r/parkrun

I am going to be just south of Bracknell tomorrow morning and planning on doing a parkrun. Bracknell, California Country, Sandhurst, Frimley Lodge, Rushmoor, Edenbrook look like the main options. Just wondering which ones people prefer or recommend? Not looking for a fast one - perhaps the one that's the nicest run, most scenic etc...!

Hi all! I am looking for some advice from our fabulous parkrun community please.

I am on the core volunteer team at a parkrun with 800-1,000 runners every week, attendance levels dependent on the weather, other regional events etc. Due to the attendance numbers and our use of a double funnel, we have around 50 volunteer positions that need to be filled each every week. We are very fortunate to have regulars on our roster but we do have to go begging to the masses fairly often to makes sure we have all our bases covered. 

We’re looking at how we can get more people in our regular volunteer pool, either out of the runners or their families, friends, or other park users. At the moment we send a weekly email appeal (limited to existing volunteers who have opted in) and also do a cheerful appeal in our pre-run announcements (to all and anyone in earshot). We are a welcoming bunch of people and hopefully we make it look as fun as it really is, but we want to appeal to more people!

If you have never volunteered - is there anything that puts you off volunteering? Or if you ever put off volunteering before trying it, what put you off?

Likewise if anyone has ideas for getting more people interested in trying it (other than free cake!) advice would be much appreciated.

I’ve become a recent fan and really love it, but my park run (Southwark) often has anywhere between 700 - 1000 people. It’s three laps, so you’re literally all on top of one another the whole route, and especially the beginning is chaotic as everyone goes from the same start line.

No one is ever outright mean, but there’s always some shoving, clearly frustrated individuals who can’t get past one another etc and the other week I saw someone fall over just past the start and it looked almost like people defending an animal from a stampede.

I genuinely wonder if this continues to grow in popularity what will happen?

It is easily the best way to see everyone celebrate their finishes and you get a proper buzz from it

Also parkrun will be selling merchandise for the challenges.
Junior milestones also changing from July.

When Inis Meáin parkrun started a couple of years ago, many eyebrows were raised when they announced that it wouldn't start until 11am. Many thought it was because of local ferry times but no, the regular ferry to that island from Ros An Mhíl to the north of the island leaves at 10:30 and wouldn't make it over in time, occasional ferries from Doolin to the east of the island were also not scheduled to arrive in time and had to be chartered by tourist groups (always in collaboration with the island core team). There are island hopping flights but the plane can only hold 8 including the pilot.

No, the real reason it started at 11 is because the three islands share one Catholic priest and he holds "Sunday mass" on the middle island on Saturday morning at 10am.

However, there has been a slight change and now Inis Meáin parkrun is the only parkrun to operate in the afternoon instead of in the morning. And this time, it is about the ferry. They've moved the start to 12pm so that people on that 10:30 ferry can participate. There's even a shuttle bus from Galway city available that leaves at 9:30.

The parkrun is still isolated enough from the other mainland parkruns that unless you charter a helicopter or a speedboat, you're not going to do a mainland parkrun in say Knocknacarra or Oughterard and make it over to the island in time to do another one on the same day.

Boo. A bit sad about this, I like my little archive of text results!

Asking for a friend who has just finished nowhere near the top of the leaderboard yet is currently sitting in the cafe inhaling a breakfast roll like they’ve earned an Olympic medal

Is parkrun becoming too overcrowded?

I absolutely love parkrun and go every week. It’s great seeing new faces and more people getting involved, but my local parkrun is 5 laps and very narrow in places. Over the last 4 years, attendance has gone from around 200 runners to over 600, and sometimes even more than 700.

Has anyone else noticed this at their local parkrun?

I’m not complaining at all — I genuinely think parkrun is one of the best events in the UK. I just wonder what the solution could be if numbers keep growing over the next 4 years.

Should more local events be created? Different start times? Wider routes where possible?

Join the comments and voice your opinions. Also feel free to talk about any other parkrun topics, PBs, goals, volunteering, or experiences!

Before you all shout at me, I know - no barcode, no time. I get it, would just like some advice.

That said, has anyone had any luck getting a legacy time allocated to them? At my first ever parkrun I wasn't aware of the barcodes after getting dragged along by a friend. I have since done 20+ and would love that first run in my account stats.

I have:

- Identified the date and time of the race, matched with my Strava.
- Identified the unknown runner that matches my time. To be clear, I came 250th, so not trying to bag some crazy fast time. There are no other unknown runners around my time.
- Contacted the race directly, who pointed me to parkrun HQ.
- Contacted parkrun HQ, where I seem to get endless canned responses.

Anyone had any better luck with such things?

I volunteered at parkrun for the first time and was assigned to the funnel: the end of the run between crossing the finish line and scanning your barcode. There were loads of us volunteering, and our job was essentially to keep people moving and in order of finish, to stop the funnel getting backed up.

What happened regardless, was hundreds of people crossing the finish line and immediately stopping to look at their phones, talk to their friends, grab a snack, etc. The funnel blocked instantly and it became half an hour of watching runners standing on the wrong side of the finish line waiting to get through, messing up their times, while everyone on the other side showed zero care to move along enough to help solve the issue.

