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Parkrun..

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    #8522
    rainbow kirby
    Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 26,928 Mod ✭✭✭✭rainbow kirby


    eoinín wrote: »
    Its about getting people who are not currently active to become more active, not about asking runners to slow down. Its about being more inclusive and welcoming to all, not just to elites like yourself.

    I can't understand why this would bother anyone. Everyone is still allowed to run as fast as they want, I'm not sure why anyone would be concerned about what's happening a kilometre behind them.

    This. One of the nicest things about parkrun is that it is a place for everyone - whether you're a 16-17 min 5k club runner or an older person walking and chatting to friends. It gives a lot of people their start with running who never would have considered it otherwise.


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    #8523
    annapr
    Registered Users Posts: 3,936 ✭✭✭annapr


    rainbow kirby wrote: »
    This. One of the nicest things about parkrun is that it is a place for everyone - whether you're a 16-17 min 5k club runner or an older person walking and chatting to friends. It gives a lot of people their start with running who never would have considered it otherwise.

    Couldn't agree more. I know one woman who walks parkrun every week and her PB is 50mins+. She's recovering from a stroke and the determination that she shows every week is an inspiration. Her achievement is arguably greater than the sub-20 guy who finishes first. The volunteers, who have to wait longer because she's there, have been completely encouraging. She crosses the line with a smile on her face every week.

    The 'park walk' concept makes it clear to people that they can join in, whatever their pace. Getting more people into parks on a Saturday morning to walk/jog/run can only be positive.

    *volunteering is also very positive!


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    #8524
    robinph
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,089 Mod ✭✭✭✭robinph


    annapr wrote: »
    The 'park walk' concept makes it clear to people that they can join in, whatever their pace. Getting more people into parks on a Saturday morning to walk/jog/run can only be positive.

    More certainly needs to be done to change the perceptions of what parkrun is, especially in the likes of UK and Ireland where the times that people take are primarily in the running end of the spectrum.

    My mother recently said she was going to have a go at doing a parkrun, now her two new knees are fixed. She has a set of very parkrunning kids who have many years of parkrunning between them, a couple of ED's/ ambassadors and running of the parkrun country wide coms. But she won't take part in a parkrun in the UK because it's far too quick for her and will have a go on her upcoming trip to a different continent where it is far more open to walkers.


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    #8525
    annapr
    Registered Users Posts: 3,936 ✭✭✭annapr


    robinph wrote: »
    More certainly needs to be done to change the perceptions of what parkrun is, especially in the likes of UK and Ireland where the times that people take are primarily in the running end of the spectrum.

    My mother recently said she was going to have a go at doing a parkrun, now her two new knees are fixed. She has a set of very parkrunning kids who have many years of parkrunning between them, a couple of ED's/ ambassadors and running of the parkrun country wide coms. But she won't take part in a parkrun in the UK because it's far too quick for her and will have a go on her upcoming trip to a different continent where it is far more open to walkers.

    See, that's brilliant that your mother wants to do it, and a shame that she doesn't feel comfortable doing parkrun close to home. I love the 'contagion' effect of parkrun... I see that at juniors especially, where families get involved.

    Half the battle is getting people over that initial self consciousness...


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    #8526
    rovers_runner
    Registered Users Posts: 2,649 ✭✭✭rovers_runner


    TaurenDruid wrote: »

    Not one of the "charade obese people" who love their running would be as negative as your post. But I guess you do you?

    My point being that running is a means to an end for these production companies and people who take part(RTE OT).
    They don't take running or fitness seriously hence they "run" a 5K in about 45 mins with coldplay in the background and tears at the finish line.
    They should spare us the heroic back story and just enjoy the process of getting fit and put in the effort to improve like the rest of us.


    The vast majority of the OT participants are still obese I can guarantee you, do you think mollycoddling them by telling them that they are great and "ran" a 5k when they clearly didn't and likely won't do so again is how they improve their physical health?
    Why then is the show such a massive failure in terms of long term results of the leaders?

    Most people starting will now see Parkwalk and will take the soft option, instead of joining Parkrun and trying to improve they will walk 3 miles on a Saturday morning.
    Something they could have already been doing for the last x weeks by the beach or the lake, or even god forbid up a mountain or hillside.


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    #8527
    TaurenDruid
    Registered Users Posts: 4,037 ✭✭✭TaurenDruid


    rovers_runner wrote: »
    My point being that running is a means to an end for these production companies and people who take part(RTE OT).
    They don't take running or fitness seriously hence they "run" a 5K in about 45 mins with coldplay in the background and tears at the finish line.
    They should spare us the heroic back story and just enjoy the process of getting fit and put in the effort to improve like the rest of us.

