parkrun

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lost in espace

6,136 posts

206 months

Saturday 26th July 2014
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New Parkrun coming to Hertford, on an old quarry site. A bit cross country and should be interesting, our nearest is St Albans. First run on 11 October, 10th anniversary of the first Parkrun. Should be lots of Parkrun tourists there.

wemorgan

3,578 posts

177 months

Sunday 27th July 2014
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Banbury Parkrun is beginning on 27th September. Course details are on their Facebook page.

Tycho

11,554 posts

272 months

Sunday 27th July 2014
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My 8 year old son and I did our 1st parkrun yesterday in Reading. We ran a 32.18 and really had a lot of fun. Came in 211th of 250 after starting at the back. He can't wait to get his 10th run t shirt.

lost in espace

6,136 posts

206 months

Saturday 2nd August 2014
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St Albans parkrun "smashed", well my PB down from 20:54 to 20:15. Very happy about this. Stronglifts 5x5 seems to be helping, along with the low carb/high fat diet. Sub 20 mins seems possible!

RizzoTheRat

25,085 posts

191 months

Saturday 2nd August 2014
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Damnit, equaled my PB curse

New one starting up in Woking in a couple of weeks.

sammyboy

394 posts

208 months

Monday 4th August 2014
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Parkrun Southend was cancelled halfway of the first lap due to an unexploded bomb found, I was on for a PB as well!


ED209

5,740 posts

243 months

Saturday 9th August 2014
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2.36 for me at Blackhill today, really happy with that as only 30 seconds off my best, my fastest this year and a full 2 minutes faster than my last awful effort.

barwea

123 posts

172 months

Wednesday 13th August 2014
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ED209 said:
2.36 for me at Blackhill today, really happy with that as only 30 seconds off my best, my fastest this year and a full 2 minutes faster than my last awful effort.
And a massive world record to boot!

I've got back into running recently and have worked my "PB" down to 21.07 this week at Pollok (Glasgow). Still a good 2+ minutes off my best road 5k time, but that was 14 years ago when I was still a junior!

There have been quite a lot of guest runners recently, owing to the Commonwealth Games being on and one of the volunteer campsites being beside the park. The previous week the Australian Women's Marathon team ran, including bronze medallist Jess Trengrove who finished 2 minutes behind me (she was trying, honest!) http://www.parkrun.org.uk/pollok/results/athletehi...

ED209

5,740 posts

243 months

Thursday 14th August 2014
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barwea said:
ED209 said:
2.36 for me at Blackhill today, really happy with that as only 30 seconds off my best, my fastest this year and a full 2 minutes faster than my last awful effort.
And a massive world record to boot!

I've got back into running recently and have worked my "PB" down to 21.07 this week at Pollok (Glasgow). Still a good 2+ minutes off my best road 5k time, but that was 14 years ago when I was still a junior!

There have been quite a lot of guest runners recently, owing to the Commonwealth Games being on and one of the volunteer campsites being beside the park. The previous week the Australian Women's Marathon team ran, including bronze medallist Jess Trengrove who finished 2 minutes behind me (she was trying, honest!) http://www.parkrun.org.uk/pollok/results/athletehi...
21.36

I was up Glasgow working at the games and had hoped to taken in a park run. Unfortunately i was working on the Saturday morning.

barwea

123 posts

172 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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ED209 said:
21.36

I was up Glasgow working at the games and had hoped to taken in a park run. Unfortunately i was working on the Saturday morning.
Good time. That's a shame you couldn't make it to one of the runs. What events were you working at?

RizzoTheRat

25,085 posts

191 months

Sunday 17th August 2014
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290 runners at the inaugural Woking parkrun yesterday. Not a bad turnout.

john2443

Original Poster:

6,325 posts

210 months

Wednesday 17th September 2014
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Bits and pieces of parkrun news if you don't follow the websites/facebook and emails.

Great North run made a fuss about reaching a million runners this year after 25 years, meanwhile parkrun UK passed 5 million last weekend (6.5m I think worldwide) and at current numbers UK will have the next million runs by December.

Last weekend parkrun world had 78469 runners, much more than any other running event, although it doesn't look like there will be the 100k that some Aussies are trying to encourage for the 10th anniversary on 4 Oct. Someone sent me a facebook link thing for a 100k group but I never took it too seriously!

A few of us from Brighton are going to Bushy for the anniversary, I don't imagine that there will be much chance of a fast run but we think it's worth it for the experience. Might take a Thermos, don't imagine the café queue will be small either.

If you're there look out for me, I'll be wearing a parkrun 100 shirt, shouldn't be difficult to spot wink

EdJ

1,284 posts

194 months

Wednesday 17th September 2014
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john2443 said:
Bits and pieces of parkrun news if you don't follow the websites/facebook and emails.

Great North run made a fuss about reaching a million runners this year after 25 years, meanwhile parkrun UK passed 5 million last weekend (6.5m I think worldwide) and at current numbers UK will have the next million runs by December.

Last weekend parkrun world had 78469 runners, much more than any other running event, although it doesn't look like there will be the 100k that some Aussies are trying to encourage for the 10th anniversary on 4 Oct. Someone sent me a facebook link thing for a 100k group but I never took it too seriously!

A few of us from Brighton are going to Bushy for the anniversary, I don't imagine that there will be much chance of a fast run but we think it's worth it for the experience. Might take a Thermos, don't imagine the café queue will be small either.

