Yes I think we need to ban bad weather, it doesn’t feel very inclusive for first timers 
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Ours gets canned mainly due to council not letting it proceed if too much damage is done to the playing fields, either that or half of it is under water. 
Oli G? I used to teach him (also, weirdly, his mum taught my son). He was on the BBC news at 10, last night, talking about it. Top bloke.
Yep!
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Lived in Ewell…went to school up the road…drank in the King Bill…trained in Nonsuch park…
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Yep! Small world!
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His Strava is a good follow - it’s not unusual for him to race Friday, twice on a Saturday (inc Parkrun) and on a Sunday. He’s got a world record for 40 miles to his name too.
Yes, we ended up following each other on Strava. We bumped into each other at the Kingsmeadow track about 5 years ago after I’d last taught him about ten years before. He was always a great runner.
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Sub 5s for me all the way this morning.
Parkcult number 50 
That’s it for me now 
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#93 for me. Absolutely knackered this morning after sleeping on the sofa with the baby who was a right shite last night.
Really warm this morning!
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Family visit to the Outlaws this weekend so escaped them all for an hour or two by parkrunning.
The 2 nearest were off due to flooding so went to Wimpole Estate. Great out & back course with only a couple of muddy sections & a couple of long inclines to take the smile off our faces.
Legs were heavy after a big day yesterday & travelling down last night but enjoyed mooching around with fellow cultists & had a good blowout.
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Number 149 for me at my home course, next week I’ll travel as it will be event 150 and venue 50 in my cult club.
Had planned to take it easy today but got dragged along a bit, eased up then kept fluctuating 
Anyway, around 21:45 
felt better than expected although I’ve still got a few aches but I need to accept that’s life now!
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Is that Poet’s next house? 
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his old one…moved out when he needed more space…
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North Lakes parkrun in Australia had an interesting first finisher today. See screenshot, I believe the results now say “unknown runner”
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This happened a few weeks ago when the initial report was released in the UK. Sharron Davies was a big contributor to the report about gender categories and this is where Parkrun came under spotlight. Which resulted in the changes they’ve made this week. The Saturday after its release there were many women who participated under adjusted “names” to be part of the protest. We had 1 at Phoenix - she was first woman home and has since had her result removed.
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It’s not quite a Ratner moment…but it’s good effort nonetheless…
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Saw this on Reddit but no legit link to the source.
An open letter from Russ Jefferys, CEO, parkrun Global
Dear parkrun community; ambassadors, event teams, and all participants. To the people who come along every weekend to be a part of the feel good phenomenon that is parkrun, to the occasional parkrunners, and to those yet to experience the magic.
When I took up my post as CEO, just over two years ago, I knew I was taking on the best job in the world. Because parkrun matters. It matters to me, it matters to millions of people around the world, it matters every single weekend, fifty two weeks of the year.
What I also knew when I took up this role, is that there would be plenty of challenges that would need to be faced head on. I knew that there would be big calls to make, and I knew that ultimately, I would be the person responsible for making them. With that said, I want to take full responsibility for what has happened over the past week surrounding the changes to the way we display performance related statistics and information on our websites.
And I want to take this opportunity to explain to you, the parkrun community, why we took the decision that we did.
parkrun only exists to inspire people, from any background, to come together, to be social, and active, in the great outdoors. That’s it. There is no other motive.
To do this we have a sharp, unwavering focus on removing the barriers to participation which persist for many people, especially for those whom physical activity may not be the norm, those who may never engage with traditional ‘sports’, or be able to afford gyms or other subscriptions, or find any inclusive and welcoming spaces for movement.
I say it again: parkrun only exists to bring people together. It is one of the world’s great levellers, a social health initiative, a sanctuary each weekend, right in the heart of local communities in more than 2,500 locations around the world.
People come to parkrun for many reasons. To be part of the amazing community they are welcomed into, to see their friends old and new, to get some fresh air, to catch up in the cafe afterwards. The parkrun barcode does not simply register a time, or log a volunteer credit, it is anyone’s ticket into one of the friendliest and most welcoming communities I believe exists in the world today. And that ticket is free, for everyone, forever.
