I love parkrun, as said above, no snobbiness, it takes allsorts. Our plan for this year is to do it every saturday, week about for a tempo run, with the other one of us running with our 11 year old daughter. Works for both of us, and our daughter moans on the morning when getting out of bed, actually loves it when we’re there, the volunteers cheering her on is ace.

Did 8 different venues last year, 3 local, Aviemore, Fort William, Dundee Camperdown, Pollok park and Strathclyde park. Canny beat a bit of parkrun tourism!.

20 minutes is my PB, 25 is quite comfortable, 30 is a fair bit slower than my marathon pace.
I’m 38 and had never run 2 years ago.

And at risk of derailing, I couldn’t disagree more with this.

Agree, but just to show I’m not afraid of being controversial the people who walk round with the back marker chatting and finishing after 1 hour plus without making any effort to run mildly annoy me. Rightly or wrongly I think people doing park run ought to be making some effort to run at times. (1 minute run, 2 minutes walk?) I know someone who stopped volunteering because as backmarker she had to walk the whole 5km being chatted to by people who had no intention of running a step. I don’t think she was right, but I did see her point to a degree.

For some, Parkrun is a run, its about beating a PB and it’s about feeling like they’d worked hard. For others, it’s about the only exercise they get all week and just completing it is a challenge. Both are more then welcome and both are (should be) encouraged. Parkrun is, rightly, proud of the fact that it’s average time is going up. I’m a race director at my local one, if that helps give context.

If the average park run time is 28:30, my 8 year old lad does pretty well…. 28:50 back in the summer and that’s over a pretty hilly XC course.

As an aside to 8 year old boys… A Faceache feed last night showed the story of a 8 year old 3:32 marathon runner !!!

And before you start with 8 year olds shouldn’t be running marathons …. He had leukemia as a 4 year old, so is doing what he loves and who’d stop him ? … remarkable young man.

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a25617079/eight-year-old-marathoner-beat-leukemia/

Rightly or wrongly I think people doing park run ought to be making some effort to run at times

Even walking may be a struggle for some.

I run 5000m at 3:02/km and a marathon at 3:25/km. Is that the sort of comparison you are looking for? These are towards the faster end of the general running population, but a long way off elite levels. Keep plugging away and vary the distances and pace and with some time and effort you will see your pace improve considerably.

I haven’t done enough running to understand how pace works, but I ran 5km in a touch under 30mins after taking it up briefly last year… but then I got a hurty knee and stopped again.

Excuse my utter ignorance, but does treadmill running count and is it considered safer in terms of injuries?

I’ve found that running has been the best thing I’ve done for my knees (particularly the one that’s had the operation 2 years ago). I run fairly neutral, and change my shoes every 4 or 500 miles, the old ‘running is bad for your knees adage’ is defo a myth.

This is nuts!

For some, Parkrun is a run, its about beating a PB and it’s about feeling like they’d worked hard. For others, it’s about the only exercise they get all week and just completing it is a challenge.

Yup, and some go along for a chat, and they’re welcome too. They just mildly annoy me.

Both are more then welcome and both are (should be) encouraged.

Quite right, but I’m not talking about people in either of those categories. TBH the people I’m talking about should also be welcomed and encouraged. They just mildly annoy me.

Turboferret, my maths is weak – is that a 2:24 marathon you ran? I daresay that’s somewhat outside the general running population…! Though it is depressing that you can probably do one of the top 30-40 marathon times in the country in a given year (I was 89th at London once) and not get so much as a pair of shoes for it, when if you were in the top 50 footballers….

They just mildly annoy me.

And that’s fine, just don’t volunteer to be a tailwalker!

just don’t volunteer to be a tailwalker

Or timekeeper, or token giver, or marshall later on the course… (Assuming the “mild” grievance is that people need to volunteer for longer into their Saturday)

And that’s fine, just don’t volunteer to be a tailwalker!

Or timekeeper, or token giver, or marshall later on the course…

I think you mean Marshall *earlier* on the course?

…but that still doesn’t work, Timekeepers have to be there to the end. Token givers also although the surplus one might get let off once the majority of runners have finished. Marshalls near the end need to stay to, well, near the end. Of course it’s its a ‘lappy’ course, all the Marshalls are near the end.

Academic, because it doesn’t bother me nearly enough to start requesting a specific role when volunteering, I just find it mildly annoying.

my 8 year old lad does pretty well…. 28:50

My 9 year old girl can comfortably run a 8m 20sec mile and can out sprint me. She has never done a ParkRun as it clashes with other activities but she does county cross country so I am pretty confident she could do a sub 26min ParkRun.

Edit – and there are quicker girls than her too – at local CC trials she normally places 3rd or 4th out of a field of around 50 but at regional she’s only mid-pack (but we are working on her running for the first time in the run up to this year’s county run so hoping for better).

I came late to running (52 now, running about 3 – 4 years). Park run PB is 27.01/ Determined to beat 25 this year. Have done 10Ks, half marathons and finally did a full marathon last year. Will be focusing on the shorter distance exclusively this year.

I came late to running, last Tuesday. Not sure I like it yet but useful for fitness when I don’t have a lot of time. Starting slowly literally and figuratively.