If you're there look out for me, I'll be wearing a parkrun 100 shirt, shouldn't be difficult to spot wink
We were told last Saturday that the BBC will be filming at Bushy Park parkrun this weekend, for a piece that will go out on the 4th October anniversary. Given that we've had nearly record turnouts these last couple of weeks, I expect there will be a huge turnout.

john2443

Original Poster:

6,325 posts

210 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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Well, another bit of news this week, parkrun branded kit for sale http://www.wiggle.co.uk/parkrun/

There have been requests off and on for ages about being able to buy this sort of stuff, so I guess that's been noted.

In a way I'm not sure if this marks the end of the nicely amateurish phase of parkrun or if it's the beginning of another good phase.

Having said that, it's not going to make a difference in the parks and if it gets some money in to support events it's good, I guess that the sponsors are being asked for more money as we've grown there comes a point at which they won't pay any more.

RizzoTheRat

25,085 posts

191 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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A sensible and inevitable move IMO, as you say it must be increasingly difficult to fund through sponsorship as it gets bigger. Since they stopped doing the 100 jackets (I've only just hit 50 but the Mrs managed to get her 100 in just in time to get a jacket) I've been wondering why they don't sell them. Most people would happily pay a few quid for their 50/100/250 t-shirt too.

Hopefully it'll just be the find raising side that's getting more business like but as the number increase the results processing must be getting more and more tricky and expensive. They upgraded the system a few months back which must have cost a few quid and hopefully will cope the increased numbers for a while yet.

john2443

Original Poster:

6,325 posts

210 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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I'm sure that people would pay for their 10,50 etc shirts but the fundamental things are staying, free runs, free shirts etc

Full story is here (for anyone who doesn't read parkrun emails! http://www.parkrun.com/news/

Roger645

1,728 posts

246 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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john2443 said:
Bits and pieces of parkrun news if you don't follow the websites/facebook and emails.

Great North run made a fuss about reaching a million runners this year after 25 years, meanwhile parkrun UK passed 5 million last weekend (6.5m I think worldwide) and at current numbers UK will have the next million runs by December.

Last weekend parkrun world had 78469 runners, much more than any other running event, although it doesn't look like there will be the 100k that some Aussies are trying to encourage for the 10th anniversary on 4 Oct. Someone sent me a facebook link thing for a 100k group but I never took it too seriously!

A few of us from Brighton are going to Bushy for the anniversary, I don't imagine that there will be much chance of a fast run but we think it's worth it for the experience. Might take a Thermos, don't imagine the café queue will be small either.

If you're there look out for me, I'll be wearing a parkrun 100 shirt, shouldn't be difficult to spot wink
Wonder if it will break the 1500 mark for the anniversary?

Cybertronian

1,516 posts

162 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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john2443 said:
In a way I'm not sure if this marks the end of the nicely amateurish phase of parkrun or if it's the beginning of another good phase.
A friend and I regularly talk about Parkrun being a victim of its own success. My local event is despised by the local council along with other people that use the park between 9am and 9:50am, purely due to the sheer numbers of us now (close to 600). I'm a fairly regular volunteer and get my ear chewed off from time to time by dog walkers foolish enough to use a narrow-ish path that makes up part of the course.

Things like the club t-shirts, I'm sure even if they charged people an admin/handling fee to cover basic costs, people would pay it if they really wanted the t-shirt. It would also ensure that people picked them up - I earned my 100 back at the end of July but haven't been around to collect it...

Roger645

1,728 posts

246 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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Cybertronian said:
john2443 said:
In a way I'm not sure if this marks the end of the nicely amateurish phase of parkrun or if it's the beginning of another good phase.
A friend and I regularly talk about Parkrun being a victim of its own success. My local event is despised by the local council along with other people that use the park between 9am and 9:50am, purely due to the sheer numbers of us now (close to 600). I'm a fairly regular volunteer and get my ear chewed off from time to time by dog walkers foolish enough to use a narrow-ish path that makes up part of the course.

Things like the club t-shirts, I'm sure even if they charged people an admin/handling fee to cover basic costs, people would pay it if they really wanted the t-shirt. It would also ensure that people picked them up - I earned my 100 back at the end of July but haven't been around to collect it...
The intolerance of people towards other people doing things that mildly inconvenience them is not just a parkrun phenomenon unfortunately. Managing the money for the shirts would become a much bigger issue than managing the shirts, currently the shirts are all handled by a couple in the running club I belong to and they have enough to deal with, without adding money into the equation.

john2443

Original Poster:

6,325 posts

210 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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Roger645 said:
Wonder if it will break the 1500 mark for the anniversary?
Wouldn't be at all surprised.

Cybertronian said:
A friend and I regularly talk about Parkrun being a victim of its own success. My local event is despised by the local council along with other people that use the park between 9am and 9:50am, purely due to the sheer numbers of us now (close to 600). I'm a fairly regular volunteer and get my ear chewed off from time to time by dog walkers foolish enough to use a narrow-ish path that makes up part of the course.
The thing is that we only fill the park up for those 50 mins, the other 167hrs 10 mins of the week we aren't there - if I knew 600 dog walkers used the park in one particular hour, I'd go running at a different time! Our park's big enough that they can walk the dogs in a different bit of it anyway.

The oddest complaint we've had was on the day before Brighton Marathon, parkrun at 9 followed by kids mile races, 2000 kids in 20 races over the day. During parkrun a RUNNER was moaning to one of our volunteers that he couldn't have his usual run because the park was full of....err....runnners.