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parkrun thread

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ndellar Jul 2018 8:52pm, 16 Jul 2018 3,468 posts	Quote Pin ndellar One April fools day my co-ED decided it would be great fun to thread all the tokens on a fishing line, so when you 'took' a token you had to follow the line all the way through to the scanners. Not great if you leave your barcode in your bag, as we all stood in a massive zig zag queue (thankfully not backing up over the line) I had plenty of time to apologise to many many people. Strangely it didn't cause as much outrage as the year before when he posted the course was short and to print out your pr profiles before midday. We didn't lose any tokens that week. Next year from mid March onwards to 2nd April we are locking him in a room.
edison Jul 2018 11:36pm, 16 Jul 2018 480 posts	Quote Pin edison Our finish line is on concrete. We have nowhere to tie tape to unless we lug in barriers. Cones dont work.
edison Jul 2018 11:38pm, 16 Jul 2018 481 posts	Quote Pin edison Im forever telling those on tokens to move backwards but their instinct is always to move forward when groups cross the line. I try to put marshals and funnel managers on there to keep the flow
becca7 Jul 2018 9:43am, 17 Jul 2018 7,718 posts	Quote Pin becca7 North Beach has now gone over to three finish funnels, each filled up in turn, rather than the airport-style snaking queue.
mrs shanksi Jul 2018 9:48am, 17 Jul 2018 9,064 posts	Quote Pin mrs shanksi How many does Bushy have? Must be at least 4 really long funnels! They were very well organised. We don't have any issues with an average of only 40 people a week.
Fierce and Focused Fleecy Jul 2018 10:09am, 17 Jul 2018 41,941 posts	Quote Pin Fierce and Focused Fleecy I was interested to see at Frimley that as well as the usual funnel (which is long, narrow and goes round a corner) there is now a taped off area beyond it where you have to go past the scanners in order to get out, seems like a good idea to make the scanners obvious (some parkruns it’s not, if people are milling about) plus I’m thinking probably fewer tokens lost.
larkim Jul 2018 10:10am, 17 Jul 2018 5,263 posts	Quote Pin larkim Delamere has the mandatory "you have to pass the scanners to get out of the funnel" option, always surprises me when we see scanners milling about at other events the the possibility of being missed.
Sigh Jul 2018 10:15am, 17 Jul 2018 1,939 posts	Quote Pin Sigh I find that when scanning it helps to be a certain distance away from the other scanners, so that you can hear your own scanner bleep rather than the adjacent ones. Not scanned using the app yet, where I would imagine proximity isn't an issue.
mrs shanksi Jul 2018 10:16am, 17 Jul 2018 9,065 posts	Quote Pin mrs shanksi There was one parkrun when we were on holiday, so it was either Coventry or Chichester, where you had to walk a fair distance to find the scanners. Felt like that anyway!
Fierce and Focused Fleecy Jul 2018 10:18am, 17 Jul 2018 41,942 posts	Quote Pin Fierce and Focused Fleecy Yes but it depends on the number of runners and the geography of the finish area. Putting scanners at the end of the funnel can cause the queue to back up over the finish line when it’s busy in a big parkrun. I’m sure parkruns can learn from each other but it’s also not one size fits all.