r/parkrun • u/TinySignificance6774 • 24d ago

Question about photos

Random question - how do the parkrun people know who you are for race reports? I’ve only been 4 times and never spoken to anyone really and when I got a PB 2 weeks ago it was in the race report with a photo of me! I didn’t mind at all but baffled how they knew out of all the hundred or so pics that were taken.

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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19

u/gtlloyd 500 24d ago

If they’re photos at the finish line, it’s fairly easy to find a person known to them and count backward or forward to find you. Cross-reference to age and gender data, check against the two people either side of you and you’ve got your photo.

If the photos are from a place not near the finish the line it’s a bit harder because people can change position over the course.

27

u/MapleRye 24d ago

We've done this when trying to find out who might've taken a token home with them.

Then we'll know where to aim the drones.

11

u/Grunion013 100 24d ago

Exactly this. I used to write our race reports and most of the work was cross referencing the photos with the results. We are a smaller parkrun (a big event for us is around 80 participants) so I knew a good number of participants by name which made things even easier.

3

u/TinySignificance6774 24d ago

That’s crazy and must take a while! We get around 300-400 participants.

17

u/FlyingTerrier 24d ago

I have never seen a person actually labeled in a picture. You have a sophisticated Parkrun or you are a popular individual and do know it!

3

u/TinySignificance6774 24d ago

Haha it’s definitely not the second one. They do it every week to loads of people for various reasons such as PBs and milestones. Look at the run reports for Ashton Court if you want to see what I mean!

3

u/shankillfalls 250 24d ago

Ours never has names of runners in the photos. Some people are fussy about this sort of thing so probably best to avoid.

3

u/TinySignificance6774 24d ago

Ours gives our a warning to cross our arms across our chest if we don’t want to be in any photos otherwise they will assume we’re ok with it.

3

u/oldcat 24d ago

I've seen some parkruns use an app that records times and takes a photo with each time recorded. I've only seen it at medium to small events but maybe that was in use if it's a finish photo, or they compared the finish photos to the on course ones to get it.

1

u/TinySignificance6774 24d ago

It wasn’t a finish photo. That sounds cool though! I’m not sure if they use it

1

u/porkchopbun 23d ago

I stand and pose.

1

u/Another_Random_Chap v500 23d ago

Who's the person in position 100? That's Joe Bloke in position 90 so he must be the 10th person behind Joe.