S95 =

Saturday, 9am, 5k.

Around 24 people took part, was 2.5km along the Danube and back. Lovely course and a lovely crowd of mainly Russians living in Belgrade.

Strangely my Parkrun barcode worked to get my time

A mate and I are planning a trip from the UK to tick off our Z parkrun. We’re both in our 30s, big into parkrun, and want to make a proper Saturday of it with good food, a few drinks and exploring the city.

We’re looking for somewhere sociable to stay on the Friday night, ideally a hostel that parkrun tourists regularly use or recommend, rather than just a generic party hostel. Somewhere with a bar and a friendly atmosphere would be ideal, but we’d rather not be right in the middle of the noisiest nightlife.

Has anyone done the trip recently? Where did you stay, how did you get to the event, and would you recommend it?

I know milestones is generally for total events run but I fell like this is cool achievement. Wasn't sure if most people would not really care and think 'why are you bringing this up' though?

Whether you are part of the flag, or more of a pole – straight but supportive – this is a group for parkrunners celebrating and supporting the inclusive nature of parkrun, and standing against those who attack it. Joining shows you care that parkrun is for everybody, whoever they are, and for whether they choose to walk, jog, run or volunteer.

Follow the link to join the group and add your name to this grassroots movement. If you are joining through the app, you must do it with your parkrun.com account, and not the account you might have used with the app before it was aquired by parkrun. If you’re unsure, just join the group via the parkrun website.

To be clear, this has not been organised by parkrun officially. This group has been set up by me, David, specifically in response to the transphobic attacks against parkrun, and so whilst the LGBTQ+ community was in mind when this was set up, it is here to celebrate that all are welcome at parkrun and that as parkrunners we stand against bigotry of any kind.

That being said, as Adam Bates has said “You can say ‘all are welcome,’ but if wolves and sheep are both welcome then you’re only going to get wolves. The smart sheep will go somewhere else and the naive sheep will be eaten and processed. If you welcome Islamophobes and Muslims then you’ll get Islamophobes. If you welcome Klan members and people of color then you’ll get Klan members. If you welcome nativists and immigrants you’ll get nativists.

Refusing to choose is a choice. It’s a choice in favor of the people who prey on others and who refuse to acknowledge the humanity of those they hate.”

This is Paradox of Tolerance put forward by Karl Popper: “If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”

Join the Flag and Pole runners and stand up for tolerance and against bigotry at parkrun!

Between the two storms hitting the UK over the weekend, it was wonderful to catch a calm, crisp morning at this lovely venue.

Running among the tall trees brought back memories of Sherwood Pines parkrun further north. The route is an out-and-back course featuring a loop through the woodland at the far turnaround point.

The facilities on-site are excellent, with clean toilets and refreshments available. On-site parking is pay-and-display (around £3.50, though worth checking local notices to confirm), but I opted for free parking at the Embankment, an easy 10-minute walk from the start line.

The surface consists of compact gravel throughout, with gentle, minor undulations along the way. The volunteer team was exceptionally cheerful and supportive from start to finish.

A standout community initiative was an informal clothing swap and reuse station for runners to recycle pre-loved kit—a fantastic touch.

Overall, a brilliant morning out: my 332nd parkrun, 112th different venue, and the final piece to tick off the "Old MacDonald" challenge! (E-I-E-I-O)

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/irchestercountry/course/

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Its already an expensive place to fly there to visit and do parkrun. Hoping the locals will keep it going for hardcore parkrun tourists.

Lord Howe Island parkrun due to begin 14th November

Our local ParkRun is 3 laps of quite a tight park path. It’s great fun and I love it (got a new PB this morning).

I appreciate it’s for fun and not a race etc, but a lot of people want to improve each week. A growing problem is people setting off way ahead of their expected times and slowing everything down behind them. This morning was the worst so far, I’m only doing around 30 mins at the moment but I passed over 50 people on the first lap and by the 2nd there was loads of people walking who had started way in front. We have the timing markers and I always line up where I should and then watch people who are obviously not going to be doing 24 minutes wandering past, people with young kids, prams etc. It’s very frustrating and, may I suggest, a little selfish

That'd be nuts, Google says there are currently 2,358 adult parkruns - which makes it nigh impossible to have achieved unless you did it in the very early days of the org. Curious to know!

Fun Fact - my letter 'O' was the day after I'd ran a 50-mile ultra

I love to volunteer and particularly enjoy pacing; the delight on runners' faces when they hit their PB and I've had a small part to play in helping them do so is fantastic!

