A slight increase in runners yesterday, 374 including at least 3 or 4 forumites
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OK, so it had to happen sometime: a council taking a punt at the ever-growing parkrun brigade.
I am sure most of you will have seen the story in this week's national news.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-36041059
Stoke Gifford Parish Council (Bristol) miffed at the alleged accelerated-destruction being caused to their tarmac paths. :rolleyes:
Lots of commentary on FB as well. Will be interesting to see developments out of this.
Official parkrun response here:
http://www.parkrun.org.uk/news/2016/...arkrun-update/
Good to see you there Ian. You certainly looked (maybe too) warmed up when I spotted you. It's a great route. The hills, even though not big, really make it interesting. 1st in categorie for you, nice one.
A few at the pointy end managed to go the wrong route at the bottom of the first descent on the 2nd lap. They turned left, instead of right. I wondered why the speedy First Lady passed me twice. She Still beat me by 15 seconds. Not a good run today for me. Love the Parkrun though.
Some of you guys would enjoy the Witton one.
It's probably about 75% trail and has just over 200ft of climb per lap on a two lap route.
A couple of months ago I ran down there, did 2 laps warm up, 2 laps in the Parkrun and then a lap to finish off after and clocked up 7.8 miles and 1040ft.
Is that the famous East Lancs mountain running venue Witton?
Do the cable cars run in "summer"?
Select group of forumites at Roundhay this morning :)
Thread resurrection :)
Just interested to know if those who originally thought parkrun was detrimental are still finding that to be true? Has parkrun taken people away from races or drawn people in?
We don't have fell races down south, but do have trail races on the Downs, locally the situation is that club membership has gone up and races (club, charity and business organised) rarely don't fill the start list.
I'm not saying that this is due to parkrun, it may have happened anyway, but parkrun hasn't stopped people joining / entering.
You can tell there's a race weekend from parkrun webpage because there are more serious runners on the volunteer roster and less in the results, most club runners parkrun when it fits with their races/training and many parkrun joggers enter races, so it works both ways.
I don't see many (if any) 5k races, but I don't know if there ever were many.
Nope,
On a diversion, I have done tees barrage parkrun a couple of times now due to my son training on the canoe slalom course there. It is an odd one, 100% hard surface and just so many right angle turns and 180% turns, plus a suspension bridge that turns the legs to jelly. Not a fast one by any stretch of the imagination.
i would think that if you take park run in the round (not just any one particular park run on its own) surely the positives outweigh the negative impact they may have. any use of a park for leisure purposes is likely to have some degree of negative impact in some people's (but not necessarily everyone's) view. i can think of much more negative uses (or abuse) of parks and common areas, e.g. anti-social behaviour and littering. whereas park run possibly leaves a degree of footprint (traffic, surface wear and tear, etc.) i would think this is probably low level, in return for the hugely positive impact it has in terms of participation in running - particularly making it accessible to people who might otherwise not take up running.
Nice ressurection.
Wot JMJ and Benshep said.
Approaching 10 years of enjoying parkrun myself which was a catalyst for joining a club. In last 3 years my club's membership has approximately doubled, not coincidentally helped by the start up of our local parkrun 3 years ago, at which I am one of 6 run directors, as well as a fell RO. This afternoon there is the Cross keys fell and road relays not far from here. Several keen racers from my club actively voluntering at this morning's parkrun before doing the relays after lunch, where I think we will have several teams, and maybe win a prize or two😀. Others off to do the Lantern Pike fell race threatening to bring up the rear😀.
I like many other club runners use parkrun in a complementary and complimentary 😉 manner as part of training and socialising, not as an alternative to fell racing or cross country or whatever.
As Dr.P says it's a useful training arena when visiting different parts of the country and indeed the world. Running with my siblings and our children around the lake at Albert Park Melbourne parkrun a few years ago being very memorable.
Nuff said .....
...except to add JMJ that I was never in the 'club' that thought parkrun is detrimental. Where are they...would be interested in their views like you.
