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Jan 2019
1:05pm, 2 Jan 2019
3,538 posts
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jdarun
I'm a bit ambivalent about tourism. I've certainly enjoyed being able to turn up at an event when I've been travelling, and although I wouldn't personally want to collect them like stamps, it's hard to see it as any worse than any other sort of travel/tourism with many of the costs and benefits that this involves. When I want a day shopping at either of the two local towns (Skipton or Harrogate) I usually try to fit in a parkrun. They aren't local enough for me to do regularly, I guess that makes me a tourist at those too. The only one close enough to run to (or even cycle reasonably) is when I'm staying with my parents.
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Jan 2019
1:06pm, 2 Jan 2019
18,224 posts
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DeeGee
We had 100 more than usual at Christmas day. Conversely to NYD we'll always do Christmas day because we can, because it's a commitment I made as ED from the beginning, and because I knw there are several members of our community who won't see another living soul that day if we don't. We're usually the only event on in Lincolnshire, and we start late to allow people to navigate their way up the zigzagging cart tracks that pass for roads in this county.
I'm RD on Saturday, and I'm wondering what plans I have to make for swollen numbers due to the resolution crowd joining us.
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Jan 2019
1:14pm, 2 Jan 2019
18,225 posts
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DeeGee
I can't pass judgement on people collecting parkruns, though, when my main aim in athletics now is colouring a map of different countries where I have run a marathon.
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Jan 2019
1:28pm, 2 Jan 2019
26,065 posts
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DocMoye
NYD was exceptionally pleasant weather around here.....i wonder how the numbers would have different if it had be chucking it down and blowing a hooley?
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Jan 2019
1:28pm, 2 Jan 2019
6,394 posts
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lark-the-herald-angels-sing-im
I’m an opportunistic tourist - if I need to be somewhere other than home on a Saturday I’ll quite happily tweak arrangements so that I can fit in a new parkrun, and broadly that’s worked really well for us as a family - starting our hols in Barnstaple at 9am meaning we’re on the beach by 10:30 rather than stuck in a traffic jam on the M5, or being bought brioche by the local Mayor at Pierre-en-Bresse. But beyond driving about 10-12 miles to try out a new parkrun locally, we wouldn’t deliberately travel to do a new one and collect the stamp.
Though by all accounts lots of people get great enjoyment out of it, so who am I to criticise what they enjoy doing? I’ve done my own fair share of nerdy / niche things in the past!
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Jan 2019
2:24pm, 2 Jan 2019
17,616 posts
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KinkyS
The idea that tourism goes against the idea of community is an interesting one. Many tourists have their own little touring groups, they meet up at different events, greet each other as old friends, hang around together eating breakfast for ages afterwards - they are a community in themselves, just a very mobile one. People they never would've met otherwise have become part of their social circle and that's a good thing.
I am definitely a tourist, 135 different events out of 359 runs. I won't drive for more than an hour just for a run and I don't 'collect' anything (letters, indexes, regions etc), but by going to parkrun from wherever I happen to be staying, and also by taking in events further away but on the way to places I was travelling to anyway, it is easy to take in different events. I love running in new places and trying out different courses, it keeps things interesting and enjoyable for me. I look out for courses that are trail, hilly, not too many laps, and with a good cafe afterwards, but I've discovered a few gems that don't fit those criteria so no course is a no-go for me. Doing the same event week after week would become boring, even if it was a lovely event, but I'm happy to repeat my favourite courses now and again.
Anyone who knows my real name and has a passing familiarity with the parkrun most events table will know that I am closely related to an uber-tourist. Yes, I think he is crazy, but he enjoys it and I very much doubt he cares what anyone else thinks anyway. He's almost certainly lurking here, reading what I say 
I was lucky at my old house that there was a parkrun local enough for me to get to on foot if I wanted to, but now I have moved, the nearest run is either a 25 minute drive away, or a 5 mile fell run with close to 1000ft of ascent just to get there!
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Jan 2019
2:58pm, 2 Jan 2019
602 posts
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Roberto
Parkrun in itself is a community regardless of where the event takes places. Parkrunners are part of that community on a larger scale. Narrow it down to each parkrun being an individual community event for the local area is fine, but that community shouldn’t then be closed off to people not from that area. Community isn’t just about something being in a local area, it’s about shared traits and shared interests. Personally I’d want any community I’m involved with to be open and welcoming to all, whether they come once and never again or stay permanently.
I have 3 parkruns I would consider as “home” parkruns and regularly visit all 3 and volunteer at each of them at different times depending on how I feel. I’d feel disappointed if I had to only stay at one and I enjoy being a tourist when I’m away for a weekend or visiting family. I also go and “tick off” other local ones as a tourist as I like to run in new places and meet new people in other “communities”. That one of the specia things about parkrun. Wherever you are in the country, you can find one and go and spend an hour with people who have a shared interest and in general are happy and supportive of others there, regardless of each individuals goal for the run.
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Jan 2019
4:30pm, 2 Jan 2019
801 posts
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edison
"i wonder how the numbers would have different if it had be chucking it down and blowing a hooley?"
Like NYD 2018 over here - we broke the attendance record in atrocious weather. at 11am, our neighbouring parkrun recorded the, then, 2nd highest ever attendance with 618. Folk love their new year doubles
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Jan 2019
4:53pm, 2 Jan 2019
20,760 posts
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Wriggling Snake
I just found out, of the 455 at my local, 185 were on their second.....I would lie if I said I wasn't a tourist, I have done 6 different ones. All within 4 miles of where I Lived, or my old mans house.
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Jan 2019
4:59pm, 2 Jan 2019
20,761 posts
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Wriggling Snake
Sorry reading back. I think pitching up at a parkrun because you are in the area, is a lot different from 'tourism'. In fact that is not tourism, that is going to a parkrun.
But, getting in a car at 4.00 am, driving 200 miles round trip to run two parkuns, that you can do on your doorstep is, as does just ticking them off. It still strikes me as anti parkrun ethos (i,e local, get there on foot or use public transport) and frankly a bit odd. As for the guys ticking off letters of the alphabet, that is really just daft. Whatever, people do what they do.
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