We seem to be in a Parkrun wasteland up here. Do you fancy organising one WP?
We seem to be in a Parkrun wasteland up here. Do you fancy organising one WP?
http://www.ukresults.net/2010/cumbriaxc10.html
Is Ricky running for you in the Mid Lancs and other cross country this winter?
He can - whether he will or not is a different matter.
I did my first parkrun 3 weeks ago. I havnt done another yet as I had plans on the weekends. I though it was great (I'm not attached to a Club as there is only a track and road running club in my area.) 4 of my friends came along too, also not attached to a Club. One of them has now joined a club in his area as he enjoyed the parkrun so much.
At the event there was a guy from Sphinx Athletics Club giving out flyers for "The Coombe Park Winter 8" and we have all entered. Wouldnt of even known about the event if we hadnt gone to parkrun. Also got my sister, my daugher and 5 friends to enter too so that is a fair few £12 to the Club thanks to parkrun. It will be my sisters first race. She will never go to a parkrun as she works on Saturdays.
I loved the friendliness of everyone there and it was brilliant to see so many people of all running abilities just loving it and having a go :-) About 150 runners ranging from 16 mins to 45mins and age range of 8 to 80 They were all smiling at the end ;-)
I'm lovin the party that is off-road running :w00t: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124336794288432
I've not counted but I'd say that I run parkrun as training so in addition to usual races. And it looks like that http://www.thepowerof10.info/athlete...thleteid=16968. I also do all the GM League XC races - but not good enough to show in powerof10 . Like many I'm limited by work and family and travel time to races. parkrun is 400m away and includes the family.
Yes that is a fair point WP. And partly why I said no direct funding. But then again you have to look at all the public money that goes on promoting exercise - leisure centres, council gyms, RunBritain gimmicks, Fit4Life posters and adverts, personal trainers for obese teenagers. parkrun is good value in comparison and utilises parks for a community event.
We're also providing 5ks for slower runners who might take 30mins+ to get round. It is questionable whether you want too many people running say 1.20 in a club 10k and certainly not a fell race if you're marshalling on a cold hill.
I suppose the next few months and possibly years might effect this whole argument.
I love running fell races, and always will. Do I like road? I used to, but not particularly bothered now, apart from a couple of marathons a year.
So what will the future hold if peoples income lowers etc.
Will people be stumping up £30 - £40 to do road races? Some will.
Will they all turn to the fells because the cost is less. I doubt it.
Will they turn to Park Run? Some, but as previously mentioned, not everyone wants to do a 5k.
Will Park Run widen it's race range to accomodate skint runners? I doubt it.
Time will tell.
But in the end I'm sure running will survive.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
I noticed there were nearly 300 in the senior mens race alone at the GM XC opener at Heaton Park http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2010/maccls1.pdf so if anything numbers were up. There was a parkrun there in the morning. I suppose the obvious thing was to run both!
FB - parkrun will always stay 5k run in parks pure and simple. Anything more interesting just takes too much time and effort every week from the volunteers organising the event.
But there are plenty of club organised races that only charge enough to cover race costs. I can't imagine who wants to pay £40 to shuffle along in a "Great" Run.