parkrun

[8.4L 154]

Ashfordian said:

8.4L 154 said:

Terminator X said:

. To pretend that the records are puting people off though is

Park Run CEO Russ Jefferys said:

I truly believe that we have an obligation to continue identifying and removing the barriers that stand in the way. Records were one such example. The fear of finishing last, of being the ‘slowest’, of not being celebrated, of not being as good as everyone else, or not even able to finish at all. None of these things should be a barrier to joining parkrun, but it certainly wasn’t helpful that we were providing prominent links to a considerable amount of data from our home pages that was clearly performance related.

https://www.parkrun.com/blog/news/2024/02/14/an-open-letter-from-russ-jefferys-ceo-parkrun-global/

That is a load of claptrap from Parkrun. It's just spinning the situation they have created and the gullible believe it.

Parkrun has always supported those at the back of the field way more than those at the front. They even introduced the ParkWalk initiative recently.

On the one hand you say the statement is claptrap for the gullible, then go on to say parkrun have always favoured the back of the field over the front which is exactly what this policy is doing and the statement claims its intended to do.

[andyA700]

Zigster said:

andyA700 said:

You could have Googled "biological passport" but obviously that is beyond you, so you try to be sarky about it. Obviousy, when people try to cheat - taking drugs, men prdetending to be women etc., you take measures to counter that.

https://www.wada-ama.org/en/athlete-biological-pas...

You only have to consider the case of Caster Semenya to realise the issue is not simple to resolve.

I and others have always been consistent, in the view that Caster Semenya and other athletes who have been through a male puberty, should not be able to compete in the women's category. All three runners on the winners podium at the 2016 Rio Olympics women's 800m - Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui shared the same 46 XY DSD, which makes them male. Francine Niyonsaba, holds every Burundi women's national track record from 400m to 10,000m. No other athlete in history has ever accomplished that feat, so there is obviously a very simple explanation for it.

[john2443]

Sorry, haven't had time to read all the posts, the amount of stuff in the media has rather overwhelmed me and I've stopped reading/listening!

But

Someone said:

"parkrun push their results data through to British Athletics where all results are recorded in the powerof10 and Run Britain websites.

I believe that POT and RB 'suck' the results from parkrun rather than parkrun 'blow' it to them.



Also (this may have been covered already) I think the objection from womens rights group isn't just about trans people (even though that's the thing in the headlines) it's that any of us could register as female (or 85-90) and set records; they want parkrun to stop people self selecting their gender - how you do that I have no idea, it's not practical to check 9,000,000 registered runners, and even if they employed an army of people, how do you check? Birth certificates can be photoshopped and checking for the presence/absence of a cock and Adam's apple isn't going to go down well

Trans people, and any one else, have the option to register as Other or Prefer not to say but there's no way to force them to chose one of those.

I suspect that .001% of the population is trans and .001% of those run and .001% of those might set a record, so in round term there's 2/10ths of bugger all chance that the 100s of records they claim to be set by men are by trans men, they're more likely 'real' men who because of fat fingers or thinking it doesn't matter or that it's a bit of a lark to register as a girl and set records.



Anyway. lets just get to the park/prom/field wherever tomorrow and enjoy it

[Zigster]

andyA700 said:

Zigster said:

andyA700 said:

You could have Googled "biological passport" but obviously that is beyond you, so you try to be sarky about it. Obviousy, when people try to cheat - taking drugs, men prdetending to be women etc., you take measures to counter that.

https://www.wada-ama.org/en/athlete-biological-pas...

You only have to consider the case of Caster Semenya to realise the issue is not simple to resolve.

I and others have always been consistent, in the view that Caster Semenya and other athletes who have been through a male puberty, should not be able to compete in the women's category. All three runners on the winners podium at the 2016 Rio Olympics women's 800m - Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui shared the same 46 XY DSD, which makes them male. Francine Niyonsaba, holds every Burundi women's national track record from 400m to 10,000m. No other athlete in history has ever accomplished that feat, so there is obviously a very simple explanation for it.

But makes it pretty clear that it isn’t simple to resolve, no? And hugely disproportionate for a Saturday morning fun run in the local park regardless of your views on addressing it as an elite, Olympic level.

[Randy Winkman]

Zigster said:

andyA700 said:

Zigster said:

andyA700 said:

You could have Googled "biological passport" but obviously that is beyond you, so you try to be sarky about it. Obviousy, when people try to cheat - taking drugs, men prdetending to be women etc., you take measures to counter that.

https://www.wada-ama.org/en/athlete-biological-pas...

You only have to consider the case of Caster Semenya to realise the issue is not simple to resolve.

