I started C25K in Jan and now run between 10 and 13km a week. Being able to participate in park run was a goal and I finally got to do that last week. I've now done two and......hmmmmm.
The much trumpeted friendly atmosphere is distinctly lacking and the behaviour of the faster runners towards fellow participants, thundering past at twice the pace leaving barely a gnats whisker of space, is quite intimidating. I don't mind being a rear gunner. I'm happy to go at my own pace and challenge myself rather than compete with others. However, it is dispiriting to be running to the finish line (at a respectable time of 34 mins) past others runners heading home.
Is it just me or have others found that it is not quite the 'lets do this together' community event they expected? Btw this is in London 😂😂😂 and I'm not a Londoner (despite having lived here for 26 years)
On the plus side, a dry Friday and getting my weekend run out of the way by 10am is definitely a good thing.
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LadyAlba
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Hi LadyAlba, sorry your experience wasn't what you were expecting at ParkRun. I plan to do my first one next Saturday. I trained up to run 10K now but I've never actually done the 5K ParkRun. I will let you know what my experience is there. ☺️
The atmosphere varies from course to course. I find it helps to chat with the volunteers.
My first ever parkrun was the first after the restrictions were lifted and was on the other side of Manchester. It felt very cliquey. It was a venue that regularly attracts 200+ runners. My closest one was allowed to open the following week and had half those numbers (and this weekend it only had 50). That felt more welcoming.
A lot of the post-run social stuff has been put aside for the moment due to the Pandemonium precautions.
And there will always be those who run there, do the 5km and immediately run home.
I usually hang around until about 9.50am, by which time I'm starting to feel a little chilly in my sweat dampened kit.
Finally, if you feel social distancing is not being respected, I'd suggest mentioning your concern to the Run Director.
Thanks. I waited a few weeks because I expected that the might be quite busy when they first restarted. I'm not worried about social distancing, I just didn't expect to be nearly knocked off my feet by runners too concerned about their time to veer even slightly off their line.
That's just inexcusable. I've never experienced that.
As I said elsewhere I got stuck behind a quartet of teenage girls this week, taking up the whole width of the path. I waited patiently for a suitably large gap to occur to sprint through between them, with lots of sorrys and thank yous from me.
Sorry about your experience at your first parkrun LadyAlba, l find that when I am lapped at the parkrun I go to, the runner says to me as he rushes past "you're doing well" I shout back'thanks', don't start at the front of the run, or you could go to another parkrun near to where you live.
Yesterday, I passed a guy who had just stopped running and was walking. I gave him a thumbs up sign and said, "The first time I did this course I had to walk here too."
When I was lapped on lap 3, I called out, "It looks like someone's doing 20 minutes."
I'm quite a chatty runner and will often exchange greetings and silly comments with the volunteers.
I even got a response to my "Good morning" from the sour lady in the mobility scooter yesterday. Result!
I got lapped by a man who run a course record for my home parkrun, his time was 16.11, when he passed me I thought, wow he is going very fast, my time that day was 31.47 which was more than 15 minutes slower than that speedy gazelle.
All the 5K split times for the men were sub 15 minutes, for the women most 5K split times were around 16 minutes.I have just watched the Manchester 10K on TV, its made me think about entering my local 10K run which I am sure will be on next year after being cancelled since 2019.
I also get lapped by our speedy runners, but a lot of them shout encouragement as they pass. There is generally a good atmosphere at my parkrun, though I have been going a while and I do volunteer on occasions, maybe that has helped. There are a few parkrun’s in my vicinity, which is also London, I may try one of them and see what it’s like for a first timer. Such a shame for you, I hope you stick with it and it improves.
I have run at 40 different events and I have to say they are all different in terms of friendliness / inclusivity. Multiple lap course parkruns are more difficult than single laps or out and backs, because slower runners will be lapped. I would also say that some of the city parkruns attract a younger, faster crowd.
I have been pushed past and forced through puddles in one particular multi lap, narrow course London parkrun I wouldn’t choose to return to. I have also been helped through muddy fields, trenches and gates by a tail walker on a country parkrun I also wouldn’t choose to return to - not because of the people but because of the course. Net, net - chose your course carefully. If it’s multiple laps it needs to be wide and flat. Also look at the results to see how many slower runners do it.
In my experience, most people don’t wait around to see the tail home.
I have run so far at 21 different parkruns, mostly in Ireland. I have also done one in Belfast and another in Bristol. In Bristol I met some of the most loveliest of people from this forum. My experience has been very good, except for my first one at my home parkrun. I remember turning up, I was perhaps on week 7 of the C25K plan and I did not know what was going on. I felt very alone and like a fish out of water. I followed the crowd to the start line and started to run when they said go. I finished in over 39 minutes, got my barcode scanned and went home. 75 parkruns later and after volunteering 19 times I wish I had just gone up to one of the volunteers before my very first run, my experience would have been so different. I went back the following week and kept going back. My local course is a 3 lap course with between 150-250 people taking part most weeks. After a while you will recognise some of the same people every week. They too will recognise you and before you know it you will be chatting away to fellow runners before and after the run. My advice is to stick with it. parkrun is a very community based activity, some will just turn up and run, go home, some will come and join in and go to the Cafe afterwards. As a result of parkrun I have made some lovely friends, mostly ladies and I was invited 2 years ago into a little parkrun tourist group. I was starting to travel around trying out some other parkrun courses with my son. I was chatting to a couple of the girls at our local parkrun about it and a few months later they invited me to join them.
Sometimes we organise to visit a different parkrun together. We drive there sometimes in 2 different cars and meet up. Run the parkrun and have a post parkrun breakfast together and we then head home.
The beauty of parkrun is that it is the same no matter where you go. When I go on my own to try a new parkrun I now always walk up to the Run director and a couple of other volunteers and I introduce myself. At the end of the run I always go back up to them again and say thank you.
I'm not fast, and always get lapped by the super speedy people. But I must say, without exception the most support is offered to the people at the end of the run or walk. I volunteered on Saturday for the first time as Tail Walker at my local parkrun. It was my job to finish last. I walked along with a Lady who was on a weight loss journey. She had trained with a walking group to get to 5K and was walking her very first parkrun. She got great encouragement from a lot of runners as she was passed, and even the first finisher who ran a time of about 18 minutes clapped and gave her encouragement as we passed by the finish line to go on another lap. On the last lap the marshals joined us as we collected each one and there was a lovely supportive group to escort the lady to the finish line and she got a huge round of applause from all the volunteers and anyone who was still hanging around as she crossed the line. It was not in anyway condescending, but genuine support and encouragement. She will be back next week.
It is not for everyone. But I love it, I enjoy the challenge and it gives me a reason to train and run during the week and try to improve, I even managed to lose 3 stone in weight as a result. Since lockdown I continued to run, but without parkrun or races to train for I have slowed down. I was comfortably running 5K in 26 minutes 2 years ago and now I am doing it in about 35 minutes. But time is not important, I am happy to be able to run it all. Now that parkrun is back I am training to improve my time again. I think honestly without parkrun I would have given up running a couple of years ago. Please don't write it off.
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