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The Parkrun Controversy: WE MUST DO BETTER!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ก.พ. 2024
- What the actual ****? Since when was Parkrun not the most inclusive place to be? Since when did anyone feel unwelcome by fellow runners and walkers?
Such a strange decision. The very essence of using exercise, whether it's walking or running, as a way to become/get healthy both physically and mentally, implies that you're trying to improve. A great way to measure that improvement is by time; in fact, it's the perfect method.
Whether you're first and trying to chase a record or last and trying to better your previous best, it doesn't matter. Improvement and progress do not discriminate.
I wasn't going to say anything because I thought it would just fix itself, being an obviously insane decision, but then I saw "an open letter" by Russ Jeffreys - which is quite a read and certainly leaves you in disbelief. I wondered about the background of Russ Jeffreys, so I looked into his history.
Now here's the story...check his background for yourself and tell me if you find anything sports- or running-related, or anything relevant at all, before joining Parkrun 8 years ago.
This is not a personal attack on Russ Jeffreys, but it would be interesting to know why, after some years of bribes, cover-ups, and firings, a Marketing Assistant is the CEO of Parkrun.
Put 10-year-olds on a football field, and within a few minutes, they'll have arranged each team so that they're playing the most competitive game possible... which is, of course, the most fun. It's the same on an individual level as it is in a group - we need that carrot to be just the right distance away; too far or too close, and we get bored.
A final message - stay in your lane, and stop making us go at the slowest person's pace. We're losing to the rest of the world due to utter nonsense.
Parkrun controversy, inclusivity vs. competition, speed data removal, Parkrun competitive spirit, exercise improvement, community response, Russ Jeffreys Parkrun, open letter reaction, fitness community debate.'
Very well put bro, just done a park run today, talking with some of the usual's there. We're talking about trying to beat our PR's, motivating each other, just trying to be better than last week. That's what it's about bro completely agree.
Cheers mate. Yeah, they're turning their back on the exact recipe that's made Parkrun a huge success.
Very well put. Great video. It makes no sense. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And definitely don't employ someone with a marketing background!
Exactly!
So I wasn’t aware of this. Thanks for bringing it to everyone’s attention. I think the world we live in has gone sooooo liberal that we are losing our identity as individuals and as a society. This Parkrun is one such example. My question would be: why trying to fix something that isn’t broken? Like you said, people show up to Parkrun to run with others and to be better than they were yesterday. It is already inclusive. What is next I wonder? If I run my next marathon in about 5 hours and Kipchoge wins in 2 hours, shall I complain that none of us stand a chance and we should take away the times run for athletes and take away podium so that I can feel included and valued?? 🤯🤯🤯 I mean what is next?? And this is not going to end here. I fear things will get much worse in our society. Where we will be so blended into one beige mess that we will not know who we are and what we stand for. Some scary stuff!
Agree! I would like to play for Man United this Saturday afternoon, then have a shower in milk, and play the drums at the Oasis reunion. Surely this is only fair, since I want it? I think we're about to hit a tipping point, and that'll come with China/India taking pole position, power-wise....partly due to size, but also the West is asleep at the wheel with petty issues like this.
Such a strange decision.
Those at the back of the pack ain't going to be looking at records and caring 2 hoots about them.
Those at the front it provides a small insentive to set new records but the chances are if your setting Park Run records you have bigger fish to fry!
Exactly - bizarre decision, and the open letter to justify, although lengthy, doesn't answer the simple question of "why"..
@@leegrantham maybe a case of doing something to be seen to be doing something?!
Have also seen bounded around the whole trans person point/stance here pushed for it to be removed but am unfamiliar with quite why
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@@Janielutonit would be sad if it was about that, as for the Trans community it's not helping at all.
I also feel slightly sad about the changes for my own reasons. But I can recognise that this isn't about me. It is clear that the communications and culture of parkrun make it feel exclusive and intimidating for people that need it most.
People who say it is liberal + snowflakey, look past your own annoyance and think about who this is really about!! The fact is the current communications + culture of parkrun are not encouraging the people who have most to gain, to attend.
This isn't about people (like me) who are lucky enough to have found running already. If you are still upset...why not create a regular timed race for the community. parkrun is a free community focused run and therefore can't cater to everyone.
"Why not create a regular, free timed run" - that's exactly what this is and was. Why cater SPECIFICALLY for a minority when it's already as inclusive as it gets.
I'm not annoyed with Parkrun, it's total bullshit, but they're weak and folded under a tiny amount of pressure, using the CEO as a puppet. What's annoying is the movement pretending to be inclusive when it's absolutely not.
We do parkrun most Saturdays here. It starts at 7 am here in Aus ❤
Best sporting initiative ever - will have to hit some common sense on this issue soon. New CEO blames old CEO for idea kind of headline, then challenges him to a race against the clock.
They may say its about making it safer for people to get involved, but it was clearly to head off Park Run being dragged into the TERFs battle ground. Blame them for trying to use something that was so pure and postive in the world, into something to use to fight a fight which only a tiny amount of society genuinely cares about.