    Operation Transformation didn't actually use parkrun last season (which was a pity), but I still see significant "OT 2016" and "OT 2017" numbers on results pages, so I guess no, we don't all just do a few weeks of walking it in 45 minutes and then give up. But sure what would I know, I'm obvioulsy not an elite runner like yourself, whose parkrun is interfered with by all those extra people in the park of a Saturday morning...

    Maybe, when you're in a hole - stop digging?


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    #8528
    rovers_runner
    Registered Users Posts: 2,649 ✭✭✭rovers_runner


    TaurenDruid wrote: »
    Operation Transformation didn't actually use parkrun last season (which was a pity), but I still see significant "OT 2016" and "OT 2017" numbers on results pages, so I guess no, we don't all just do a few weeks of walking it in 45 minutes and then give up. But sure what would I know, I'm obvioulsy not an elite runner like yourself, whose parkrun is interfered with by all those extra people in the park of a Saturday morning...

    Maybe, when you're in a hole - stop digging?

    Who said anything about elite snowflake.
    I'm far from fast and I think speed is irrelevant in the point I'm making.
    It's about calling a spade a spade when it comes to parkrun dumbing down their event to increase numbers, not that they need to, its already a huge success.

    Parkrun should be aiming to get people to run and not moving in the other direction.


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    #8529
    opus
    Registered Users Posts: 4,985 ✭✭✭opus


    Bere Island's 5th birthday is tomorrow, they've got Darragh McElhinney from Glengarriff who recently won a bronze medal at the U20 European Athletics championships leading them out.


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    #8530
    TaurenDruid
    Registered Users Posts: 4,037 ✭✭✭TaurenDruid


    rovers_runner wrote: »
    Who said anything about elite snowflake.
    I'm far from fast and I think speed is irrelevant in the point I'm making.
    It's about calling a spade a spade when it comes to parkrun dumbing down their event to increase numbers, not that they need to, its already a huge success.

    Parkrun should be aiming to get people to run and not moving in the other direction.

    "Come to parkrun on Saturday - it's a free, timed 5k run and it's great fun!"

    "No thanks - I'd love to, but I can't run."

    versus

    "Come to parkrun on Saturday - it's a free, timed 5k run and it's great fun! We've plenty of people who walk it, too, everyone's welcome regardless of ability."

    "Yeah, I could manage that..."


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    #8531
    Sunny Dayz
    Registered Users Posts: 5,312 ✭✭✭Sunny Dayz


    rovers_runner wrote: »
    My point being that running is a means to an end for these production companies and people who take part(RTE OT).
    They don't take running or fitness seriously hence they "run" a 5K in about 45 mins with coldplay in the background and tears at the finish line.
    They should spare us the heroic back story and just enjoy the process of getting fit and put in the effort to improve like the rest of us.


    The vast majority of the OT participants are still obese I can guarantee you, do you think mollycoddling them by telling them that they are great and "ran" a 5k when they clearly didn't and likely won't do so again is how they improve their physical health?
    Why then is the show such a massive failure in terms of long term results of the leaders?

    Most people starting will now see Parkwalk and will take the soft option, instead of joining Parkrun and trying to improve they will walk 3 miles on a Saturday morning.
    Something they could have already been doing for the last x weeks by the beach or the lake, or even god forbid up a mountain or hillside.


    I can see where you are coming from with some of your points. I remember my local parkrun was only up and running about 6 months when OT linked in - the numbers increased by 400%/500% for about a month and then when OT was finished they all disappeared even though parkrun didn't. OT didn't provide much if any support to viewers once the show was over, and actually they didn't provide any support to our parkrun at the time either.


    But just to clarify on parkwalk incase it's not clear - it's not separate from parkrun - it's just an initiative being run by parkrun to encourage more people to join, many people still think it's just for fast runners - it's part and parcel of parkrun and there's nothing to stop a person building up week on week from walk to walk/jog/run.


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    #8532
    eoinín
    Registered Users Posts: 320 ✭✭eoinín


    rovers_runner wrote: »
    Parkrun should be aiming to get people to run and not moving in the other direction.


    Why exactly should they be doing this? Why do you get to decide what parkrun should do? What do you mean by "The other direction"? As already mentioned earlier nobody fast is being asked to slow down. parkrun is trying to get people who don't currently move in any direction to at least move in one direction. Maybe these people will eventually do it faster, but for now we should be welcoming anyone who is trying to improve their health through physical activity.


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    #8533
    TaurenDruid
    Registered Users Posts: 4,037 ✭✭✭TaurenDruid


    eoinín wrote: »
    Why exactly should they be doing this? Why do you get to decide what parkrun should do? What do you mean by "The other direction"? As already mentioned earlier nobody fast is being asked to slow down. parkrun is trying to get people who don't currently move in any direction to at least move in one direction. Maybe these people will eventually do it faster, but for now we should be welcoming anyone who is trying to improve their health through physical activity.