I understand that not everyone feels the same, and that others will attend parkrun motivated by competition. That’s fine; everyone is welcome. But we must remember why parkrun exists, and where its true power lies. We must remember parkrun’s incredible ability to change the lives of those who may need it most: those with long term health conditions and those who’ve never found a place that believed in them before. Those struggling with loneliness, or many of the other myriad of challenges modern day life throws at us. Those who truly need free, regular access to physical activity, to community, to healthy habits, but may not have found it yet. And those who may feel intimidated, or afraid, or be convinced that places like parkrun aren’t for people like them.
We have dedicated parkrun’s more recent years to showing more and more people that they do have a home at parkrun. Analysing data, conducting surveys and focus groups, gathering insight, doing everything in our power to become as inclusive as possible. Adding in tail runners that later became tail walkers, introducing parkwalkers, and recognising volunteering as an equal form of participation.
Arguably, parkrun has succeeded in changing the wider narrative about what it even means to be physically active, what you have to wear, or look like, who you need to be. At parkrun you can be anyone. You are welcome. Everyone is welcome.
I truly believe that we have an obligation to continue identifying and removing the barriers that stand in the way. Records were one such example. The fear of finishing last, of being the ‘slowest’, of not being celebrated, of not being as good as everyone else, or not even able to finish at all. None of these things should be a barrier to joining parkrun, but it certainly wasn’t helpful that we were providing prominent links to a considerable amount of data from our home pages that was clearly performance related.
I have never advocated taking the easy option if it isn’t the right thing to do. In this instance, it was obvious we needed to modify our websites if we were to be true to our mission and values.
It is as simple as that. There is no hidden agenda at play. I want to be extremely clear on that.
We know that personal statistics matter, that they can be huge motivators. Many of you will have seen already that this data has not gone away. The information we email out every week, to hundreds of thousands of parkrunners, remains the same. Volunteers will still time the course, you still have the chance to record a personal best (I envy those of you who still might!), and you can still see your age grading if it matters to you.
We recognise everyone. Everyone matters at parkrun.
I hope you, the parkrun community will be able to understand why we have chosen to take this action. Being responsible for an organisation that changes the lives of millions, means being at risk, every time we make a change, of hurting people we care about.
The strength of feeling in response to these changes is evidence of how much people care about parkrun.
But we must bring it back to why parkrun exists, all it has achieved, all we have learnt, and all we must do to put the charity in the best possible position to truly unleash its potential as we continue along our ambitious five year strategy - more parkruns, more people, more lives changed, more lives saved.
I hope this offers you, the parkrun community, the explanation you deserve. That far from marginalising groups with this action, the idea was only ever to continue on the road to becoming a more inclusive and welcoming community for everyone, forever.
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I get his point despite the fact it started life as bushy park time trial and the 9 other events that started with that moniker. It was aimed at the athletic community.
But it took on a better purpose and is achieving what they say they want to. It’s mostly the competitive people that still see it as a race.
I personally don’t think many people are put off by seeing fast times, as I said above those people are likely to continue going as it is a weekly hard effort and they also see friends. It’s probably the absence of other races that pushed us to our Saturday morning fix.
At my local event in recent weeks I saw a lad who was practically last and said it was his first, I’ve seen him a few times since and he seems to be liking it and getting the health benefits 
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I remember hearing that there are a significant number of people who have registered for parkrun but never recorded an event. The website is the only thing these people have seen, so I can understand if they don’t want it to emphasise fast times. I know people who will scroll to the bottom of the results to decide if an event is slow enough for them.
The unoffical 5K app is still listing category records and fastest times for each location, so seems the data is still there for 3rd parties to use. Would seem to be a natural home for people who are interested in the data.
But does there come a point when fast runners are discouraged from participating? On multi-lap courses it can get pretty congested, I would be more intimidated by a group of fast runners cutting me up on a corner in real life than boasting about a fast time online. The park is for everyone, give way to dog walkers, general public and slower runners.
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