I lost my voice shouting for people to keep moving, close large gaps in the queue, be mindful they were preventing other runners from finishing, and was mostly either completely ignored or met with 'the gen z stare'. People started eating and (deliberately) dropping their litter on the floor for us to pick up. People stopped still to take group photos, despite only having a short few paces left before they wouldn't be in people's way - and while they are doing that I have to tell the people behind that they can't overtake.

I had such a positive view of parkrun before, but the realisation of how many people just don't care one iota about the people around them and are happy to be in the way once they've got their own time, really has me feeling like I never want to go back.

If you are one of these people, please try volunteering now and again so you can see how these actions affect other people, and how taking a few extra minutes to be helpful can make all the difference as a whole. A little bit of social awareness goes a long way.

Thanks to all the volunteers who make parkrun happen every week and keep coming back, I don't know how you do it. And for all this moaning I really did notice and appreciate all the thank yous and runners stopping to pitch in afterwards. I'm sure I will go back at some point, but sadly I don't think I'll ever see it the same way again.

Hey everybody!! I made a post last week about how I was struggling with a bit of anxiety that would creep in every time I considered showing up to parkrun. More than anything, I just want to say a huge thank you. I didn't get around to replying because honestly I thought I was venting to the wind and it felt a bit overwhelming, but I did not expect such a nice amount of responses, but they really helped to alleviate my concerns. I'm really glad I went.

As for my race itself, I have a couple things that I want to share for those interested - a few people were curious after my initial post, so this won't be a weekly thing (at least not as separate posts!), but maybe it'll help a few other people in the same boat I was at.

• First off, it is HARD. I ran the course with basically zero expectations of the course itself, zero training & not having done serious, consistent exercise since I was in school 8 years ago. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I definitely underestimated the difficulty of jogging it. My local course (Bournemouth) is fairly flat with only a little bit of a hilly section, so I thought it'd be fine - I thought wrong. It got to a point that I genuinely considered just giving up after the second lap and I walked more of it than I had initially hoped.

• More importantly though, for anyone else in a similar boat, the difficulty didn't make it any less enjoyable. One of my big concerns was that I would struggle, and it would take the fun out of it, but when I finished? I was proud of myself in a way that I have not been for something physical in a very long time. My time wasn't the fastest, sure, but I finished a 5k with basically no training and I had a great time, and that pride is the feeling I remember from earlier.

• I was worried about the run having a competitive feeling so to speak, but I actually really loved how non-competitive it felt. It made me feel so at ease, and I think the fact that I wasn't the only person running slowly helped me to enjoy the experience so much more because while I wasn't competing with people, I was aware that others were around me, so I could relax and didn't have much of the self-consciousness about my speed.

• With that said, I do have to say my only SLIGHT negative is nothing do with parkrun itself, but just that I need to try to overcome my own thoughts. I was one of the slowest people in their 20s, and at times, that lingering doubt came in of "oh everybody is going to think you're stupid and unfit". I KNOW it's irrational, and everybody either is supportive or just simply doesn't care, but I think that's going to be a mental hurdle to overcome as I (hope to) keep doing these! I do also have to give an incredible shoutout to all the volunteers - one specific marshal I think could tell I was struggling and was really supportive at a time where this feeling was really making me down. Definitely makes me want to volunteer at some stage.

Sorry for the ramble! But yeah, I had a great time overall and once again I want to thank you all for the support, it really was the catalyst for me to actually show up and not just keep having it as a concept. I have to skip next week, but I'm committing myself to at least two more (I want to do Bournemouth again, and I've also heard Poole is a great local one) but if they stay as enjoyable as I found this one, I can't see myself stopping.

I did my first park run two weeks ago. I’m late 40s and though I walk a lot, I haven’t jogged in about 30 years. (I fractured my pelvis as a teen, and was never rehabbed). I jogged this thing extremely slowly (40 mins). Afterwards I went for a good dog walk to cool down. I spent all of Sunday and Monday in pain, struggled to walk. I couldn’t go last week, and went again today. Somehow my time was even slower. I stretched before and after and also took the dog out. Tonight despite a massage from my husband and a hot Epsom salt bath, I’m already seizing up. Tomorrow will not be fun. So my question is this, if I keep at a weekly 5km will it eventually get easier? Or do I need to go back and build up and walk/run? Is once a week even enough to get to a point where it gets better (I can’t face doing more tbh) Thanks.

Don’t seem to see them much any more. Are they even still a thing? Is it just another volunteer role to fill or is there another reason?

I will reach Heathrow at 6am, head to my hotel in central london near the Shakespeare’s globe to drop my luggage via an uber. Which parkrun would you recommend that is scenic, accessible and have good breakfast post run?

I was thinking of heading up to Hampstead Heath but the most convenient appears to be Southwark.

Update: I won’t be going tomorrow thankfully! You guys are awesome with so many suggestions so quickly!

Let everyone know how your parkrun went - where did you go? Any PB's or milestones?

Post it all below in this week's weekly thread.