Are Park Runs Destructive ?

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Originally Posted by sevendaughters

Live equidistant from a few but according to the website I've done Worsley & Pennington Flash the most, followed by Bolton, Heaton Park and Preston. Did one in Gloucestershire when visiting, keep trying to knock all the NW ones off but they keep adding events, ruddy Congleton, Carlisle & Delamere!

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Cool - Maybe see you at Marple sometime? Heaton was my home run for 2 years until others sprouted closer to home.
My 100th Parkrun 5k yesterday, followed by a 15k fell run and various other add-ons, culminating in the pub and a pool-party.
Thanks to all those who turned up, including a dozen or so club-mates.
I guess my century of Parkruns in 3.5 years destroys any credibility I have in the fell running community?!;)
Or maybe not!?:D

PS. Marple PR is currently 'soft underfoot' and definitely fell shoe or XC-spike terrain (lots of muddy-field and no tarmac).

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Originally Posted by OB1

Cool - Maybe see you at Marple sometime? Heaton was my home run for 2 years until others sprouted closer to home.
My 100th Parkrun 5k yesterday, followed by a 15k fell run and various other add-ons, culminating in the pub and a pool-party.
Thanks to all those who turned up, including a dozen or so club-mates.
I guess my century of Parkruns in 3.5 years destroys any credibility I have in the fell running community?!;)
Or maybe not!?:D

PS. Marple PR is currently 'soft underfoot' and definitely fell shoe or XC-spike terrain (lots of muddy-field and no tarmac).

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Congratulations on getting the 100 up OB1:)

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Originally Posted by OB1

Cool - Maybe see you at Marple sometime? Heaton was my home run for 2 years until others sprouted closer to home.
My 100th Parkrun 5k yesterday, followed by a 15k fell run and various other add-ons, culminating in the pub and a pool-party.
Thanks to all those who turned up, including a dozen or so club-mates.
I guess my century of Parkruns in 3.5 years destroys any credibility I have in the fell running community?!;)
Or maybe not!?:D

PS. Marple PR is currently 'soft underfoot' and definitely fell shoe or XC-spike terrain (lots of muddy-field and no tarmac).

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I did Marple before Xmas. I'll come down this weekend, wouldn't mind another go at it, originally wrote March 2nd but I think I'll try Delamere on opening day.

Congrats to Fergal P for another win in Don Valley land - shame about the age grade % result:w00t:

Is marple a short course:confused:

I want to do Sunrise-on-Sea.....

Couldn't make it to Delamere as I had Ikea coming at 10.30 so went to a nearer one (Oldham) and ran pretty well considering I spent two weeks sidelined with a hamstring pull.

Marple: have never Garminned it but one of my slower times, though it was icy and muddy IIRC.

Good article for Witton here :)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...eautiful-sight

Did Huddersfield on Saturday morning, my 15th different parkrun event. Good little course, 2 laps with a wee bit at the start to stretch the field, light undulations and turns and some criss-crossy under/over bridges and tunnels sections that I haven't encountered anywhere else yet. Good standard too, 19.29 got me 22nd out of 300+, that would be top 5 in some I've run. I'd put it in my top 5 parkrun courses. Going to knock Burnley, Congleton and Delamere off next.

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Originally Posted by sevendaughters

Did Huddersfield on Saturday morning, my 15th different parkrun event. Good little course, 2 laps with a wee bit at the start to stretch the field, light undulations and turns and some criss-crossy under/over bridges and tunnels sections that I haven't encountered anywhere else yet. Good standard too, 19.29 got me 22nd out of 300+, that would be top 5 in some I've run. I'd put it in my top 5 parkrun courses. Going to knock Burnley, Congleton and Delamere off next.

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7D, 15 courses in 29 outings, with 10 venues run sub-20, now that's some consistent and dare I say it, destructive, touring! Well done.
Interesting to see that your Oldham time (dry weather?) is faster than your Platts time (wet Xmas/New Year weather?).
Mine (both dry times) are the reverse, so logic says that you have a sub-19 in the tank on the Flat at Platt in the dry one spring day.

