So back from holiday, my son and I did our first Parkrun in a few weeks today. Although the sun was shining it was much cooler, which made it considerably easier to run than when we last did it in late July. PBs for both of us, son was 2 seconds off 30 minutes, he was very frustrated. According to Parkrun I still have 1 min 48 seconds to get to 30 minutes but according to Strava it’s 11 seconds. I’m going to have to use Parkrun timing for now because with all the new school term stuff I have to get there is no way I can treat myself to a tattoo yet!
We also managed to persuade my eldest son to come along in the hope of interesting him in volunteering. One of his school friends does it so he came along to see what goes on and he watched us run our first lap. He’ll never run it but I hope we can persuade him to volunteer next time.
Meanwhile, back at home, my husband today did Week 1 Run 1 of C25K - yippee! The local running club are holding C25K running sessions from next week and he thought he’d have a go at Week 1 this week to get into the swing of things before he joins it. We’ll make a runner of him yet 🏃🏻♂️🏃🏻♂️🏃🏻♂️
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TailChaser
Graduate
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Thankyou UnfitNoMore 😁, I’d love for you to win that bet 🤣 Can’t see it happening unfortunately, even if girls are involved, he just won’t do any sport. Hubby, however, will get through C25K no problem I reckon, despite allegedly hating running 😂
Hehe... I marshalled today, if I’d been 25 years younger I’d have abandoned my post and done a little running! Seriously though, when the whole family can, he might just see the smiles and give it a go.
Sounds like a teenflick plot. The reality is that few teen girls do parkrun. At my local one there were 4 female runners in the 14-20 age range out of 450+ runners. Slim pickings I'm afraid!
Strava isn't timing the same thing. Parkrun timers time from when the starter says GO until you cross the finish line. Strava offers various different times for the same workout and you don't say which one you're using. The time on my Fitbit is usually within two seconds of the Parkrun time, but Strava (which gets its data from the same Fitbit) offers various options depending on how you set it up and isn't necessarily timing exactly the same thing. It also depends whether you start it manually or rely on it noticing itself when you start andstop.
I just use Strava on my iPhone. I start and stop it manually. I don’t trust my Fitbit as it mucked up recording my first Parkrun. Strava recorded the 5k of the run as a PR at 30:11 so I’m presuming it’s correct. Does that make sense?
Yes and no. The 5k isn't necessarily the entire parkrun as although the course is accurately measured, you will not have run the absolutely ideal line so if Strava is measuring the course accurately (i.e. there are no issues with the GPS signal) you will have completed 5k before you crossed the finish line. Also depending on your settings, Strava sometimes autopauses if it thinks you've stopped moving. However if after taking all that into account you really think your parkrun time is wrong you should email them at the address on your results email (tonight or early tomorrow) because a discrepancy of more than a minute is not going to be a reaction time error - it would mean you had been given somebody else's time. It sometimes happens if somebody doesn't follow the instructions at the finish and that causes people to be given the wrong finish tokens. So if you are sure your Strava time is actually the time from the start to the finish and you're not looking at the 5k time or the movement time by mistake, do contact them ASAP because other people may have the wrong times too. Be polite though, they are all unpaid volunteers
Thanks Arthur, that’s very helpful. I don’t think there are any GPS or Parkrun timing issues. I had 31:49 in total on Strava so that is only out by a second, and the 5k was before the finish line. I guess I’ve done a 30 minute 5k now then! 🎉
Aye a discrepancy of one second is easily put down to human reaction time and it would be normal for you to cross the line then stop the timer whereas the parkrun timers would stop theirs as you were crossing the lineso it's to be expected that yours is a fraction slower. My Strava 5k PB is about ten seconds less than my parkrun PB despite being done at the same parkrun. A discrepancy of more than a minute seems a lot though, but maybe your parkrun is busier than mine and it takes longer to reach the start line and/or you have to make more detours from the ideal line, I don't know. Strava would try to estimate your best 5k rather than your first 5k so if you were going slowly because of a crowded start it might cut that out of the 5k time and added in your run through the finish funnel instead if that was faster. Anyway, looks like there's no issue with your parkrun time which is pretty good in any case so enjoy your achievement
Wow, you're going to end up with a running family. Great that your hubby is making a start on C25K - it won't be long before he's running those parkruns with you 😊 Hope younger son knocks those two seconds off his time next week!
Well done to you and your youngest TailChaser- that’s fast. It’s great that OH has been encouraged to join you too. Don’t worry about your oldest , it took me 60 years to want to run but I got there in the end. Volunteering would be good 👏
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