Our local ParkRun is 3 laps of quite a tight park path. It’s great fun and I love it (got a new PB this morning).

I appreciate it’s for fun and not a race etc, but a lot of people want to improve each week. A growing problem is people setting off way ahead of their expected times and slowing everything down behind them. This morning was the worst so far, I’m only doing around 30 mins at the moment but I passed over 50 people on the first lap and by the 2nd there was loads of people walking who had started way in front. We have the timing markers and I always line up where I should and then watch people who are obviously not going to be doing 24 minutes wandering past, people with young kids, prams etc. It’s very frustrating and, may I suggest, a little selfish

​

Its already an expensive place to fly there to visit and do parkrun. Hoping the locals will keep it going for hardcore parkrun tourists.

Lord Howe Island parkrun due to begin 14th November

I love to volunteer and particularly enjoy pacing; the delight on runners' faces when they hit their PB and I've had a small part to play in helping them do so is fantastic!

This morning however I hit a snag. Some runners saw that I was about to overtake them and then actively moved into my path. It wasn't many, but it was multiple times, and was often on a narrower section of track where simply moving out past them wasn't easy.

I fully understand not wanting to be behind your target, but holding up the pacer isn't going to alter whether you are or not - the clock doesn't stop just because I'm not there when I'm meant to be!

What it can do, especially when it happens multiple times, is make my job of being bang on time a thousand times more difficult. This in turn can impact other runners who are targeting the pace I'm meant to be running. This is particularly true for courses that have poor GPS signal, where I'm having to rely on mental arithmetic to keep on track.

So please, allow the pacers through with being impeded deliberately.

Thank you to the amazing team and super charismatic RD at Amsterdamse Bos parkrun today. It was rainy, cold and muddy but we had a ball. Such a beautiful natural course (single lap!) with exactly 100 finishers today 😊

Fun Fact - my letter 'O' was the day after I'd ran a 50-mile ultra

So this was the 2nd time it went to Norwich’s Parkrun at Eaton Park and it was still as lovely of a sight as it was the first time. Last time tho was during a heatwave and i struggled over the line in a little over 39 minutes. This time however was a totally different story! A NEW PB!!!!!!! 32:40, which has also cut off over a minute off of my last PB!!!!!

I notice Australia has a lot of 8am starts, USA has a mix of 8 and 9am, South Africa varies between 7 and 8am depending on season, Europe 9am.
Is it only due to the heat /weather conditions or are there other PR’s that start at different times for an other reason?

That'd be nuts, Google says there are currently 2,358 adult parkruns - which makes it nigh impossible to have achieved unless you did it in the very early days of the org. Curious to know!

I’m coming up to my 25th Park Run and wondered what the process is to order the commemorative T-Shirt? Is there a website we order them from? Also, does Park Run contact you directly to say anything about milestone events?

Thanks in advance!!

When you go to a parkrun and the race director starts telling everyone where people are visiting from and announces parkrun milestones, how do they know?

I’ve been trying to document the different parkruns that I do with my parkrun gang, and then cut the videos down to around 90 seconds to make things short(ish) and sharp!

I was expecting around the 500 mark for this one. The 700+ that turned out made it an interesting half and hour!

I'm volunteering at a parkrun tomorrow as a marshal on the course and the RD posted my full name on the parkrun's Facebook page with all the other volunteers. This wouldn't normally be an issue except I recently had a man stalking me through my strava. He was trying to engineer situations so that I would be aline with him. I reported him to the club we're both in and blocked him on all the socials. I'm afraid to go tomorrow in case he shows up. I have an unusual name so it will be easy for him to tell it's me. I dont want to let them down but also afraid to go.

UPDATE: So I got my brother to come to marshal with me and the strange man never showed yay!

I think I'll ask parkrun hq to update my details so I'm not so findable online. I've blocked him on everything. I don't mind when they release the rota info afterwards. But I was just surprised that they posted it onto Facebook ahead of the event. I understand that the volunteer rota is available online but I think it's less obvious than Facebook.

My strava has always been set to private unless I approve the follower. I received the request to add him as a follower when I joined a new club a few weeks ago and because he was friends with other ppl in the club I naively thought he was ok. Will NOT be making that mistake again! I didn't even realise ppl could send messages on strava. I've disabled that now. I've raised it to the safeguarding lead for that club and they are looking into as he has apparently done this with a few other women in the same club! Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I’ve also made a POV Vlog for the Norwich Parkrun. Here is the link for it: https://youtu.be/X_uyYSVYlMs?is=XNQsDKIiLDpMvDS-

11 down, 70 to go!

Wimbledon Common was beautiful. This was recorded back at the end of August, and was such a delight to see some a bit of rain, greenery and woody trails, after all the weeks of scorched grass parkruns!

I hope you enjoy the video, enjoy your parkrun tomorrow, and I'll catch you next week.

Peace GG.