This morning however I hit a snag. Some runners saw that I was about to overtake them and then actively moved into my path. It wasn't many, but it was multiple times, and was often on a narrower section of track where simply moving out past them wasn't easy.

I fully understand not wanting to be behind your target, but holding up the pacer isn't going to alter whether you are or not - the clock doesn't stop just because I'm not there when I'm meant to be!

What it can do, especially when it happens multiple times, is make my job of being bang on time a thousand times more difficult. This in turn can impact other runners who are targeting the pace I'm meant to be running. This is particularly true for courses that have poor GPS signal, where I'm having to rely on mental arithmetic to keep on track.

So please, allow the pacers through with being impeded deliberately.

Thank you to the amazing team and super charismatic RD at Amsterdamse Bos parkrun today. It was rainy, cold and muddy but we had a ball. Such a beautiful natural course (single lap!) with exactly 100 finishers today 😊

I’m coming up to my 25th Park Run and wondered what the process is to order the commemorative T-Shirt? Is there a website we order them from? Also, does Park Run contact you directly to say anything about milestone events?

Thanks in advance!!

So this was the 2nd time it went to Norwich’s Parkrun at Eaton Park and it was still as lovely of a sight as it was the first time. Last time tho was during a heatwave and i struggled over the line in a little over 39 minutes. This time however was a totally different story! A NEW PB!!!!!!! 32:40, which has also cut off over a minute off of my last PB!!!!!

I notice Australia has a lot of 8am starts, USA has a mix of 8 and 9am, South Africa varies between 7 and 8am depending on season, Europe 9am.
Is it only due to the heat /weather conditions or are there other PR’s that start at different times for an other reason?

Apologies if this has been raised previously.

I've been volunteering a lot this year due to a hip replacement.

If I did these volunteer efforts at different parkruns, would these count towards an alphabet?

Or does the alphabet challenge only apply to situations where you complete the 5k? (That would include volunteering as tail walker or park walker, of course.)

If the latter, it seems to me there's scope for a volunteer alphabet challenge too that doesn't necessarily require doing the 5k.

When you go to a parkrun and the race director starts telling everyone where people are visiting from and announces parkrun milestones, how do they know?

I’ve been trying to document the different parkruns that I do with my parkrun gang, and then cut the videos down to around 90 seconds to make things short(ish) and sharp!

I was expecting around the 500 mark for this one. The 700+ that turned out made it an interesting half and hour!

I'm volunteering at a parkrun tomorrow as a marshal on the course and the RD posted my full name on the parkrun's Facebook page with all the other volunteers. This wouldn't normally be an issue except I recently had a man stalking me through my strava. He was trying to engineer situations so that I would be aline with him. I reported him to the club we're both in and blocked him on all the socials. I'm afraid to go tomorrow in case he shows up. I have an unusual name so it will be easy for him to tell it's me. I dont want to let them down but also afraid to go.

UPDATE: So I got my brother to come to marshal with me and the strange man never showed yay!

I think I'll ask parkrun hq to update my details so I'm not so findable online. I've blocked him on everything. I don't mind when they release the rota info afterwards. But I was just surprised that they posted it onto Facebook ahead of the event. I understand that the volunteer rota is available online but I think it's less obvious than Facebook.

My strava has always been set to private unless I approve the follower. I received the request to add him as a follower when I joined a new club a few weeks ago and because he was friends with other ppl in the club I naively thought he was ok. Will NOT be making that mistake again! I didn't even realise ppl could send messages on strava. I've disabled that now. I've raised it to the safeguarding lead for that club and they are looking into as he has apparently done this with a few other women in the same club! Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I’ve also made a POV Vlog for the Norwich Parkrun. Here is the link for it: https://youtu.be/X_uyYSVYlMs?is=XNQsDKIiLDpMvDS-

11 down, 70 to go!

Wimbledon Common was beautiful. This was recorded back at the end of August, and was such a delight to see some a bit of rain, greenery and woody trails, after all the weeks of scorched grass parkruns!

I hope you enjoy the video, enjoy your parkrun tomorrow, and I'll catch you next week.

Peace GG.

There's a storm coming this weekend in the UK and Ireland. My friend dropped out from volunteering this week, scared of the storm! Do you think parkruns will go ahead?

Edit/update: all the parkruns in my local area were cancelled

Due to changes to the course made by the local council - just thought I’d share this in case anyone was considering going :)

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0JjdkGDvMzn3sn2zoTcAsLVEd5gv2gCgTe7RKoVfmKxzBSs17gDL4L1bjG9uohetwl&id=100072488562665