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Mar 2020
9:12am, 10 Mar 2020
33,965 posts
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LindsD
Good tip
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Mar 2020
11:04am, 10 Mar 2020
76 posts
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Steven G
We are so terrible with our car culture, and parking must be one of the biggest headaches parkrun teams have to deal with.
We introduced a car park marshal this year after the boost in numbers. Our primary car park gets full and people were parking anti-socially. Once it is full cars are directed to a larger car park a short distance away. People actually get ANGRY over this and throw their hands up in frustration. We are literally talking about adding on an additional 50-100m to their walk to the start line.
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Mar 2020
11:36am, 10 Mar 2020
92 posts
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JR
Ah, the good old days of parkrun when the ethos was creating a local community of runners & when the stated aim back then was to have a parkrun in every park so that people could run to their nearest one - how I miss those days  the whole ethos has changed. Back then there really was a push to make minimal impact on the environment in that parkrun always encouraged travel to local runs on public transport/foot. With uber tourism now it's a whole different mindset.
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Mar 2020
11:49am, 10 Mar 2020
19,163 posts
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Dvorak
What is the percentage of Uber tourists really? About a fraction of one per cent? A lot of hoo-ha is heard about something which is currently statistically almost non-existent.
They are, indeed, the coronavirus of parkrun
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Mar 2020
11:55am, 10 Mar 2020
814 posts
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Akie
Uber tourists will be a very small amount but how many people each Saturday go to a parkrun that isnt their closest? Must be a decent %.
I drove to a parkrun last weekend rather than just jogging to my local.
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Mar 2020
12:03pm, 10 Mar 2020
19,165 posts
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Dvorak
Well, me for one, almost every week. I'm not that keen on my nearest: in fact, I find running it it current conditions (sludge) quite awful, and of all the reasons to go to parkrun, making myself thoroughly miserable is not one of them.
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Mar 2020
12:18pm, 10 Mar 2020
1,147 posts
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Nessie
I could probably run to my local - about 4 miles - but I think I'd get a bit of kickback from my 11 and 8 year olds.
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Mar 2020
12:23pm, 10 Mar 2020
10,560 posts
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larkim
I do think a lot of people turn up "late-ish" either routinely or just due to that particular Saturday's circumstance, so when they arrive at their usual car park with no space available they are already in a heightened sense of panic about making the start line on time.
Broadly, regulars should know what time the car parks fill up and plan accordingly. And certainly most of the field should be more than happy with anything up to a mile warm up jog to the start line if needs be - providing they have left themselves sufficient time to do it.
Not everyone is quite so comfortable with that concept of course. For someone intimiated by 5k as a running distance in itself, the thought of adding more walking / jogging time in addition to that at the beginning or end would be uncomfortable.
It's one of those unavoidable inconsistencies though - the car parks from which the walk to the start line is closest will be the ones that fill up earliest with those people who in fact have plenty of time to make the start. And the ones which are further away, and are the only spaces left at 8:55am will be the ones furthest away with more of a mad dash to get to the start line.
I can't see a world in which there's a volunteer role created for reserving parking spaces for everyone who is late!
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Mar 2020
12:32pm, 10 Mar 2020
3,826 posts
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westmoors
I tend to only go to my closest parkrun when either a) incorporating it into a longer run or b) attending for someone's milestone. Therefore, I do drive to parkrun, but nearly always park away from the start so that I can have warm up and cool down runs.
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Mar 2020
1:07pm, 10 Mar 2020
528 posts
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BexleyKev
Dvorak - about 35% to 50% of our participants are first-time visitors ( tourists ) on top of that a fair proportion has only visited twice in two years. At times it can feel that we are overwhelmed especially when we get several large club/organised groups all arriving on the same day.
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