These are towards the faster end of the general running population,

You don’t say!

the old ‘running is bad for your knees adage’ is defo a myth.

I’ll tell my knees that, ta.

18.33 is my best 5k in recent years. That was with a few small hills. Totally flat I could probably do just under 18.

JP

I’m at about 22mins for a parkrun at the moment. Goal for this year is sub 21 and should really try to do sub 20 before my legs give up…

Ran for over 20 years now, up to Marathon level.

5k got to 18 minutes but i am circa 21 now. Aged 40 and just getting slower/more cycling.

Problem is there is always someone faster, was at a client meeting and noticed the guy had a running trophy on his desk, run much said I?

Oh yes, said he, that was for winning the Stirling Marathon…..

Bstd!

<tannoy> Turboferret to the thread please

Just for a bit of balance… 7min 21seconds/km for me!

Building up to my first 5k of adult life at the end of the month. At the moment my goal is simply to run that distance, time is not a factor! Once I have done it then if I can get it down to 30-35 minutes I will be happy.

On non-flat ground with bits of trail where I can.

I am far too large for this game though!

I started running 3-4yrs back to supplement fitness for riding and get me out the office at lunch times. I do trail runs for the most part but only late last year did I go under 21min for 5km (which I did a couple times), and think that was because I interspersed them with longer distance runs. Now, in my head I have a target to go under 20mins but I think I’d have to get a bit too “runnerist” and do sprints and all that, and at 42, I’d rather ride my bike on some nice trails.

Peebles parkrun is a bastard.

Three bloody laps with a tedious hill.

If any one plans to run it on saturday i’ll race ya!

I used to run parkrun in around 22 mins thinking I was putting the effort in. Then I joined a running club 18 months ago and realised I’m capable of much more if I push myself.
I’m 42 and ran 18:40 in a 5k race in August on the back of my marathon training.
Ran a parkrun pb of 18:54 in October a few weeks after the marathon.

Good effort, Stox.

Great work guys, gives me some goals to work towards!

All the best for 2019

My best is around 19.40. Finally got back near it again this year dispite not putting in that many miles. I do more parkruns now pushing our youngest in the pram whilst our 6 year old runs. She’s down to 28.05 however I think she could go 1-2 minutes faster if we could avoid congestion during the first 1k (Southampton is very busy now).

Good shout Stox, I’m in the process of getting myself and the wee one into our local club, I’m hoping the structure will have a similar result on my times. They do a 5k TT every tuesday night, there’s very few people, only ever one or two, over the 20 minute mark.

Josh, I’ll get to Peebles parkrun at some point this year, though I’m really no a fan of laps! 🙂

I do more parkruns now pushing our youngest in the pram

There was a guy who I’d see at the Preston Park run doing that. He’d start at the back and would pass me when I was running at around 21 minute pace.

If anyone’s interested there’s a Parkrun Podcast here: http://www.freeweeklytimed.com/

PS: @verses, sorry, I completely misunderstood your point. Apologies for my woosh.

Every single one of you is faster than me 😂

10yrs ago I used to run a 40min xc 10k, nowadays I’d be pleased if I could run 3k without getting some sort of injury 🙁

Damn some of you lot are fast!! My aim for this year is sub 25 at my local parkrun which is a hilly (for the south!) Sod. And try and get back to being comfortable at 10km as always found that the ideal compromise between cycling and running. I don’t like the idea of structured training for anything really so accept that I will probably never be fast.

The biggest issue for me is that it takes me 2 or 3k to get warmed up and comfortable. I suppose I should do a few 7 or 8km runs….

Veloviewer tells me that my fastest 5km was just over 23 minutes but that was on a downhill course (albeit in the middle of a longer run). Currently I’m doing 5:30 – 5;50 splits.

My fastest 5km was 19:30 (with a 40:30 10km), i havent run in a while though. I’m pretty sure i was doing it wrong and relying on aerobic fitness from cycling too much before i’d trained my legs to run as i ended up getting quite a lot of knee pain.

Anyone wanting to improve their 5km time might want to follow this theory –Link

Edit – No idea why the link wont work, it was this

Ben Robinson aims for sub 12 minute 5k (with the help of Blake)

Apologies for not responding in a timely manner, unfortunately I’ve had to do some work which annoyingly occasionally takes precedent over STW 🙁

3:25/km does indeed correspond to a 2:24 marathon (2:24:09 to be exact apparently) but I will admit to not having run that yet. I ran 3:27/km in Bournemouth (2:26) having run the first half waaaaay to fast (1:10) and blowing up at the end, so perhaps I’m a little cheeky stating 3:25, but that’s my goal for London.

If I had run that time last year, and had I been 40, that would put me 2nd in Britain on the V40 rankings for the country for the year, so hopefully I’ll be in a similar place.

Historically 2:24 would mean 2nd in 2018, 3rd in 2017, 3rd in 2016, 1st in 2015, 2nd in 2014, 1st in 2013-2010 so hopefully I’ll be there or thereabouts

Have to admit to Canicross lot doing my box in at parkrun, can’t hear the announcer telling of folks 100th/200th/whatever parkrun as the bloody things are howling, then they insist on taking up the whole bloody path whilst shouting commands that the mutt has no idea about.