Discussion
I know there's a running thread, and parkrun has been mentioned, but I just feel that because it is such a brilliant concept, it deserves a thread of its own.
If you don't know, it's a timed, free to enter, 5k, generally 9am Saturday morning event that's held in loads of parks in the UK, 2 in Oz and 5 in Denmark. You don't have to enter in advance, just turn up on the day (providing you've registered online).
Ours (Hove) now gets about 400 runners with times ranging from 15 to 45 minutes, and ages from 10 to 70, so if you aren't very fit (yet) you won't be embarassed by your lack of pace.
To find your local run - http://www.parkrun.com/events/uk
If you don't know, it's a timed, free to enter, 5k, generally 9am Saturday morning event that's held in loads of parks in the UK, 2 in Oz and 5 in Denmark. You don't have to enter in advance, just turn up on the day (providing you've registered online).
Ours (Hove) now gets about 400 runners with times ranging from 15 to 45 minutes, and ages from 10 to 70, so if you aren't very fit (yet) you won't be embarassed by your lack of pace.
To find your local run - http://www.parkrun.com/events/uk
Edited by john2443 on Saturday 28th May 19:55
I'm a big fan of parkrun and an active member of the local community, where it sort of doubles as a running club for me.
Regularly run at Cannon Hill in Birmingham, along with the Cardiff and Newport events when I'm visiting the in-laws. Fancy a pilgrimage run to Bushy Park one day where I still find it incredible that they regularly receive more participants than some races I've entered over the years.
Regularly run at Cannon Hill in Birmingham, along with the Cardiff and Newport events when I'm visiting the in-laws. Fancy a pilgrimage run to Bushy Park one day where I still find it incredible that they regularly receive more participants than some races I've entered over the years.
I've still got Bushy on my to do list just to see what it's like, typical turn out around 800, record about 1100!
I think Bushy wins the prize for "Worst attempt to reduce numbers by starting another event" - when they were getting 200 they started Wimbledon because they thought they were getting too big, and then another nearly another 300 events started, and they still get massive numbers!
We've had a similar thing in Brighton (on a smaller scale) - Hove park were getting 400 a week, we thought that was too many so started Preston park (only a mile away) and we now get about 550 running in the city every week. Starting a new event doesn't seem to take people away from the old one, it just draws more new people in.
Just checked the figures and the Hove average attendance over the last 10 weeks dropped from 385 last year to 381 this year, and Preston averaged 163.
Meanwhile, you might have noticed last week that the results came out quicker, the IT guys made some changes to speed things up.
Edit - Yay! It's parkrunday tomorrow!
(and Kop Hill Climb on Sunday )
I think Bushy wins the prize for "Worst attempt to reduce numbers by starting another event" - when they were getting 200 they started Wimbledon because they thought they were getting too big, and then another nearly another 300 events started, and they still get massive numbers!
We've had a similar thing in Brighton (on a smaller scale) - Hove park were getting 400 a week, we thought that was too many so started Preston park (only a mile away) and we now get about 550 running in the city every week. Starting a new event doesn't seem to take people away from the old one, it just draws more new people in.
Just checked the figures and the Hove average attendance over the last 10 weeks dropped from 385 last year to 381 this year, and Preston averaged 163.
Meanwhile, you might have noticed last week that the results came out quicker, the IT guys made some changes to speed things up.
Edit - Yay! It's parkrunday tomorrow!
(and Kop Hill Climb on Sunday )Edited by john2443 on Friday 20th September 10:33
Another fan here. I do one every couple of weeks, home by 10, no faffing about like in some events.
Dont forget to volunteer to marshall a few times a year. I should research who invented Parkrun , they deserve an honour, Im sure Parkrun has done more for the nations fitness than the Olympic legacy!
Dont forget to volunteer to marshall a few times a year. I should research who invented Parkrun , they deserve an honour, Im sure Parkrun has done more for the nations fitness than the Olympic legacy!
Jimboka said:
Another fan here. I do one every couple of weeks, home by 10, no faffing about like in some events.
Dont forget to volunteer to marshall a few times a year. I should research who invented parkrun , they deserve an honour, Im sure parkrun has done more for the nations fitness than the Olympic legacy!
Paul Sinton-Hewitt (known as PSH in parkrun circles) invented it, could have made a mint (40,000+ runners a week, 600,000+ registered, charge everyone a few quid or sell it to adidas = £lots) but he gave it away as a non profit organisation. Other people have suggested that he is put forward for an honour. This may or may not already have been done, I couldn't possibly comment Dont forget to volunteer to marshall a few times a year. I should research who invented parkrun , they deserve an honour, Im sure parkrun has done more for the nations fitness than the Olympic legacy!
I agree that it does a lot more for fitness than many other initiatives, I love that there are super speedy people eg Andy Baddeley, Olympian, ran Hove a couple of weeks ago just for fun (and a course record!) as he was down for the weekend for a wedding and the same week one of our, err, less slim and fit, runners was over the moon about getting sub 40mins and she got a bigger cheer than the first finisher!
john2443 said:
I love that there are super speedy people
Not sure who this geezer is but he did quite wellhttp://www.parkrun.org.uk/bushy/results/athletehis...
I shamelessly stole the link from the Running thread.
944fan said:
Not sure who this geezer is but he did quite wellhttp://www.parkrun.org.uk/bushy/results/athletehis...
I shamelessly stole the link from the Running thread.
MC Bodge said:
The course is a mixture of flat, former railway line (gravelled a few years ago)and woodland path, with some steps and short inclines.
Sounds good! Did Penny Flash today again though, had a horrible nights sleep and didn't fancy zooming up the 62.Will have to be next time.
So, how's this thread going to work going forward? Do we put all parkrun stuff in here instead?
Had a belter of a race this morning against a sort of training buddy of mine. Went all the way down to a smackdown finish, where he pipped me to the finish line by less than a second. Thankfully, the timer has rounded him up so we have the same finish time of 19:18, a PB for each of us.
Had a belter of a race this morning against a sort of training buddy of mine. Went all the way down to a smackdown finish, where he pipped me to the finish line by less than a second. Thankfully, the timer has rounded him up so we have the same finish time of 19:18, a PB for each of us.
Halb said:
A thread's only as good as the traffic it gets!
Since I only run in Parkrun (10ks) this thread is preferable for me than trawling through lots of stuff that is not that relevant.
Makes sense to me too, I doubt I could keep up with most of the people on the running thread on my bicycle Since I only run in Parkrun (10ks) this thread is preferable for me than trawling through lots of stuff that is not that relevant.
I only started running this year with the C25K programme, and then started doing the Frimley Lodge parkrun. Due to having to be a few other places for various things at weekends I've done Basingstoke, Winchester and Guildford in the last few weeks. Not quite broken 30 mins yet.
Gassing Station | Sports | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff