Ah, sod it, I might regret this, but for TheCaptain’s benefit, here is the work that I, an volunteer Event Director, have to do on a normal week when I am also the run director on the Saturday. This is without any additional work that’s Covid specific. Note, i am not looking for any kind of sympathy here, I do it as I love the event and the benefit it brings to people, but it is not an insignificant amount of work.

Monday – Friday:

Ensure last weeks results are sorted and any changes made.

Deal with any other enquiries from the event (lost property, how does parkrun work, “why have I got no time”, “I finished ahead of him, why do the results not say that?”, “sorry i can’t volunteer this week after all”)

Report any incidents to the local authority and parkrun HQ, follow-up paperwork as needed.

Wash 35 hi-viz jackets, 400 finish token and anything else that has come in contact with people.

Try and coax 35 people to volunteer the following weekend. This normally involves and 2-mails and/or 2 or 3 Facebook posts and then reading all the replies and inputting them onto the systems. A final “please don’t forget to turn-up” e-mail is sent towards the end of the week

Ensure our DofE volunteers are happy and being used properly. Write their reports if it’s that time of year.

2 other social media posts, generally positive “come and run with us” type things

Saturday:

Check e-mails and see if I’ve had any volunteer drop-outs

Arrive at venue around 7:30am, walk/run the course to make sure it’s all clear and good to go.

8am start the event set-up and get all the kit in the right place and the course layed out

8:15, volunteers start to arrive, ensure they know where to go and what to go. Training on scanning or timing as needed.

8:30, volunteers are out, talks to runners, greet new arrivals, deal with any issues with set-up as they occur.

8:50, first timers briefing

9am, run brief and start the event

9:15, first runner back

9:15 – 10am – greet returning runners, deal with any timing issues, make sure all is well

10am, pack up kit

10:30am, process results and send thank you e-mails to volunteers

11am, leave venue ensuring the venue managers are happy.

Rest of saturday, respond to e-mails as needed

So please don’t say it’s easy and sensible to ask for more volunteer time.

On a positive note; if you can’t go running then at least the pubs are open again

You could have a few pints and contemplate your lifestyle choices instead? Maybe have a little cry and a packet of pork scratchings?

On a positive note; if you can’t go running then at least the pubs are open again

You could have a few pints and contemplate your lifestyle choices instead? Maybe have a little cry and a packet of pork scratchings?

Ah Binners, you forget, you run to earn your beers. There are few better tasting beers than the one sat outside a pub in the sunshine at the end of a good run. Plus, the scratchings help put your salt levels back to normal.

Its the dream combination 🙂

As an aside, Rowan, who runs our local running club and is an all round top bloke is today on his last of 22 marathons in 22 days to raise money for homeless charities. Bonkers!

On a positive note; if you can’t go running then at least the pubs are open again

You could have a few pints and contemplate your lifestyle choices instead?

Proper laughed at that

I have a pic of a sign saying “Before you complain, have you volunteered?” It used to be deployed on a lot of Scout and cycle club posts. Stars like Lunge keep these wonderful things going and make hundreds of people happy, week in, week out

The only way to do it is to reopen them all at the same time, to stop the few getting swamped, as others have said.

We have two park runs in our town, within less than a mile of each other.
Would be far better here if they did just reopen one of them. Then, those that want to run round with a couple of hundred others have got somewhere to do it. And those that can’t – still shielding, vulnerable, can still use a safe outdoor space on a Saturday morning. To take both parks seems selfish now. Park use has changed over the last 15 months, and for some vulnerable people, their other options are very limited.

I agree with you on the web registration (I’ve never done a parkrun but thought most people had a barcode they swipe at the start / finish). Given changes other sports are making doesn’t seem unreasonable. Nor would it be ridiculous to stagger starts if they don’t already. However, having had the joy of dealing with Local Authority people over this sort of thing I don’t think they would all have a consistent view / approach and I think that makes it very difficult.

Parkrun HQ have had a year to think this through and it’s a shame they aren’t prepared to even try to put on the 200+ parkruns that already have permission, with such a modest change to their procedures.

I think given the media attention cancelling all of them has had, and the consequential pressure of the stubborn LA’s this potentially gets them back to “near normal” sooner. It will also potentially help all the other organisations who have been fighting local council arbitrary rules for the last few months by seeing top level government direction provided to authorities. There’s lots of well-meaning people in local authorities but they often focus on their own perception of a problem rather than the bigger picture.

I assume parkrun have refunded @TheCaptain his parkrun fees and he will be investing them in setting up a competing service?

