parkrun thread
6 lurkers |
505 watchers
Feb 2018
11:49pm, 18 Feb 2018
3,930 posts
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larkim
Too much cynicism there I think. The Great Run events do well enough without needing to seed the ground for new runners.
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Feb 2018
3:20am, 19 Feb 2018
1,732 posts
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FurryH
Looked at the Great run local website its achielles will be there chosen method of chips. If you lose it, card or wristband, there is a fee for a replacement. Im glad there isn't one near me. It can be difficult enough staffing our local junior parkrun with volunteers on the days there are large local running events on. I think the cynicisim is well founded with Great run they don't seem very in touch with the running community and do what they feel like. I seem to remember a thread on FE in the new year about a event having to reschedule as Great run just went ahead a picked a date without consideration on its impacts on other established events. Why create something in competition with something that it also free and doing a great job? Smells like marketing idea not fully thought through. Its not the run thats the problem its the draw on volunteers in an area. |
Feb 2018
9:08am, 19 Feb 2018
351 posts
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Arjin
Great run Portsmouth seems to do well. It allows the parkrun volunteers to run and the parkrun runners to volunteer. What's not to like?
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Feb 2018
10:04am, 19 Feb 2018
15,545 posts
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Dvorak
Well ... there is a (small) Great Run Local thread on here. There was a larger one, but it has been culled. One of the reasons for the lack of enthusiasm amongst many was that when it was launched, Brendan Foster presented it as an idea Great Run had come up with all by themselves, completely ignoring the fact that there was another popular free 5K series already up and running. I have a wristband, but I have never been. The Glasgow event is at a time I usually run with others: that seems to be in abeyance, so I might even make it along some Wednesday evening. Glasgow gets about 40 runners a week. The Great Scottish Run 10K and HM get about 16 000, mostly local or localish. There does not seem to be any cross-promotion. Whatever the idea of the GRL was originally, it has never flown. The race clash thing was about the Ipswich HM which GR have taken over. Not just a clash of dates: having spoken to local clubs, they set a date for Ipswich and a local club then set their date for their long-standing ten mile run. THEN GR changed the Ipswich date to clash with the ten-miler: this is exceedingly shoddy, I would say. |
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Feb 2018
10:18am, 19 Feb 2018
15,546 posts
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Dvorak
I've tracked back to an interview with Brendan Foster at GRL rollout in 2014. His aim was to have a million people running by 2020. Split around a third each big Great Run events, Great Run Local runners; and Great Run app users. Quotes from Foster "If you think this is a message that you’ve heard before, I would suggest to you that you haven’t heard this message before from people who know what they’re talking about." "We’ve got a track record of doing what we say we’re going to do. We’re not politicians." Really Brendan? How's that going then? Without doing a detailed count, I reckon that the number of parkrunners weekly is around 100x that of Great Run Locallers. telegraph.co.uk Anyway, parkrun was good on Saturday, ran ok and second biggest turnout at Falkirk (312). I think this is pretty near the limit of "comfortable" size though. The ED has published a request for more involvement though as it seems the event is down to two RDs. I could do more, but I don't perhaps want to do that much more. Is that selfish? Yes, to a degree. But many don't do anything. The local junior parkrun almost never went ahead: still nine short on Saturday morning. It did run, but the team have posted that they won't be waiting to 6 pm Saturday to fill the roster again - they will cancel. |
Feb 2018
10:37am, 19 Feb 2018
5,520 posts
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chunkywizard
Juniors should never have to cancel, with 50 kids there should be at least 50 parents who instead of standing around and clapping can stand around and clap in high-viz. I know some will run with their kids but one parent can run and one volunteer if that's the case. One thing that is difficult is to get commitment early as I know sometimes plans aren't fixed until later in the week. We tend to go out to the core team on Wednesday and then ask on Facebook on Thursday/Friday. Just recently we have made a big point of asking for people to step forward at the briefing for future weeks so people at least think if they could help.
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Feb 2018
10:43am, 19 Feb 2018
9,285 posts
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Maz Heeps
we are lucky at Hazlehead we have a good half a dozen core RD's so we all get ample opportunity to run. If anything we struggle with continuity, and remembering what do do from one month to the next! I tend to take 2 weeks at a time, so i get my duties out the way for a wee while. |
Feb 2018
11:02am, 19 Feb 2018
6,183 posts
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The_Saint
My cynicism is always well founded but I have given up being surprised by the ridiculous amounts people are prepared to pay to do a race, especially ones that I wouldn't run if I was paid to turn up. I had also noticed the way that certain people never refer to parkrun despite obviously running out of things to say about mass participation running during coverage of big expensive events.
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Feb 2018
11:14am, 19 Feb 2018
29,035 posts
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Old Croc
heading towards our 2nd birthday and 100th on same day!
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Feb 2018
6:42pm, 19 Feb 2018
1,181 posts
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TomahawkMike
Gor blimey! I was looking at which south Wales parkrun to do next wewkend and noticed Cardiff had 1192 on Saturday. That's a lot of scanning
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