parkrun

[ukaskew]

ED209 said:

Doing time keeping today, some nugget crossed the line twice cocking up the results. Why do people do this? They are told every week not to do it.

How?! We have a funnel at Southwick, no way you can finish twice unless you want to deliberately mess things up for the hell of it.

[MOBB]

When I finish I usually go back to find the wife, and run the last 50m or so to help her

Make damn sure I don't go into the funnel again, I bet some do this and don't think of the consequences

[john2443]

Crossing the line twice isn't a problem as long as you take a finish token both times, you just show up as unknown the second time (as long as you don't scan again). They're officially known as Double Crossers, which is easier to say than Funnel Ducker!

[Halb]

It's annoying I guess.

Not as annoying as the fkwits to run against the crowd running back for whomever.

[john2443]

Today's annoyance was that the first runner cut a big corner off despite the marshal telling him!

Conveniently he didn't scan so we didn't have to make a decision!

[KTF]

Smitters said:

Fair play - I was a barcode scanner this week and I really enjoyed it. Great to see all the runners finish and a nice reminder that while the guys up front might be tuning up for a half marathon or something, this is still a massive achievement for a lot of the finishers. We had a young girl who's building up her laps until she can do the whole thing but still wanted to run the finish chute and a woman who ran the entire thing for the first time, a load of first-timers and lots of familiar faces. I really would recommend volunteering.

Yes, when you see the mid pack, etc come in, you realise that they are flogging themselves just as much as the people who finish nearer the front as well as other stuff you don't see when you run it.

It's a shame that most people who run don't seem to volunteer as it is rewarding and without them the parkrun wouldn't happen.

[KTF]

john2443 said:

Crossing the line twice isn't a problem as long as you take a finish token both times, you just show up as unknown the second time (as long as you don't scan again). They're officially known as Double Crossers, which is easier to say than Funnel Ducker!

Yes, anyone who goes past the finish gets beeped and a token. If they don't want the token, put it in your pocket and throw it in the bucket at the end.

[Trabi601]

I managed my best time since May today - but still couldn't crack 31 minutes (only managed a couple of sub 30s this year and I'm still a way off my 28.something PB). Then had half an hour rest and did it all again as we'd also organised a charity 5k for a local lad with leukemia. (He's having experimental treatment in London, but his family are struggling with travel costs - poor lad has been in remission twice and he's only in his early 20s).

Marlow half marathon next week. Only my 2nd half, so I'll probably just volunteer at parkrun - either take the photos or scan the barcodes. Unless we need a tail runner.

Wish I could go back 25 years and tell myself that smoking would nearly kill me - then I wouldn't be beating myself up trying to get a sub 30.

[RizzoTheRat]

My highest ever finish position yesterday, coming in 5th. Admittedly I was over 3 minutes behind the guy in front, and there were only 9 runners, but I'm still counting it.

As an additional bonus due to the limited number of parkrun in France, you only have to do 2 different ones to get in thier tourist leader board, so I'm on there too after Paris last week and Bordeaux yesterday

[Halb]

RizzoTheRat said:

My highest ever finish position yesterday, coming in 5th. Admittedly I was over 3 minutes behind the guy in front, and there were only 9 runners, but I'm still counting it.

As an additional bonus due to the limited number of parkrun in France, you only have to do 2 different ones to get in thier tourist leader board, so I'm on there too after Paris last week and Bordeaux yesterday

[KTF]

Halb said:

RizzoTheRat said:

My highest ever finish position yesterday, coming in 5th. Admittedly I was over 3 minutes behind the guy in front, and there were only 9 runners, but I'm still counting it.

As an additional bonus due to the limited number of parkrun in France, you only have to do 2 different ones to get in thier tourist leader board, so I'm on there too after Paris last week and Bordeaux yesterday

And 5 volunteers as well. The other Bordeaux one seemed to have 3 runners this week!

[Halb]

It reminded me of the famous, Open All Hours sketch.

[RizzoTheRat]

Damnit, we should have gone to the other Bordeaux one, I'd have been second and the wife fifth

There might have been 5 volunteers but they all ran, the fastest bloke carried the stopwatch There was a 10th runner too who must have only done one or two of the 3 laps. Friendly bunch, one of the others there was a Brit who's run it a few times as he has a second home in the area, but numbers are always really small it seems.

Did Paris Bois de Boulogne the week before and I think the majority of the field were English tourists. New one started in Paris this week, was originally going to be last week so we would have managed an overseas inaugural which would have been nice. Takes me to 4 overseas now

[KTF]

RizzoTheRat said:

There might have been 5 volunteers but they all ran, the fastest bloke carried the stopwatch

That is ridiculous although a novel way to make use of a timekeeper

[Trabi601]

KTF said:

RizzoTheRat said:

There might have been 5 volunteers but they all ran, the fastest bloke carried the stopwatch

That is ridiculous although a novel way to make use of a timekeeper

When my 'home' parkrun was struggling a few years back, it was often the case that the fastest runners had to take on volunteering roles, too - not sure we ever struggled so much that one of the runners had the stopwatch - but we definitely had the 'winner' doing barcode duties.

[RizzoTheRat]

I didn't think to ask what happens if someone overtakes him, I have a vision of them handing over like a relay baton

[ED209]

Trabi601 said:

KTF said:

RizzoTheRat said:

There might have been 5 volunteers but they all ran, the fastest bloke carried the stopwatch

That is ridiculous although a novel way to make use of a timekeeper

When my 'home' parkrun was struggling a few years back, it was often the case that the fastest runners had to take on volunteering roles, too - not sure we ever struggled so much that one of the runners had the stopwatch - but we definitely had the 'winner' doing barcode duties.

This sounds workable, if you have fast people who are willing to volunteer.

One of the fastest at my local run has done 130 odd park runs and not volunteered once. Really annoys me.

[Halb]

ED209 said:

One of the fastest at my local run has done 130 odd park runs and not volunteered once. Really annoys me.

How do you know?

[ED209]

Halb said:

ED209 said:

One of the fastest at my local run has done 130 odd park runs and not volunteered once. Really annoys me.

How do you know?

Because the park run site tells you how many runs someone has done and how many times they have volunteered.

Also from observing that he has never volunteered once in the 80 ish times I have either ran or volunteered.

[Cybertronian]

ED209 said:

One of the fastest at my local run has done 130 odd park runs and not volunteered once. Really annoys me.

We have a few like that at my local. One guy's done some 200+ runs and has only volunteered twice in the 5 years since joining.

I remember really liking somebody's idea on here to make all club t-shirts also require a certain number of volunteer occasions to be eligible for redemption.