easier if parkrun goes viral.
-- Raise $5000. One time fee. Fundraising IN PROGRESS, we're not too worried about this. The $5k pays for equipment for timing etc., including a laptop that works seamlessly with parkrun's databases.
-- Insurance. IN PROGRESS. This is more tricky than we were led to believe. It's going to need USATF to be motivated to see this work.
-- Volunteers, event directors. You can't start a parkrun unless you have a stable of volunteers already in place. Volunteers sit out the run to help out every few weeks. This is one of the things that we're working towards with our weekly practice events.
-- Advertise. That part's not too hard for us. Lots of people have offered to promote the event once we're ready to become official (and have parkrun's blessing).
-- Cooperate with other local teams and events. If you don't want to be undercutting the local annual fundraiser 5k, then perhaps try to work with them rather than against them. Maybe parkrun won't happen on that one day of the year. Maybe they can promote your low key events as a training opportunity for theirs. Maybe the local running club would like to send folks over, or maybe the HS XC team can log some service hours by helping out at parkrun.
It's more complicated to start a parkrun than we realized. But the organization is impressive. And the things that you have to do in advance are all in the service of having something that is then pretty easy to do every week of the year. The only thing that needs week-to-week management is the volunteers. Everything else is taken care of after the first time.
The Mayor of DC, Muriel Bowser, took part in the first Fletcher's Cove parkrun. She was impressed enough that she said that she wished there was one in every ward of the city. I would hope that if a few events could get going in some large city, then that could create the visibility to give parkrun a hope of going viral in the US.
There are 5 parkruns in the US, currently. Here are their locations, along with the average number of runners per week and how many events have taken place:
Livonia, Michigan - 24 runners per week, 181 events
Durham, NC - 19 runners per week, 137 events
Clermont, FL - 60 runners per week, 125 events
San Francisco - 27 runners per week, 58 events
C&O Canal, DC - 90 runners per week, 6 events
I personally have gone to the one in Durham about 10 times. There are usually about 20-30 people when I go, and the biggest I've seen it is about 75. (The average is lower, because those stats include the rainy winter days where it's probably like 7 people, of which I am certainly not one.) A majority of the people there are definitely running reasonably hard and trying to achieve good times, but that said it is not terribly competitive by letsrun.com standards. Usually when I go I run high 16, low 17 which is usually good enough to win, although not always. I think that the other US parkruns are all a little more impressive and illustrious than ours, though. But even so it's a very fun event, and I love being able to run a timed, competitive 5k on a certified course, with prompt results, and without having to pay through the teeth.
Blimey! We may be fat, we may be violent, and we may not like commies, but we sure have nice straight white teeth!!
F off troll
As others have said, in the US I think it boils down to money. Who is going to organize it if it's basically a charity event for the running community?
Near me there is a monthly 5k series that has a $5 entry fee, over a hundred people showed up in January (it's in California). It's put on by a running club, and I assume they use the proceeds for various club endeavors. That's pretty close to a parkrun.
There are also plenty of free weekly social runs put on by various clubs, groups, stores, and towns.
But really it's a social phenomenon. Why haven't color runs taken off in the UK?
Yes, Charlie Spedding probably does hold the records, though
maybe in the very early 80's, the was an MIT senior named
Frank Richardson who,may for a while have had therefore...
We have the equivalent in Houston. It is three Sundays a month in various parts of town, a free chip timed 5k. The events each draws hundreds at each run.
It is run by volunteers and is funded by sponsors and the running community.
Another link to Houston's free chip timed 5k program
I signed up for a Parkrun barcode over a year ago but still haven't run on of these things. Not far from me at all, just haven't found a good enough reason to go. I like real races with official times (don't care about medals/prizes/tshirts) but I must have an official time.
dsgafsdf wrote:
But really it's a social phenomenon. Why haven't color runs taken off in the UK?
All credit to the UK that they aren't attracted to getting covered in colored powder during a run.
But essentially, I agree with you. It comes down to money. And that's the problem. As the classic, LetsRun disdained hobby jogger, I would like to run more 5ks, to track my progress in a competitive situation. But at an absolute minimum of $50, there's no way I'm going to pay to run my out of shape 23 minutes. Make it $5/10, or a seasonal fee equivalent, and I'll run regularly, bringing my 23 down to 13 and entering the Master's championships. (Of course, that's only if I start taking drugs for "Low T.")
HRE wrote:
I'm not sure, but I kind of think Charlie Spedding has the Fresh Pond record for men, at least the five mile one, and maybe Lynn Jennings has the women's one.
DC Brit,
Where are the DC Parkruns happening?
Lynn Jennings has the 2.5 and Cathy O'Brien has the 5 - both Olympians. You never know who is going to show up in the weeks before the Boston Marathon.
Salazar, either as an undergrad or high school student, had the Fresh Pond 2.5 mile record (sub 11 min)...at least into the early 1980's.
was anyone else disappointed that this was not a thread about combining parkour and distance running?
Times in the UK show up against Powerof10 rankings etc, after a brief blip about 18 months ago so the results "are official times".
The CEO of parkrun UK often reads threads here (he refers to them on the Marathon Talk podcast of which he is a host) so I'm sure the comments here are being noted to a degree.
Seems like just as in the UK, a lot of people have a totally incorrect idea about Parkrun . . . "Oh its just like this etc etc" until they actually turn up a few times and understand.
If you are a proper runner and understand what is important about a race, you quickly see why Parkrun isn't like all the other things you think it is other than an exceptionally well-run race you don't pay for.
When people go on about prizes, goodie bags etc - to me they aren't proper runners - If I want a few quid's worth of tat, I'll go to the local discount supermarket.