parkrun, lap two

flazio

Same with Narin Beach on the other side of the Wild Atlantic Way. Not tried Laytown or the Northern Ireland one. I understand the Yarmouth one is a sand crawl rather than a run.

Reg'stoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122471721#Comment_122471721

Keep an eye on Laytown's facebook page, as tides may mean it doesn't go ahead.

flazio

I'll probably get used to it in time but I'm not a fan of the new all blue bibs for Run Director that are getting rolled out. The white ones are easier to find and matched most other countries bibs. Good to see a refresh of the location signs though. Handy for the tourist selfies.

Duzzie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122486986#Comment_122486986

they look too similar to the parkwalker vests. At least we don't have the pink volunteer vests that they use in the UK.

flazio

Seems I'm wrong about the white vests. Just saw a video from a YouTube channel I follow called markruns and he did a run in Wales called Old Railway Trail yesterday and the Run Director there was wearing blue. Must be getting rolled out across the whole parkrun community. I just assumed the refresh was because of VHI's rebranding.

Murph_D

I think we have reached peak parkrun.

flazio

Well, if it helps get the thread back on topic, I'm averaging around 35 minutes and I'm doing extra sprint sessions at an athletics track to get that down to sub 30 minutes.

Reg'stoy

That's a big drop in your PB, just be mindful that you will in essence be running all out, so probably set a target Saturday, running all out at every parkrun till you get to 30mins, might lead to an injury.

A good workout might be doing 1K intervals at say 6-30/45 pace, you won't be doing a full 5K, but you'll get a feeling for the quicker pace. Sprints will help you finish strong, but gradually increasing your 1k pace will build your confidence and make you fitter.

You're currently running 7min pace for 35mins, looking to do 6min for 30mins might take a while dependent on age, fitness, the course you will run, days a week running etc etc.

Speaking personally, I'm hoping to go officially sub 23mins, I've ran sub 23 5K's but never a PR. My current fitness would be sub 24min so I'm honestly looking at a Saturday a good few months away. I've some trail races and 10k's to do, I'm getting older and my fitness prime was a couple of years ago.

Building up gradually is a better idea, so maybe once a week do a 10min easy warm up at 7-30+ per K, try 1K at 6-45, recover for a couple of mins, another K at 6-45, recover and dependent on your current fitness, do this for either 3/4 or 5 intervals and then cool down. Again dependent on fitness and how you feel, reduce the interval pace and make them longer, so say 2K at 6-30, eventually running 5K at sub 6mins will be a normal Parkrun.

Chris_5339762

On the subject of Welsh Parkruns - I did Haverfordwest last weekend as I was traveling back from Fishguard.

Absolutely vile! Its on an abandoned racecourse and is a two lap affair - the first half of each lap is on a gentle, unrelenting slope for the entire kilometer and a bit. That kind of slope that you don't notice, you just think you're tired. Its also featureless so you don't have anything to look at.

Glad I did it, but that course is, surprisingly, one for the sadistic.

DeepBlue

Is parkwalker the most pointless volunteer role? I could probably see a point to it on a single loop parkrun where the walkers may feel isolated but on our three lapper I fail to see any benefit. Perhaps partly that's because our route is next to a national park and there are much better options to go for a walk and not get buzzed by large groups of runners.

Does the parkwalker role work better at other parkruns?

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497565#Comment_122497565

This is all gradual. The time window is a year (I'm 41) but it's just taking it a chunk at a time, down to 34:30, down to 34, down to 33:30 etc and if by this time next year I've only shaved it down to 32, so what? Improvement is improvement.

diceyreilly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122498128#Comment_122498128

Done it twice and my Mrs has done about 5 times.
i was injured ( from Running ) honestly dont see the point of it at all.
but its not a key role. So no harm in it either.

Both times i did it i asked to be tail walker but that gig was already fulfilled

robinph

The idea of the park walker role is to try and fill in blank spaces on the course, and results, to make is appear that more people walk which will then encourage more people to walk. Their end goal of getting more walkers participating is good, just they don't really know how to go about doing so.

Needs more interaction on a local level by individual event teams, which is a big ask to get them to do more. Not sure they can do much to encourage walkers from a national level. They can create the product of parkrun nationally, but convincing someone to go for a walk around they local park on a Saturday morning need people to bring their friends and neighbours along, not someone wearing a hiviz top saying park walker on the back.

Reg'stoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122498276#Comment_122498276

Mightn't even take you a year, because you've got the right attitude. You'll notice your average 1K time come down, you'll be chatting during parkrun, where you didn't previously. Best of luck, as Del Boy used to say "this time next year Rodney, we'll be running Parkrun PB's"

The Black Oil

Stunning morning in Land's End.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122513007#Comment_122513007

What's your Point? 😛

If you have the 5k app, take a look at the Voroni filter. Lands End takes a nice chunk of the map.

flazio

Castletown Parkrun has been officially retired.

gar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122514225#Comment_122514225

Where did you see that?

corcaigh07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122514245#Comment_122514245

Looks like it on the official site in fairness

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122514245#Comment_122514245

Right here.

https://www.parkrun.ie/castletown/

KAGY

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122498128#Comment_122498128

Its very useful to know who the last person is in and when the clock can stop. Otherwise you could be waiting on somebody you see on the course just out for a walk.

adrian522

That's already covered by the tail walker role, the park walker is in addition to that and not necessarily at the back of the field.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122522560#Comment_122522560

opus

The junior parkrun in Ballinlough Cork is back next Sunday after a long hiatus thanks to Irish Water.

Ballinlough junior parkrun restarts Sun 25th Aug 2024

jakejudy123

Anybody hear that in Ireland there are now no parkrun employees as parkrun removed the head of parkrun.ie and the rest all resigned in protest. Dont know if its true or not

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122531767#Comment_122531767

They we're only advertising for marketing jobs last week, so somebody must be keeping the lights on.

jakejudy123

Yes but I heard people are gone

Duzzie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122531888#Comment_122531888

yip, no parkrun Ireland staff left. Country manager gone, event delivery manager gone, social media person gone. Sounds like parkrun Ireland is in a mess atm

jakejudy123

Who is looking after safeguarding at junior events I wonder.

Duzzie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122532942#Comment_122532942

no one in Ireland. There has been no safeguarding lead in Ireland for the past 2 years

robinph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122531767#Comment_122531767

Parkrun do have form in behaving similarly with core groups heavily involved in the running of other countries before. I'd hoped that they had started to try and correct some of their previous miss steps, or at least not make more of them.

They are consistent in being able to make a mess out of whenever they try to resolve some otherwise minor issue. They grab a sledgehammer to crack a nut, one of them then says to be careful as they might hit their own foot, here use this shotgun instead. Then they wonder where their foot disappeared to.