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Nov 2017
9:45am, 7 Nov 2017
37,108 posts
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Velociraptor
The bigger events may be different, but I don't see many people at our local parkruns ambling along having a picnic and a chat, even at the back, and there's a good turnout of competitive club runners, and active encouragement for participants to support local races.
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Nov 2017
10:03am, 7 Nov 2017
19,985 posts
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LindsD
Yup. Same here.
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Nov 2017
10:16am, 7 Nov 2017
18,473 posts
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Doc Moye
And here. Loads of club runners at all the parkruns around me. some really impressive front running going on and very few walkers.
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Nov 2017
10:36am, 7 Nov 2017
347 posts
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Arjin
We have a few walkers, but not every week and most of them are quicker than the run/walkers finishing in 40-45 mins.
Sometimes we have a slow walker, but rarely are they not trying their hardest.
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Nov 2017
10:47am, 7 Nov 2017
532 posts
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Dibble
During the week I find that it's very easy to get disillusioned about parkrun as you learn about what feels to me like needless irritations such as the tail runners being re-branded, the run report being curtailed and perfectly good equipment having to be thrown out because of a change of sponsors.
Then I get to Saturday morning and realise that all those changes make no difference to me being able to enjoy meeting up with everyone for what I can still treat as a 5km race.
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Nov 2017
10:50am, 7 Nov 2017
51 posts
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mascott514
Yep! 200 plus people, of all abilities trying their best at mine. We have an 80 plus year old walker, who has previously run many marathons. Should he stop?
I am yet to visit an event where those fast runners can't run fast. Indeed at our event, those are the very people you see walking back down the course cheering on others.
It has changed over the years, but last time I checked it was still a timed 5km event, that you can run as fast as you like.
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Nov 2017
10:56am, 7 Nov 2017
3,262 posts
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larkim
I think its probably easier to get "disillusioned" with it if you are a long time regular who's interest is in running fast. But I still think that if you were part of a running club scene where there was no parkrun, you would still find plenty to engage you if one suddenly sprang up on your doorstep.
Most people who run parkrun, whether they are club runners, mid-pack runners or C25K first timers, aren't aware of any of the "politics" or emphasis changes in the background. They just see the 5k, once a week, timed, free nature of it and get what they want out of it.
I also think that the local team can have a significant influence on how it feels depending on their background. I'd probably not be so keen on our local one if it was forever having fancy dress runs, making milestone runners wear daft costumes, or OTT celebrations of inherently slow runners (who aren't trying to run). Ours just keeps things simple - turn up and run. Which is perhaps why I don't quite see the creeping dumbing down that others do, as well as the fact that I'm not at all involved in the core team so I don't get so exposed to the change of tone etc from HQ etc.
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Nov 2017
11:06am, 7 Nov 2017
47 posts
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blindcider
sounds like a call out of Lazy Daisy with the silly milestone costumes comment there larkim 
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Nov 2017
11:19am, 7 Nov 2017
5,190 posts
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sallykate
Same as Arjin: our regular walkers are not "ambling" but working as hard as they can. And our local (very competitive) running club is always very well represented, seeing parkrun as an event in itself and helping each other to PBs.
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Nov 2017
11:20am, 7 Nov 2017
19,987 posts
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LindsD
Dibble for president!
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