I and others have always been consistent, in the view that Caster Semenya and other athletes who have been through a male puberty, should not be able to compete in the women's category. All three runners on the winners podium at the 2016 Rio Olympics women's 800m - Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui shared the same 46 XY DSD, which makes them male. Francine Niyonsaba, holds every Burundi women's national track record from 400m to 10,000m. No other athlete in history has ever accomplished that feat, so there is obviously a very simple explanation for it.

But makes it pretty clear that it isn’t simple to resolve, no? And hugely disproportionate for a Saturday morning fun run in the local park regardless of your views on addressing it as an elite, Olympic level.

I'm a very keen athletics fan and share AndyA700s concern about the things he lists in his post. Nevertheless, it's Parkrun we are talking about rather than elite competition and I'm not sure that most participants want more formality, bureaucracy and the additional cost that would bring. Make no mistake I'd rather transgender women didn't tick the "female" box but I'm not surprised that some do and I'm not sure what can be done about it other than not have the gender categories.

Edited by Randy Winkman on Friday 16th February 19:36

[Laira]

Despite all this controversy, good to be back this week after missing last weeks, haven’t done all that much practice or exercise in general this week but 67th out of what looked to be another 600-700 attendees feels ok. Fair play to the 10 or so year old kid who gave me a spanking on the final sprint!

[MesoForm]

Got my result email through at 10:13 this morning - only 16 minutes after the last of the 330 runners had finished!

[ben5575]

After a late night and a kebab, I got up this morning, went back to bed, then got up again and went, promptly knocking 30s off my PB .

[madbadger]

Did my 250th venue today at the lovely Holyrood parkrun. A one lapper round Arthur’s Seat. Super scenic.
Was running with my dog and a friend so no time pressure. Really enjoyed it.

[Randy Winkman]

madbadger said:

Did my 250th venue today at the lovely Holyrood parkrun. A one lapper round Arthur’s Seat. Super scenic.
Was running with my dog and a friend so no time pressure. Really enjoyed it.

Good stuff. That sounds to me like what Parkrun is all about.

[Cybertronian]

madbadger said:

Did my 250th venue today at the lovely Holyrood parkrun. A one lapper round Arthur’s Seat. Super scenic.
Was running with my dog and a friend so no time pressure. Really enjoyed it.

Congratulations for making it to the Freyne Club!

[RizzoTheRat]

According to my garmin, Mole Valley has about 45 times the ascent I'm used to at my home parkrun. Nice views though.

[Stephanie Plum]

Mole Valley is where I’m an RD. I wasn’t there today though I was undertaking a spot of tourism. Sorry to have missed you

[RizzoTheRat]

I was slightly disappointed though, last time I did a run there they had wine stops on the route

[Mark Lewis]

I'm hearing, from a few different places, of men that were planing to run as women to prove a point ... before the rule change (as has been done in a couple of weight lifting meets by guys annoyed at women loosing to trans athletes). Had Parkrun tried to police that in any way it would have turned into a farce. IMO they did they only thing they could under the circumstances.

[Abbott]

Perhaps the best plan would be to do what we currently do in Paris RunPark.
As Parkrun is still formally banned a core group of us still turn up at 9 o'clock on Saturday morning and run together. There is no official time keeping. We all keep track of our own times and enjoy running together along with a coffee and croissant after.

Edit for clarity: Ban is by Parkrun HQ not the french authorities

Edited by Abbott on Sunday 18th February 14:37

[smn159]

Or maybe a better plan is to just do parkrun, which isn't banned in the UK, and ignore the culture warriors

[5pen]

madbadger said:

Did my 250th venue today at the lovely Holyrood parkrun. A one lapper round Arthur’s Seat. Super scenic.
Was running with my dog and a friend so no time pressure. Really enjoyed it.

250 venues is incredible - well done! I saw a stat recently about the runners who have visited more than 250 venues - from memory, I think it was fewer than 200 folk worldwide.

[madbadger]

5pen said:

madbadger said:

Did my 250th venue today at the lovely Holyrood parkrun. A one lapper round Arthur’s Seat. Super scenic.
Was running with my dog and a friend so no time pressure. Really enjoyed it.

250 venues is incredible - well done! I saw a stat recently about the runners who have visited more than 250 venues - from memory, I think it was fewer than 200 folk worldwide.

There used to be a most events table that tracked it.

Based on where I was on it on 249 venues I believe I am the 157th person in the world to get there. Which is quite fun as I don't think I have ever been 157th in the world at anything else.

[Master Bean]

I was 30 seconds off my target time this morning but managed first place in my age group. Yippee.