Come on WP et al 😉
Oh, and I notice another forumite getting his parkrun leg loosener in this morning at Woodbank followed by a near PB at Lantern Pike fell race this afternoon.
Well done Britnick, nice double dipping there. Reminds me of the time I ran Woodbank then dashed over to Hayfield to race Mount Famine an hour later.
It was the first park run in Keighley this morning.
Exciting times. 454 people turned out.
Supposedly it’s the fifth hilliest Park Run in the country.
Nice also to to bump into an old forum friend - Tussock :D
Oh dear! Does that spell the end of the Woodentop races then!? 🤔
Shame😉
Millipede. A bumper turnout at Cliffe Castle (Keighley) inaugural indeed.
Filtering the results on the last column, looks like over 100 (around 117 at an estimate) of the runners were doing their first ever parkrun, only 6 of whom were registered with parkrun as being affiliated to a local running athletics club. Many others running being experienced parkrunners of both club and unattached status.
So maybe working both ways in this discussion? 🤔
Were there any local road or fell races on the same day, and did they suffer with turnout I wonder. 🤔 That's the crux.
So.....as a random non scientific exercise....
Multitasking whilst playing a round of cards with my daughter (it's raining), whilst she was shuffling, I have looked through the results of the last 11 years of the Lantern Pike fell race (Hayfield), a 5 mile show race that takes place after lunch on the second Saturday of September yearly. So there are always local parkruns in the area the same morning and there has been an increase in the number of parkrun events over the period; from the very first round here (Bramhall 10 years ago) to today (Woodbank, Marple, Glossop, Lyme Park, Hyde, and all the other Greater Manchester parkruns depending what you class as local catchment area to Hayfield).
Lantern Pike fell race attendance as follows in brackets: 2018 (140), 2017 (147), 2016 (153), 2015 (151), 2014 (196), 2013 (191), 2012 (245), 2011 (198), 2010 (239), 2009 (246) and 2008 (269).
Now correlation is not causation but there is a clear trend there as parkrun events have built up in the Greater Manchester area over the last 10 years. The last time Lantern Pike numbers were below 140 was 2002.
Just one random Saturday short race for which stats are easily available from Steve Temple's excellent Hayfield Fell Races website. T42.org.uk
Now I know parkrun hasn't affected the numbers attending the low key 3 mile fell race I RO, with 2017 even being an attendance record. But then it takes place on a Weds evening so does not clash with parkrun days. Similarly the highly competitive Sale Sizzler 5k summer series seems as popular as ever (anecdotally, I haven't looked at any Sale Harrier stats) but again it is midweek not weekends. The secret for short club races is maybe to avoid Saturday's parkrun clash!
Edit - Sale Sizzker 5k summer series sell out at 500 entries. Thurs nights in Jul-Aug. Most other 5k races on ukresults.net avoid Saturday's. Those few that don't bother like the monthly 'no walk in the park' in Chesterfield (North Derbyshire RC) get relatively low numbers (<100 in this case).
PS. I lost 1:5 games at cards so clearly not good at multitasking. 😉
There weren't any local fell races on yesterday, and that's one of the good things about Parkrun: you can always find one when there isn't anything else.
They rarely clash with road races because those tend to be on Sundays. Most of my club mates who ran at Cliffe Castle yesterday competed in their 'main' weekend events today (Tadcaster, Spen, Beefy's Nab).
Having said that, when there does happen to be a clash, it's not uncommon for runners to warm up with a morning Parkrun and do a fell race on a Saturday afternoon. I've done that myself a few times. If there's a Saturday race that's long or involves an early start, I just give Parkrun a miss that week.
In short, I really don't think Parkruns draw people away from doing other races; they add another dimension for seasoned runners and serve as a 'gateway drug' for newcomers!
I spotted loads of familiar faces from fell running at Cliffe Castle. It's pleasing that most fell runners simply enjoy any opportunity to run and aren't too snobbish to do Parkruns. Several of the local events afford decent training, particularly the new Keighley one. OK, it isn't exactly Pike O'Blisco, but there's a sharp 150ft climb 'off-road' through woods on each of the three laps and if you put in effort it's a decent workout that would benefit most hill runners.