There's a storm coming this weekend in the UK and Ireland. My friend dropped out from volunteering this week, scared of the storm! Do you think parkruns will go ahead?

Due to changes to the course made by the local council - just thought I’d share this in case anyone was considering going :)

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0JjdkGDvMzn3sn2zoTcAsLVEd5gv2gCgTe7RKoVfmKxzBSs17gDL4L1bjG9uohetwl&id=100072488562665

I'd been trying to get a PB every month, but that wasn't often enough, so I tried every three weeks. But in practice life keeps happening and I only seem to be able to do two weeks or four.

I have seen some people advising against trying to PB every time. I run through the week, but a parkrun PB is my hardest effort when I do one. (I have succeeded each time I've tried, but at my current rate it will take me two or three years until I'm finishing my parkruns before they begin.)

I’m currently travelling around Buckinghamshire doing all the park runs in the county and I think these are all of them (kindly let me know if I missed any):

Aylesbury
Buckingham
Milton Keynes
Church Mead
Wycombe Rye
Linford Wood
Wendover Woods
Higginson, Marlow
Rushmere (not sure if this is actually in Bedfordshire)

Would like to organise my visits by county so was wondering if anyone has a list or a map of parkrun locations and the counties they’re in?

I don’t think the map in the park run app lets you filter by county, only region.

Hi, I started running in the summer and finally feel comfortable enough to try a parkrun!

I would love to make friends and chat to people because I don’t really have many friends as is but I’m also painfully shy. How open would you say you are to chatting with newbies?

My pace is around 30-35 minutes depending on the mood I’m in so I accept I probably won’t be chatting to people on the route but afterwards is there sort of a gaggle of people I can awkwardly approach? I’ve heard they usually go to a cafe afterwards (Alexandra Park) but do you just go there or is there a group that wait at the finish line?

I’m not expecting to make a friend immediately but it would be nice to chat to someone after otherwise I’d just be going home to be alone.

Would love to hear your experiences and if you’d be willing to talk to someone or if you just go for the run then bounce lol

EDIT: So I went today! Stood awkwardly by myself, didn’t talk to anyone except saying thanks to volunteers and left asap because it was raining 🤣 I had fun though and it was a nice change from solo running. I’ll keep doing it and volunteer in future - thanks for all the feedback

Hello! Im spening xmas with the family in torremolinos. Would anyone know whats the possibility of getting a bus to Gibraltar on Boxing day? Or if I rent a car id probably have to rent around 23/12 before closures.

Anyone rented a car before to go Gibraltar parkrun?

Last weekend’s parkrun tourist trip took me to my NENDY and the fairly newish Cofton Park parkrun.
With the entire course on grass and the ground slightly damp underfoot, this was always going to be a tough one. But things got even harder thanks to the side effects I was suffering from the day after my flu jab! 💉😅
Want to know what the course is really like, what to watch out for, and whether Cofton Park is worth adding to your parkrun tourist list?
🎥 Head over to MidPackRunna on YouTube and check out my latest vlog for the full course guide!
#parkrun #parkruntourism #CoftonParkparkrun #MidPackRunna #parkrunvlog

Hi everyone. I’m a big guy and have just started in the last month to try and change my life. I want to make parkrun something that’s part of that. I’ve not run since I was in my twenties. Can I walk or is it really focussed on the running? I’d live to build up and eventually actually be able to carry myself round the course running. Don’t want to embarrass myself

the shoe question pops up here now and then so here's what i'd look at for parkrun specifically. its a 5k, not a marathon, and that changes the answer quite a bit

the course matters more than the shoe

- a lot of parkruns are grass, trail, gravel or mud, not tarmac. the course page on the parkrun site usually says what the surface is, worth a look before you go somewhere new

- road shoes on wet grass in january is like ice skating. if your local one is a muddy lapped course, a cheap trail shoe with proper lugs will do more for your time than any fancy road shoe

- tourists: check the course page before you pack, two pairs if you're not sure

what you can relax about over 5k

- comfort problems that show up at 25 km mostly dont exist over 20 to 40 min. so you can wear whatever feels light and quick, you dont need max cushion for this

- you dont need race shoes. plated shoes are lighter, in the specs i went through the carbon ones are around 60 g lighter per shoe than regular daily trainers (median men's us 9, from brand pages and review sites). nice to have, but nobody "needs" that for a parkrun

- the shoe you train in all week is a totally fine parkrun shoe

what parkrun is actually great for

- testing. if you've got race shoes for a 10k or a half, parkrun is the perfect low stakes place to try them at effort first. its not a race, its a run lol

- trying new shoes before a long run. 5k tells you pretty fast if something rubs

small stuff that bites people

- double knot. untied laces on the second lap is a classic

- cold mornings: shoes feel firmer and toes go numb, a slighly thicker sock helps

- dont wear brand new shoes on a pb attempt, do one or two runs in them first

and the shoe wont make you finish ahead of the guy with the dog anyway