    This.

    The person walking their first parkrun in around 55 minutes is doing 5k more than the person at home still in bed.

    If they're encouraged and stick at it, in a couple of weeks it'll be 50 minutes.

    A decent number will join couch-to-5k programmes and a decent number of those will go on further again, distance wise or speed wise.

    But even if they don't and just continue walking - they're still improving their health and it's still no skin off your nose, rovers_runner.


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    #8534
    plodder
    Registered Users Posts: 7,166 ✭✭✭plodder


    rovers_runner wrote: »
    Most people starting will now see Parkwalk and will take the soft option, instead of joining Parkrun and trying to improve they will walk 3 miles on a Saturday morning.
    Something they could have already been doing for the last x weeks by the beach or the lake, or even god forbid up a mountain or hillside.
    I think you're imagining something very different from the reality. parkwalk is a tiny add on to parkrun. You may well have run at events where the parkwalk initiative was "happening" and didn't notice it. As a poster above already said, it's more for people who already know that they want to walk but have felt excluded or at least not sufficiently encouraged to come along so far.


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    #8535
    ger664
    Registered Users Posts: 2,400 ✭✭✭ger664


    @ rovers return there has been a mandatory role of tail walker since Jan 2018. So people walking at parkrun is not a new concept.

    Your attitude is the main reason that walkers/slow runners feel they are not welcome at running events.


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    #8536
    robinph
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,089 Mod ✭✭✭✭robinph


    parkwalk is just a different marketing angle. It's exactly the same product, just labelled differently to try to grab a different group of people.

    Much like Coke Zero in a black bottle is exactly the same as Coke Zero in a red bottle. Just some people were presumably not buying the one in the black bottle because they thought it just a variation on Diet Coke which was for girls in offices watching window cleaners with their shirts off. Now it comes in a manly red bottle instead. It's all just marketing at a different segment.

    parkwalk is parkrun, just people that are scared off by the word run would be turned off by that before they even start. Need more walkers to get more walkers so that more walkers are crossing the line between 40 and 70 minutes which will then encourage more people to walk etc.


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    #8537
    arybvtcw0eolkf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 24,878 ✭✭✭✭arybvtcw0eolkf


    Parkrun/parkwalk are just opposite sides of the same coin and both a free, weekly and timed ~ oh, and inclusive!.

    I'm a regular volunteer and when this parkwalk started I initially thought volunteering is going to be a very long drawn out morning and hoped that it wouldn't put off people from volunteering.

    Well guess what?, there's been no change at all except we have more craic at the finish line with more walkers now. Its win/win.


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    #8538
    HBC08
    Registered Users Posts: 3,371 ✭✭✭HBC08


    rovers_runner wrote: »
    Who said anything about elite snowflake.
    I'm far from fast and I think speed is irrelevant in the point I'm making.
    It's about calling a spade a spade when it comes to parkrun dumbing down their event to increase numbers, not that they need to, its already a huge success.

    Parkrun should be aiming to get people to run and not moving in the other direction.

    What's an elite snowflake?


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    #8539
    blackbird86
    Registered Users Posts: 172 ✭✭blackbird86


    Going to do Marlay for the first time & I'm just wondering about parking. Seems like it's a very busy parkrun so is the car park usually a no go unless you arrive really early? I don't live walking distance or on a bus route near it unfortunately


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    #8540
    corcaigh07
    Registered Users Posts: 6,309 ✭✭✭corcaigh07


    blackbird86 wrote: »
    Going to do Marlay for the first time & I'm just wondering about parking. Seems like it's a very busy parkrun so is the car park usually a no go unless you arrive really early? I don't live walking distance or on a bus route near it unfortunately

    Loads of parking at the back of the park near the start line or you can park either near the house or close to Three Rock Hockey Club and walk about 1.8k to the start line.

    It will get busy if you leave it late though.


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    #8541
    robinph
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,089 Mod ✭✭✭✭robinph


    Two weeks running now and I've crossed the line thinking I was 3rd and actually ended up with getting 1st. Was another unexpected opportunity to run without the buggy as well so got a bit of a test on how fast I can actually run. Happy enough with the run, but I need to knock another 40 seconds off my times before the end of the year to keep my sub 18 minutes for every year of parkrunning stat intact. (I don't count year one as the only course available to run then was up a stupid steep hill)


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    #8542
    McCrack
    Registered Users Posts: 2,969 ✭✭✭McCrack


    blackbird86 wrote: »
    Going to do Marlay for the first time & I'm just wondering about parking. Seems like it's a very busy parkrun so is the car park usually a no go unless you arrive really early? I don't live walking distance or on a bus route near it unfortunately

    A handy option is park in the 3 rock pub car park and walk in the top of marlay, 10 min walk


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    #8543
    chinguetti
    Registered Users Posts: 2,547 ✭✭✭chinguetti


    Did Mullingar this morning and a lovely course along the canal and greenway in between the nasty showers. Nice and flat too if anyone is looking for a pb course. Anyone know how far the greenway? It must be a great spot for long runs with fine paths on both sides.