Good time to do Platt Fields is Jul / Aug when the majority of the students are away. It's tricky not to get boxed in at the start on that one!

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Originally Posted by OB1

7D, 15 courses in 29 outings, with 10 venues run sub-20, now that's some consistent and dare I say it, destructive, touring! Well done.
Interesting to see that your Oldham time (dry weather?) is faster than your Platts time (wet Xmas/New Year weather?).
Mine (both dry times) are the reverse, so logic says that you have a sub-19 in the tank on the Flat at Platt in the dry one spring day.

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I hope so! My best is 19.13 in a race Run Britain haven't recognised (Halewood 5k) on the flat (but very cold). Oldham was pleasant on the day that I ran and yes, all the Platt Fields outings have been drenched (huge patches of water at 1k, 3.2k and 4.5k). If you catch Worsley Woods on a dry day, that one is very fast too. Undecided for tomorrow. Probably a Mancunian one. What's everyone else's local?

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Originally Posted by Rasher

Good time to do Platt Fields is Jul / Aug when the majority of the students are away. It's tricky not to get boxed in at the start on that one!

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Amen to this. That said Platt Fields is technically my nearest these days (though not easiest to get to) and it's where I first broke 20 mins so I'll always have an affinity for it.

Interesting - power of 10 now quote parkruns separately, i.e. They don't count as 5k's on po10. This includes past results. Would love to know what the thinking is behind this change.

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Originally Posted by Brummy John

Interesting - power of 10 now quote parkruns separately, i.e. They don't count as 5k's on po10. This includes past results. Would love to know what the thinking is behind this change.

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The Power of 10 does not include ARC affiliated races either John but that is an entirely different issue.

Talking to the organisers of Burnage parkrun a couple of weeks ago it was explained to me that the powers behind the power of ten don't believe that parkruns are suitably rigorously timed or marshalled compared to real races.

From what I have seen at the parkruns I have attended, I disagree entirely with their opinion on this. In my opinion some of the parkruns are organised to a higher degree of accuracy than the supposed 'real' races.

PS - Witton will know more about this but there might be an issue with measured versus certified.

Apparently anything that is measured is said to have an error (for arguement's sake say plus or minus 0.05km). What a certified course does however is add in a correction factor (in this case 0.05km) so that the "real" distance is 5.00km-5.10km rather than 4.95km-5.05km.

A course certifier will use one of those wheel things and ensure that the course is measured via the shortest route. Therefore nobody (in theory) can run the race in anything less than 5.00km. I guess this is why "certified" courses are often called "long" by runners...it is just the nature of certified road races...

God knows how the old Radcliffe 5K was ever certified though :p

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Originally Posted by Brummy John

Interesting - power of 10 now quote parkruns separately, i.e. They don't count as 5k's on po10. This includes past results. Would love to know what the thinking is behind this change.

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I knew it was coming, but didn't realise they were applying it to certified parkrun courses as well! That's going to upset a lot of people.. although it has put me in the all-time ranking section all of a sudden!

This will certainly put runners off one or both of (a) parkrun and (b) Powerof10

(b) they have already been pursuing with every means available :angry:

It's a bit weird really, 5k is 5k so I don't see what the problem is. I'm not really that bothered these days, they often don't put fell races on easily enough anyway so I don't tend to look at the site that often.

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Originally Posted by Rob Furness

..they often don't put fell races on easily enough anyway so I don't tend to look at the site that often.

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They seem to have a new policy this year ~ all fell races and all competitors going on. They want to restrict Powerof10 access to paid-up EA/UKA members at some point to encourages affiliation.

Wonder if its to support UKA insured, non-parkrun 5k's by excluding parkrun results,

Any parkrun that has paid for certification will, as you say, not be happy! Good to see you Saturday John.

