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Aug 2019
1:12pm, 12 Aug 2019
67,618 posts
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Gobi
ps. you are in danger here of discriminating against people who have battled long and hard to fit in and you are forcing them not to fit in.
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Aug 2019
1:22pm, 12 Aug 2019
67,619 posts
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Gobi
This post is aimed at everyone who has an idea of how to separate people out not just one individual
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Aug 2019
1:24pm, 12 Aug 2019
712 posts
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Vixx
As far as I am aware (from a couple of transfemale friends), parkrun has allowed them to change their gender on their profile, and effectively marked off the times they ran as male and drawn a line under them from the point they have changed to female.
Personally, if parkrun is essentially volunteer-led and no prizes, then why does gender and timing have to come into it?
I helped organise a 5km Participation Run at Trans Pride Brighton (my friend who was organising asked me to look over things as they had never organised a run before), and whilst we had a timing clock, we had no chip timing and said to people that if they wanted to note their time they would be welcome to, but we would not be posting results or listing people in the order they finished.
The run was open to anyone, trans or not, and we purposely chose a course along the seafront that was close to the Hove parkrun course as it was flat, tarmac and thus would allow someone in a wheelchair to take part if they so wished. We only needed 6 volunteers (and could have managed with 3) and everyone had fun. We had about 80 people take part, but the smiles that people had on their faces as they finished was very similar to parkrun and how people feel when they achieve that distance.
If parkrun removed timing, and effectively let you time yourself if you wished, would people still take part?
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Aug 2019
1:25pm, 12 Aug 2019
2,366 posts
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ThorntonRunner
That's fine Gobi, and you're perfectly correct. It's pretty much an impossible situation. You go round in circles, tweaking a system to try to be fair to each group, and then find that what you end up with is unfair to the first group you looked at 
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Aug 2019
1:27pm, 12 Aug 2019
2,367 posts
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ThorntonRunner
Vixx - I don't think that would work - parkrun grew out of time trials, and for many (most?) people, it being timed is critical.
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Aug 2019
1:31pm, 12 Aug 2019
3,510 posts
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FreshStart
I'd say for all people it being timed is critical.
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Aug 2019
1:40pm, 12 Aug 2019
28,662 posts
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Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs)
Mostly I don't care about my time at parkrun unless I am aiming to set a new time for my category, I do however still want my attendance listed. (That's not to say others should be of the same opinion, I am sure it matters to most others)
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Aug 2019
1:46pm, 12 Aug 2019
97 posts
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JJJ
Re Timing - judging by emails (and lack of them!) we get on a day when our parkrun results are a mess, there are some people who will question a 5 second error and others who aren't bothered/ don't notice a 5 minute error (eg 50 min runner with time changed by funnel duckers), I guess they've done one or more of - got out of bed, had a bit of exercise, cleared their head, seen some people, had a coffee etc and are happy with that and time doesn' t matter.
Overall I don't think parkrun would end if there was no timing - people who care have a watch anyway - but it wouldn't be as popular.
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Aug 2019
1:47pm, 12 Aug 2019
67,620 posts
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Gobi
yes, even non competitive people want to measure improvement.
You would be amazed how many "non competitive" people get upset when there is a timing issue.
I have almost stopped going already but if timing wasn't there I 100% wouldn't be .
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Aug 2019
1:47pm, 12 Aug 2019
67,621 posts
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Gobi
MrsJ - I even like to see my slow times as they make me laugh when I remember why I went so slow that day.
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