Let's talk about inaugural parkruns after they've happened.
1 lurker |
310 watchers
Dec 2018
1:36pm, 3 Dec 2018
5,201 posts
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Dooogs
(not sure what that 'T' was going to be!)
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Dec 2018
1:41pm, 3 Dec 2018
18,024 posts
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flanker
There seems to be a general trend in officiousness in the parkrun higher ranks these days, from edicts such as this to enforcing daft naming conventions. It all seems to be becoming very corporate. I'm sure the reasoning will be that it needs it to be as such to function at its current scale. Looking in from the outside (and that's the view most people will have and the one they need to be mindful of) I'm not convinced it is necessary, but more a need to exert authority, and I do worry that parkrun nationally is losing some of its charm. It seems a long way from what PSH espoused back in the early days. Maybe it's coincidence he has far less involvement these days? I'm sure I'll get several ambassadors telling my why I'm wrong. I may be. But I do hear many others saying similar things. Irrespective of whether it's reality or just perception, it's not healthy, especially for an organisation that is wholly reliant on the goodwill of its volunteers and needs a steady pipeline of new volunteers. Sorry - that turned into a bit of a monologue 
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Dec 2018
1:59pm, 3 Dec 2018
197 posts
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blindcider
The biggest complaint people I have received about Somerdale pavilion parkrun is the name. Normally, "why isn't it called Keynsham?" Incidentally, that was the name we requested...
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Dec 2018
3:25pm, 3 Dec 2018
2,958 posts
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Fizz :-)
At least you're not Fire Service College . . .
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Dec 2018
8:07pm, 3 Dec 2018
264 posts
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Spideog
I'd doubt if HQ said anything other than "about 50 is a good number for a test event" and a combination of Chinese Whispers and things getting lost in translation on the way to the ambassador and then the event team it became "you MUST have 50 runners".
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Dec 2018
9:55pm, 3 Dec 2018
24,733 posts
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DingDongMerrilyDaisy
I'm looking forward to going to the Fire Service College parkrun at some point. I did a 10k there about six years ago, and although it was April we had unseasonably vicious sleet and a howling gale It was quite weird running past buildings and 'things' where the firemen did their practicals
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Dec 2018
11:12pm, 3 Dec 2018
260 posts
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njosmith
We had two trials before our first event, both on the Sunday morning to allow parkrunners to attend without having to skip their regular parkrun. The first was friends and family only and wasn't advertised and we had 11 runners. The second we advertised on our facebook page and a couple of local parkrun facebook groups and we got about 40 runners which we thought was plenty. We then had 265 runners at out inaugural which was a relief as a nearby event started the week before us with 800 runners and they really struggled with the numbers. I think the difficulties at the inaugural the week before put a lot of people off inaugurals so we were lucky we were the week after and not the other way around or it could have easily been us that copped it.
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Dec 2018
12:13am, 4 Dec 2018
18,026 posts
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flanker
Was that the inaugural that set out to achieve the record for the biggest ever, heavily publicised its start and had various celebs etc?
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Dec 2018
1:45am, 4 Dec 2018
39 posts
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JJJ
No, I don't think the ambassador would stop the trial event if there were less than 50, I'll make discreet enquiries when I see them and find out how many were at the trial and what the story is about 50 minimum - they were putting more effort into keeping the dates quiet than they were in recruiting a big number for the trial - there's been no social media for the trial, only word of mouth.
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Dec 2018
2:31am, 4 Dec 2018
40 posts
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JJJ
"It seems a long way from what PSH espoused back in the early days" ????? PSH's original vision was 50 people in Bushy park each week so it has definitely changed. As it's grown things have had to change, it was all very nicely amateurish when I started 9 years ago it has had to become more regulated - the first day I ran there were 19 events and 1900 finishers worldwide, now there are c1500 / 250,000. HQ was Jo and Paul S-H with their mates helping out part time, but there's now still only about 35? staff worldwide which is small for the number of events/runner. In comparison, a couple of years ago British Swimming employed 246 and Netball 149. I'm in an event core team and we don't have any officiousness from HQ; there's a better structure to support us (ambassadors and staff), the only 'interference' from HQ is adjudication but that's very gentle, it' not done in secret, the teams know they're getting a visit, are given the check list in advance and adjudicators are at minimum core team, maybe RD, I can't remember which. When rules have changed over the years and people have moaned (1 dog, tail walker, points table, a couple more) I've always tried to look at from the point of view of an average runner who doesn't know the history or politics, just prints their barcode and turns up on a Saturday and it really hasn't changed (apart from bigger numbers) - it's still a few weekly 5k. I agree that Fire Service College is an odd name, but if you live near there you'll know exactly where it is. In the early days naming was much broader - Glasgow for instance, no one thought there would ever be more than 1 in Glasgow, maybe only ever 1 in Scotland so the name was fine and we now know how wrong that was!! so FSC will have been named to allow that Moreton-in-Marsh might get one (or two!) as well in the future. |
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