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Jul 2018
12:27pm, 11 Jul 2018
5,229 posts
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larkim
To be fair, if you read some of the other FB groups (IWOAAR for one) you'll find lots of anti-parkrun commentary, and that is a group dominated by "fast" club runners (and old-timers).
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Jul 2018
12:31pm, 11 Jul 2018
16,327 posts
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Dvorak
Sociability: One of the things parkrun emphasise a lot, especially the post run coffee etc.
Now, whilst I have never encountered an actual unsociable parkrun, I think that aspect is wildly exaggerated. My estimates of café attendance (taking in all participants) would range from 5-25% and I also reckon that is down to the café, rather than the parkrun. And people are largely sociable in their own groups, rather than it being one big hugfest. Aside from waiting for friends, I reckon about half of runners turn up, run, scan and go. (More hang around at a smaller event, less at a larger one; although the larger events will have more individuals.)
Which leads me to another point to ponder - at what size do parkruns anonymise for runners? About 60-80 would be my estimate. And I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. The thought of the type of enforced jollity portrayed in that video, for example, would have been a pretty strong deterrent to me turning up to parkrun.
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Jul 2018
12:34pm, 11 Jul 2018
13,229 posts
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BAzoaxE
My experience of parkruns and what has been said on here is that the parkruns locally are pretty much as they ever were. Its the parkrun HQ view on what they are which is way out of line.
I have never seen a fast v slow conflict, but if I went by the HQ view I would never show up at a parkrun. I think what they want to change is to get more people to turn up who might feel put off by faster runners.
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Jul 2018
12:39pm, 11 Jul 2018
5,230 posts
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larkim
Agree with Dvorak, the "join us for a coffee" is just about the cliquiest thing - with the exception of the team at Pierre en Bresse where just about the whole participant cohort arrived at the cafe and the town's deputy mayor (on the core team) bought us all pastries!!
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Jul 2018
12:52pm, 11 Jul 2018
915 posts
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Andrew65
Being shy and somewhat anti-social, I only talk to a few people at PR. If there is no one there that I know, I will not talk to anyone.
I haven't been to a post PR coffee since the BPTT days. That actually looks like an exclusive event for regulars to me.
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Jul 2018
12:55pm, 11 Jul 2018
456 posts
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edison
I get the impression now that many feel parkrun isn't for faster runners. It is for everyone - fast and slow. Any issues I encountered wit disagreements between leaders and runners being lapped, were caused by the runner being lapped who was indignant.
It is what it is - a 5k time trial - if i want to rock up and tempo one some Saturday and have to lap folk, I shouldn't have people complaining about that.
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Jul 2018
12:57pm, 11 Jul 2018
182 posts
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Spideog
I have seen a fast v slow conflict as the first finisher was getting berated at the line by someone who had stopped her run to have a go at him before then carrying on to finish her lap. I got the impression that it was entirely fuelled by the sentiment on PDG as comments along the lines of "how dare you run fast and lap people" were thrown around. I know that guy would absolutely not have had an issue with slower runners, is one of the few super speedsters locally who regularly parkruns, has been seen walking parkrun carrying an umbrella at the back in order to get his parkrun fix on the day of the road relays whilst under orders from his team not to run in the morning (I bagged myself a 1st finisher that day before also doing the relays  )
I believe what happened was the slower runner took offence at being told he was overtaking and decided that wasn't in the spirit of this mysterious "ethos" of parkrun that nobody has ever defined.
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Jul 2018
1:13pm, 11 Jul 2018
209 posts
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BexleyKev
It is only second hand news but I trust and believe the person who told me that he was sworn at recently when lapping a group of walkers ( safely ) and told in no uncertain terms that it wasn't a race. Apparently there has been a group walking around together across the footpath and not making much of an effort to give others space. He now runs less often at that particular course.
Post run cafe - when Bromley started we set up a water heater and drinks table, most of the 50-60 participants stayed. Once numbers increased the social side drifted. Bexley - it was only really the core team and a handful of regulars that went to the cafe/pub post run. If visiting other events we will go to the cafe and notice very few others doing so, again mainly seem to be existing groups that don't interact with others ( and the uber cow masons who tend to set themselves apart ). We have even been the only ones there at a few events. So I would agree with Andrew65 in that it is very difficult for an 'outsider' to integrate into some of the social cliques within parkrun.
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Jul 2018
1:43pm, 11 Jul 2018
1,919 posts
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Sigh
I found that volunteering helped me integrate at Hanley.
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Jul 2018
1:57pm, 11 Jul 2018
1,554 posts
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auburnette
Our course is 2.5 laps so many of the slower participants get lapped by a lot of the field and i think some of them are maybe being lapped twice by the real speedsters! Never seen any aggro about it.
In terms of giving people space I don't think you can really expect it at parkrun, even if other runners move over there are still other park users who have an equal right to the space and let's face it may not want to pause their dog walk for 30 minutes to allow the pack to pass. Last time I encountered an obstacle it was a large Bernese Mountain Dog that had decided to sit across most of the path :D and fair enough to him, it was a hot day.
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