That’s the frustration, “so pure and positive”.
Safeguarding the female category is so important. Long may the protests for fairness continue
@@onamonday1 I agree, common sense should always prevail.
Well done a good video. I just wish you had talked about the unfairness for women. We want two categories Female - sex at birth and an open category
Yep, agree. Not rocket science or difficult to implement, so the only sticking point is "branding" which is nonsense.
Couldn’t have said it better
Thanks Joe
At the end of the day this still is a volunteer run weekend fun run, not the Olympics. If their idea is to get people off the couch and moving and they think this helps increase the number of participants then they should see pretty soon if this has the effect they want. If this turns out to be detrimental to participants then I would think they’d consider reversing the change. If people want to run competitive races there are races people can sign up for, win prize money, age group trophies, etc. Not every physical activity needs to be a bastion of competitiveness, to me a park run seemed like an odd place for that kind of energy. This is coming from someone who ran track in college. Don’t know if it’s worth making a mountain out of a molehill, but it will be interesting to see how this impact participation in the future.
Why do you TH-camrs always think its about getting better ? No it isn't. I'm happy the way it is, its about getting worse at a slower rate.
You're better than that, Gerry. Or at least, you're less worse.
Yep, I made a resolution on New Year’s Eve 2022 that I would run it regularly for a year. My times really didn’t improve much and fluctuated more than they got shorter.
To be honest for me it was mostly a mental health thing. I am young and healthy and haven’t run it in under 26 minutes.
I could if I tried to, I’m sure, get much faster. But it’s not about the times.
I think many people feels the same way. This decision doesn’t affect me, and I’m not opposed to it.
I see a lot of support in the comments but I found this rant to be disorganised, and uninformed.
Parkrun is not going to stop timing events or publishing the times. You’ll still be able to see your past times, and the finishing times for each parkrun.
From your video, I got the impression I had missed something much bigger, that they were going to stop timing all together, or at least publishing the times publicly.
What they’ve done is much less than what you made it seem. They’re going to stop publishing weekly the top times for men and women, record times and age graded records.
This isn’t a small oversight it completely destroys your argument. You spoke a lot about the reason people exercise being about improving their time, or beating themselves. Well, you still can. Your times are right there, where they’ve always been.
But I would actually challenge you on this point. I am 23 and the times are definitely not unimportant to me. But they aren’t the reason I go most Saturdays. But I am younger than most of the people who go. I think the average time is like 30 minutes at my course. Clearly, beating last weeks time is not a huge priority for most participants. I would argue for health reasons, socialisation, recreation are all motivations for people, and the notion that exercise is about getting faster or stronger and that five kids with a ball will prove this is deeply flawed.
So why are the record times no longer displayed?
It’s an effort to make parkrun seem less competitive. Contrary to your claim in the video that parkrun is a race, we are reminded most weeks that it is not a race. It is officially non-competitive.
Basically, parkrun want to attract as many people as possible. They want to be seen as a health and well-being initiative, with no barriers to entry. It’s free, in a public park weekly and anyone can come, not just runners.
In light of this, it makes sense not to publish the fastest times each week. That does make it seem like a race. And having course records too.
So the move, whether you like it or not, does make sense when considering that parkrun is not a race, is non-competitive and aims to be as “beginner friendly” as possible.
How many people were scared off? I don’t know. This probably won’t make a huge difference in my opinion.
Although, I would say people like you probably are scaring off casuals and especially those who would struggle to run 5k let alone be competitive.
The way you spoke about the tail walkers was particularly telling. They aren’t just there to come last each week and trick whoever really did into feeling better. I mean they wear bloody hi-vis vests with “tail walker” written on them. If anything, this would make me want to speed up if I cared at all about not finishing last.
But so what if people feel better about walking it? You said something about moving at the pace of the slowest. No. Nobody is telling anyone to slow down. Run as fast as you want. They’ll still time you, and publish your times.
I realised by the end of your video that this was a political rant. You’re upset about your country, (dude parkrun is global, wake up!!!) and seemed to be pissed off about inclusion.
That’s one thing. But just come out and say it. “They’ve stopped showing the course records and I don’t care if this encourages more people to take up walking or running because for me, this is a competition and I don’t care if uncompetitive people participate or not.”
Don’t have me sit through 7 minutes of a video before unveiling that your objection is about UK culture not making you proud anymore.
Total nonsense and you absolutely know that. You started off on the right track but then revealed your truth.
...and nobody made you sit through anything, so, jog on.
Parkrun was originally called a time trial. Which is fundamentally still is but not being recognised.
It has fallen in the participation award BS and no scoring bullshit that has crept into sports for a decade and now we have seen the decline in children being flogs into teens and adulthood
@@leegranthamYou haven't got a clue what you're talking about. You dont do parkrun, you don't volunteer, you don't do anything but offer half baked opinions. Please kindly do one, you not quite elite athlete.
@@ThePrefabsuperstar Awesome mate!
@emilchandran546 I could not agree more! This comment is 10 times more thoughtful and rational as the main video