“all research by both parkrun and the government suggests it’s not necessary anyway.”

I don’t understand how you can make that statement.

It is parkrun themselves who have argued that it is necessary to limit numbers at their events.

The only method they are prepared to consider in order to achieve this is to ensure that there are so many events on simultaneously that they will not have too many people choosing to attend any given event. But the problem of an overly large attendance is the one reason they have specifically highlighted as the reason for not opening up the parkruns that currently have permission. Clearly, parkrun believe it is necessary to limit attendance, even if you don’t.

I don’t understand how you can make that statement.

Because it’s what the evidence says. You could try reading it. The thing about attendance is about events being overwhelmed, as has already been pointed out

Clearly, parkrun believe it is necessary to limit attendance, even if you don’t.

I am making an assumption here, but it’s for logistical reasons more than covid. An event that usually has capacity for 150 runners suddenly having 500 is a risk to health and safety for the runners because of congestion as much as covid. Then there’s parking/transport, numbers of volunteers, disruption to other park users and on.

I am making an assumption here, but it’s for logistical reasons more than covid. An event that usually has capacity for 150 runners suddenly having 500 is a risk to health and safety for the runners because of congestion as much as covid.

Correct. My event gets 400 on a good day, if the 3 other local events were not ruining and we got 800 then Covid is the least of our worries. We simply couldn’t handle that volume on our course. Hence the vast majority need to start at the same time.

poly Free Member
I agree with you on the web registration (I’ve never done a parkrun but thought most people had a barcode they swipe at the start / finish)

It’s only scanned at the finish

Nor would it be ridiculous to stagger starts if they don’t already.

Staggered starts would potentially extend the amount of time volunteers have to give up of a Saturday morning. Also you’d need to know what wave they started in to work out their time. None of which is impossible but it’s all an additional overhead.

Sure it’s for logistical reasons. So what? Why does that mean they shouldn’t address this problem?

If parkrun was prepared to limit attendance, it could put on hundreds of runs every weekend.

In the past year, other organisers have managed to put on dozens of running events with a range of formats. I’ve run in a few of them myself. Parkrun bang on and on about how important they are to the physical and mental health of the nation. What contribution has parkrun made to the physical and mental health of the nation over the past year?

What contribution has parkrun made to the physical and mental health of the nation over the past year?

A similar amount to other mass participation events I would expect

What contribution has parkrun made to the physical and mental health of the nation over the past year?

I’ve seen some bizarre stuff on here over the years…..

If parkrun was prepared to limit attendance

Kind of removes the ‘free for all’ ethos. It’s not about organised racing, it’s for the lesser experienced runners who might not make a decision till Friday night or Saturday morning. There are loads of clubs organising runs for regular runners.

As for what it’s done for mental health of people over lockdown, I’ve been encouraged to submit virtual times over the course of lockdown, I’ve been kept well informed of what they are planning and when they will make decisions. Personally I’ve kept up regular runs, maybe everyone hasn’t, but that’s on them, not parkrun.

Perhaps you have an axe to grind with them, perhaps it’s not perfect, but as a largely volunteer led organisation I think it’s great. There’s very few things I’d bother to defend on the internet as I shy away from pointless arguments, but this is something I think shouldn’t be criticised.

Also, @lunge thanks for all you do and manage to fit into your own training schedule, what a great thing to do.

Who pissed on the captains chips?

Who pissed on the captains chips?

Park run clearly

That’s a lot of piss

Ive done a rough calculation based on 6.3 million park runners, I reckon his chips have been deluged by approximately 8.8 million litres* of piss. No wonder he’s upset.

*obviously not in the last year

I think parkrun is great, mostly due to the volunteers but the central leadership obviously did a lot of great things in setting it up.

However the increasingly cult-like behaviour and their incompetence over the reopening (have you all forgotten last October’s debacle too?) is just hopelessly stupid and stubborn of them. I find it very distasteful how they have tried to bully and landowners and impose their demands on everyone else with no willingness to compromise. It’s ugly behaviour.

Again, their “demands” have already been signed off by the government and relevant national bodies. You obviously have an axe to grind but are going to have to come up with something better.

And yet there’s a sportive with 1374 riders going past my front door tomorrow

On private land of multiple land owners in crowded public areas ? All across the country

Or on public open roads in a single area of the country?

Likely a single council and even more likely a single government area

Ergo completely irrelevant to anything……

Postive note.

I was run director at our local Junior parkrun today and it was bloody lovely.

Smiling kids running around a park, some super-encouraging volunteers and even the rain stayed away. Lovely way to spend a Sunday.