Great to see Millipede again and a lot of other friends from the fell running community.
Pretty much in agreement with Tussockface above... I use them as an alternative 'race' when there's nothing else on. In fact I've only done 4 in the last 16 months (although two in the last four weeks).
I think the 'average fellrunner' can certainly benefit from a short sharp 5km workout.
Tussockface - I agree whole heartedly.
'Gateway-drug' I like that! Certainly was the case for me 8 years ago and many of my club mates since, especially in last 3 years since as a club we got behind starting and helping running our local parkrun Glossop as well as participating in all the fab local races.
Parkrun keeps me ticking over as a tempo/fast run or gentle warm up for a weekend race or slower pacing run with kids / family / friends.
I think one of the younger studenty forumitres could do a good project thesis on this! The data is widely available and the main and sub hypotheses interesting to wide audience in athletics and health. Would want 'gateway drug' in the title / hypothesis somewhere, to grab attention. 😀
New Years resolutions appear to be in full effect... Coventry Parkrun, usually 600-700 people, had over 900 today. And my hometown of Bedworth (usually 120-150 runners) had 250 today.
Despite a big day of local cross-country taking away a lot of club runners.
868 at Sheffield Hallam which in the past was the biggest Parkrun outside London
Had they known there'd be 600+ in that park when it started it wouldn't have got permission, far too busy - you cross back through the start line after 500m and I can only imagine the carnage as people are still setting off. I used to live a mile from it and never did it as it was too busy.
Record attendance of 413 at Dishley Parkrun, Loughborough, today, following 367 last Saturday which was also a new record at the time. But it didn't seem crowded, and the first 1.5km is round the edge of playing fields, with plenty of space - although the marshal at the first corner looked terrified as we all streamed towards her! It was a particularly fast start today.
There was a good representation from Northern clubs, in particular some with a strong fell running tradition. The first finisher was a Blackburn Harrier, there were two M10's from Keswick AC (apparently not accompanied by adults), an Eden Runner and a Macclesfield Harrier.
Paul Bradshaw is the Blackburn guy- married to Pole Vaulter Holly. He was a top 800m runner nationally, but an all round talented lad who has put in some decent races up to 10K.
Perhaps the best young runner in terms of action that I've seen at the club.
Sub 1:48 for 800m and even a 22.7 200m.
He's a good lad.
On the Parkrun front, interesting to see OB1 comments re Lantern Pike. Perhaps we should consider races on the road for a better comparison.
I came late to running as a Dad in 2003.
Back then I cut my teeth at the Chorley 4, Horwich 4 and Chorley Park 5k races.
Chorley Park 5km went around 5 years ago.
Horwich 4 last year had 87 at race 1, back in 2004 it has 209.
Chorley 4 has now moved in to the park as a 4.4 mile trail race.
2018 it had 125 at race 1 and in 2004 it had 203 runners.
I'm convinced there has been a hit to the racing scene.
Even with XC where it is often claimed that numbers are up, they are only up a little and that is far more to do with the consolidation of the XC Leagues than additional runners.
I think GM clubs had the option of 5 leagues 15 years ago.
Dishley parkrun Loughborough continues to attract fast people from fell running clubs, presumably desperate to find 5km of totally flat running. Today's results show the fastest finisher being Joseph Dugdale of Cumberland Fell Runners, with second place being taken by Harry Bolton of Keswick AC. They are very welcome here, but do they need to travel so far to find flat running? Should someone start a Silloth parkrun?
I have now ascertained that these two Cumbrians haven't travelled here just for the parkrun :p, they are now students at Loughborough University.
When the Dishley parkrun was started last Summer, there was speculation that once the University term started, we would see some very fast times with Loughborough students turning up. It hasn't really happened; there have been only 3 sub-16 first finishers so far.
Having scorned parkruns for years, in 2016 I dipped my toe in and am now fully committed. I like flat fast ones and ones like a fell race.
Did my 100th today at Chevin Forest, and it's like a Fell race. If you've got limited time and want some speed work - they are great.