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    #8544
    pc11
    Registered Users Posts: 975 ✭✭✭pc11


    Speaking of parking, I need to vent about the parking at St Anne's Park. The main carpark has a one-way system which makes perfect sense as it's quite cramped and fills up quickly every week. The road markings are faded but visible and in any case almost everybody is local or a regular and know exactly how it works.

    Yet, every week, some few clowns feel like the one way system simply doesn't apply to the them and they create mayhem. One silver car in particular drove in the wrong way at a crazy high speed which was very dangerous in a full car park where there will be lots of kids. Today was particularly bad with people taking the p1ss.

    So, let's face it, you know who you are, please stop it. You're not special, the one-way applies to you too.

    I did wave at a couple of drivers today who were being cnts and it was obvious they knew exactly what they were doing. I had a chat with a run director who was also irate but she said the core team are reluctant to get involved with the carpark which I can understand.

    So, please let's play nicely with others, folks. It's really not much to ask.


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    #8545
    An tAlbanach
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭An tAlbanach


    Volunteered at the inaugural Waterford Nature parkrun today. The weather was very good and good feedback on the route. After a few tweaks hopefully it'll be perfect.

    308 parkrunners today...the 2nd largest Irish inaugural attendance after Marlay.


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    #8546
    Speak Now
    Registered Users Posts: 8,540 ✭✭✭Speak Now


    An tAlbanach wrote: »
    Volunteered at the inaugural Waterford Nature parkrun today. The weather was very good and good feedback on the route. After a few tweaks hopefully it'll be perfect.

    308 parkrunners today...the 2nd largest Irish inaugural attendance after Marlay.

    I enjoyed it, half the field were Parkrun first timers. Tramore numbers held up as well with an attendance of 125.


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    #8547
    Pherekydes
    Registered Users Posts: 16,131 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    Did my first overseas parkrun today at Jamaica Pond. It was also my warmest at 23°. Missed the start by 2 minutes because we went to the wrong place. :rolleyes:


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    #8548
    sonyvision
    Registered Users Posts: 562 ✭✭✭sonyvision


    An tAlbanach wrote: »
    Volunteered at the inaugural Waterford Nature parkrun today. The weather was very good and good feedback on the route. After a few tweaks hopefully it'll be perfect.

    308 parkrunners today...the 2nd largest Irish inaugural attendance after Marlay.

    Well done to you!! Great turn out and so glad waterford city now has a park run.

    I gave some feedback to the run director, there was a few bottlenecks but overall you should all be very happy with the outcome of today.

    The start of something great I hope!. Keep up the great work


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    #8549
    laura_ac3
    Registered Users Posts: 1,388 ✭✭✭laura_ac3


    laura_ac3 wrote: »
    Hi all,

    Heading to Galway soon and am trying to decide on which parkrun to do. Staying in Galway itself and will have a car, looking at Oranmore or Knocknacarra. Looked into both, am I right in saying that both seem roughly the same time to get to, have trails and a couple of hills?

    Any recommendations on one over the other? (knowing that is a question with a subjective answer!!). Potentially going to be a bit tired from the night before so if one was exceptionally tougher than the other it might sway the decision :)

    Cheers!

    Bumpity bump....anyone?


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    #8550
    GalwayGrrrrrl
    Registered Users Posts: 1,519 ✭✭✭GalwayGrrrrrl


    laura_ac3 wrote: »
    Bumpity bump....anyone?

    They are both very similar. Oranmore starts with a long uphill but Knocknacarra has smaller hills as you go around. Neither are that steep. Oranmore has slightly nicer views (over Galway Bay and boating area) but is windier as it’s more exposed to the sea.


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    #8551
    Reg'stoy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,574 ✭✭✭Reg'stoy


    Pherekydes wrote: »
    Did my first overseas parkrun today at Jamaica Pond. It was also my warmest at 23°. Missed the start by 2 minutes because we went to the wrong place. :rolleyes:

    Loved doing this Parkrun, very friendly and a unique course. Some very intense american runners, one guy had three watches, time, distance and heart rate :confused: and he was running in his bare feet. Most of the people in charge were ex-pats from the UK or Ireland. Well worth a visit if you are ever in Boston.


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