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Originally Posted by Brummy John

Interesting - power of 10 now quote parkruns separately, i.e. They don't count as 5k's on po10. This includes past results. Would love to know what the thinking is behind this change.

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thought I was the only person to notice this, now according to RB I haven't run a 5k this year because I've run only parkrun and two events that didn't have UKA licences!

It's about time they got their finger out and included fell races on the results, shame about the parkrun times though.

My friend's daughter is a junior international and her 5K PB of 18.20 has been wiped from the 5K rankings through this.

It's useful as a reference tool to show all of your results in one place; that's the only thing I use Power of 10 for.

Look at this - Link to www.greatrunlocal.org

Nova International (Great Manchester/North/and other rip off event organisers) are competing (?) with Parkrun now.

PS - Isn't this the Sale Sizzler Course?

http://www.greatrun.org/app_files/gr_files/Great-Run-Local-Manchester-Wythenshawe-5km-Course-Map.pdf


If it is and i'm sure it is, It's a lot faster than the Parkrun course.



Here's a link to register - it's a complete Parkrun copy - but so what, it's free and it looks good :w00t:




PPS - The Debdale Park course looks to be a cracking little course too.





:thumbup:

Ha! It's the exact same course, right down to the finish at 200m on the track.

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Originally Posted by Danbert Nocurry

Look at this - Link to www.greatrunlocal.org

Nova International (Great Manchester/North/and other rip off event organisers) are competing (?) with Parkrun now.

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"Great Run Local is an exciting new journey for runners of all abilities...."

Yeah right!!

Seems to me the only difference to Parkrun, apart from being a Sunday event, is the choice of 2 distances.

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Originally Posted by Danbert Nocurry

PS - Witton will know more about this but there might be an issue with measured versus certified.

Apparently anything that is measured is said to have an error (for arguement's sake say plus or minus 0.05km). What a certified course does however is add in a correction factor (in this case 0.05km) so that the "real" distance is 5.00km-5.10km rather than 4.95km-5.05km.

A course certifier will use one of those wheel things and ensure that the course is measured via the shortest route. Therefore nobody (in theory) can run the race in anything less than 5.00km. I guess this is why "certified" courses are often called "long" by runners...it is just the nature of certified road races...

God knows how the old Radcliffe 5K was ever certified though :p

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Interesting development indeed in the last week (well online at least).

I agree, in theory.
But then for examples sake, there is an athelete (a local club runner and England Athletics registered athlete) who regularly and knowingly cuts inside the course marker corner flags at Marple Parkrun, and yet he/she is second in the age group course rankings for his/her age group. And being a X-country style course there are quite a few such flags at Marple, not all marshaled. It would be relatively harmless if a back-packer, but in the 75%+ age grade category it raises eyebrows. So maybe these Parkrun 'time trials' are indirectly fostering a destructive laissez faire attitude in us runners that needs to be clamped down on hard, before it gets out of control!?
:w00t:

I think this isn't the first time the Great Run have held such events. Are they not just in the build up to the Great run series in Manchester and not being staged all year long?

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Originally Posted by OB1

But then for examples sake, there is an athelete (a local club runner and England Athletics registered athlete) who regularly and knowingly cuts inside the course marker corner flags at Marple Parkrun, and yet he/she is second in the age group course rankings for his/her age group. And being a X-country style course there are quite a few such flags at Marple, not all marshaled. It would be relatively harmless if a back-packer, but in the 75%+ age grade category it raises eyebrows.

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The thing is, it is no longer very obvious to outsiders whether Marple is 5K official, 5KNAD or 5KMT...

Parkrun have already had to remove dog-assisted times from top places.. there must have been some tension with UKA/Powerof10 over that. And there are sometimes results which can only be expained by runners missing a lap out altogether.. I have seen 100% age-category records in both cases, the former now (or was?) banished from Pof10, with the race results list starting at 2nd place!

