I'd committed in advance for this morning. Nearly all fell apart as the kid decided to have a meltdown and refused to leave the house.
Kids make things very difficult. :)
I have never heard of RDs approaching individuals about volunteering. Normally just a general shout out No?
It does annoy me when I see stats of people with 40+ runs and 0 volunteer credits.
Big issue when the same people are being relied on every week as they never actually get to run out of a misguided sense of obligation to help out. If the volunteer isn't getting anything out of it then long term they won't be there.
I wonder have the amount of roles expanded too much though. My local now needs around 40 volunteers to run. Seems like too much to me (not to say they aren't needed)
We have not had an issue with the roster full on Tuesday/Wednesday.
RD/ED are under no obligation to time the run they just have to ensure it can run in a safe manner. So you only need RD, Marshalls and Tail walkers for it to go ahead. A non timed run has more impact than a cancelation as regards get people to cop on that they need to volunteer.
Juniors are obviously a different scenario as more Marshals would be required.
Absolutely. I pulled the timekeepers on a pre Covid parkrun due to a lack of volunteers. Everyone got 59:59. I wasn't very popular but had full rosters without much asking for the next month.
That person was asked while they were standing around in a group after parkrun when they wouldn't move from away from the finish as mentioned in the briefing. We only ask in the briefing, social media posts or when groups are standing around at the finish at they move quick when they're asked to help out!
Hahaha love it
There are two types of parkrunner. The other doesn’t.
One of my local parkruns seems to have to do a big call out every couple of weeks. They say that they have an empty roster and if they don't get volunteers they won't be going ahead. Then people come forward and volunteer as having not had parkrun for 18 months they don't want it to stop. But it seems like collectively they have to be asked/begged to help out rather than putting themselves forward to help every so often. Which is a little disappointing to see. I have noticed that people who used to volunteer quite a lot don't really anymore (probably myself included as before covid I found a lot of weeks I was sacrificing my run at 9:15 as they were short on help) and others who didn't really help much are volunteering more and trying different roles.
Do you need tail walkers? I have definitely been at park runs without tail walkers.
Tail marshals are one of the few definitely needed roles and under the current rules from HQ the event cannot happen without someone in the role.
Going back a good number of years they would have been optional though, but have been a requirement for several years now.
There is one relatively recent event in the US where numbers were so low that the first finisher was also the tail, and I think they may also have marked themselves down as timer and RD on some days as well. That event isn't anymore though despite valiant efforts by the ED to keep it going.
The RD can just run behind for 500m and toss the orange bib at whoever is last at that point ;)
Had my first visit there last Sat, not the most interesting of courses but absolutely perfect for parkrun being runner/walker/buggy friendly. Good facilities & an enthusiastic team, what more could you ask for.
How could a parkrun need 40 volunteers?
I offered to volunteer three times in the last few weeks at different events and was told they were full. I then volunteered at a few junior parkruns, the more volunteers the better for those.
All depends on the course, how many parkrunners they get, parking situations, how many non parkrunners are likely to be around. There are very simple courses near me which need only one marshal to tell you to turn around at the far end, but there are zero non parkrunners and zero chances of going the wrong way, but other nearly as simple courses which need about 10-15 marshals along the course. Then another which is by far the most complicated course in parkrun world, that could really manage without any course marshals but they have a couple just for effect I think as despite it being complicated it's also impossible to go wrong and you are never more than 400m from the start/finish and can be seen at all times.
Then have a look at the finish funnel for Bushy in London and you see the they need a multitude of marshals just to manage that bit before you even get your finish token.
There were 55 volunteers at St Anne's last Saturday. This was higher than normal as Piranha Tri club were doing some kind of event but in general the ask for volunteers is high at the run for a variety of reasons.
All of my volunteering is at junior parkrun these days. My kids are running anyway so me and Mrs volunteer every week
Not sure if I missed it, but is the list of Christmas/New Years parkruns up yet?
Will there still be Parkruns at 9:30 & 11 on New Years day but only one will be recorded?
Don't think so afaik
NYD doubles are no more as parkrun cancelled that last year and I think all parkruns that day have to start at 9.30 as the 1st is a Saturday. Someone could confirm if I have that right though on both counts.
Correct on both counts.
You may be joking, but just in case, the main point of the tailwalker is so that nobody is last on the results.
Has anyone heard about whatever is happening at the new parkrun in Shannon? Illaunmanagh? It has been set up on the parkrun website for months at this stage but no runs have occurred?
There isn't a massive amount for xmas day this year so far, definitely not compared to previous years. The two in Dublin, Marlay and Waterstown, will be absolutely jammed I would imagine.
I see Castletown restarted yesterday. Very handy for a change of scenery here in Lucan (Griffeen). Always loved that spot.
Ardgillan and Malahide are on for Xmas day as well.
Oh? I was clicking on the link above. Malahide and Ardgillan weren't on it!
I just checked the parkrun site and they aren't down for running. Is there another list somewhere?
That list is the events that have declared with parkrun and is therefore the official list. Others may have informally said that they are going ahead but they still need to formally declare with parkrun.