I propose a new category. 5K-too-early-in-morning! :p

Official parkrun announcement here
Including:

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The decision to backdate the classification of all previous parkrun events was taken because we believe that the consistency of the Power of 10 ranking system is important and we were determined that no previous rankings would be lost, simply re-classified from 5K to parkrun.

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My emphasis. B***ards!

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Originally Posted by Roadrunner

Are they not just in the build up to the Great run series in Manchester and not being staged all year long?

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Nothing to suggest that on their main page Roadrunner Link to www.greatrunlocal.org

Interesting to compare the % figures on runBritain for parkrun vs. 5k. In my case the difference in ranking between the two differs by a factor of three. In one year I am about 7% for one and 21% the other, despite similar times and both being 5k distance.

My Great Run wristband came this morning and am debating whether to use it tomorrow. Both Manchester runs are a bit out of the way for me at the moment.

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Originally Posted by sevendaughters

My Great Run wristband came this morning and am debating whether to use it tomorrow. Both Manchester runs are a bit out of the way for me at the moment.

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This cynical attempt by Great Run & EA to displace parkrun is certainly getting off to a slow start:
5K runner numbers up to today:
Wythenshawe 27th Jan: 18,11,26,15,13,11,13,5,10,9
Debdale 8,8,9

It doesn't appear in Powerof10 at all, as far as I can see, and they do desribe them as 'Park runs' in their event info.

Having said numbers were low: one of our holiday visitors to Aberystwyth parkrun yesterday managed a PB, partly thanks to there being 30-odd runners at Aber rather than 300 in Newcastle, and there's nothing wrong with having events on a Sunday as well.

I'm off to help with the breakaway federation of official parkrun courses now. Chip timing. (I made that bit up..)

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Originally Posted by LissaJous

This cynical attempt by Great Run & EA to displace parkrun is certainly getting off to a slow start:
5K runner numbers up to today:
Wythenshawe 27th Jan: 18,11,26,15,13,11,13,5,10,9
Debdale 8,8,9

It doesn't appear in Powerof10 at all, as far as I can see, and they do desribe them as 'Park runs' in their event info.

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Neither event is offering anything that doesn't already exist to be honest. The Whythenshawe Park Great Run Org 5K course uses the Sale Sizzler course and the Debdale Park Great Run Org 5K course uses the Run in England 3-2-1 route markers that are very easy to follow. :confused:

Used the Belfast Victoria Parkrun on Saturday (22.23) as a warm up for the Decathlon, Belfast 10K on Sunday.
Worked a treat as I won the M60 prize in 44.59 (by one second!)

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Originally Posted by Swoop

Used the Belfast Victoria Parkrun on Saturday (22.23) as a warm up for the Decathlon, Belfast 10K on Sunday.
Worked a treat as I won the M60 prize in 44.59 (by one second!)

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Well done Swoop, you're flying at the moment. Long may it continue.:thumbup:

has anyone seen The Longest Parkrun Cheshire/Manchester on June 23rd? Seven parkruns in a day. As much a logistical nightmare as a running one, I'd imagine.
http://www.parkrun.com/crispy/cheshi...first-running/

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Originally Posted by sevendaughters

has anyone seen The Longest Parkrun Cheshire/Manchester on June 23rd? Seven parkruns in a day. As much a logistical nightmare as a running one, I'd imagine.
http://www.parkrun.com/crispy/cheshi...first-running/

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Swoops the man to do that.


And in further news the Great Run Org comes to North Manchester on Sunday Mornings

Boggart Hole Clough Park 5k and 2k Run
Run starts at 9.00am at Boggart Hole Clough Athletics Track every Sunday.
Boggart Hole Clough Park Athletics Track

Here is the course map for Boggart Hole Clough HERE........I'm sure it's Salford Harriers Christmas Handicap course.;)

That's an admirable feat by the Great Run lot, three 5k races in my city that are an absolute pain in the backside to get to.