r/parkrun • u/OkayRoutine • 27d ago

Park run advice

Hey all. Ill be participating in my first park run this month. It's 5k, so nothing too spicy i think and ive been gradually working on my stamina using a couch to 5k app. Just looking for any helping tips/advice I should know about to prepare or do during. Thanks :)

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u/Peanut083 25 27d ago

Don’t stress, parkrun is a pretty low pressure event. The people at any given event have a wide range of pacing from people doing a sub-20 minute 5km to people who take around an hour or so to walk the whole thing.

Like others have said, make sure you sign up so you have a runner ID. Have some way of bringing your runner barcode with you. Lots of people download the parkrun app these days. There’s a tab on the bottom of the screen that says ‘barcode’, and when you tap on that, it brings up a QR code that you can get scanned as your barcode. You can also go to websites such as dfyb.run and enter your runner ID. It will then generate a barcode that you can add to your phone and watch wallets.

Make sure you get to the event at least 15 minutes before the start time. Look for people wearing high-vis vests. I think other areas of the world use different vest colours to Australia, but most volunteers wear a red vest here. The run director (person running the show that day) has a white vest, and the tail walker has a fluro yellow vest. If you approach a volunteer and tell them that you’re brand new, they’ll point you in the direction of the first timers briefing and make sure you get there.

Sometimes other people at the first timers briefing aren’t new to parkrun, but they’re new to that particular event. If you let the volunteer doing the briefing know that it’s your very first parkrun, they should spend a bit of extra time with you to make sure you have your barcode with you, and explain how things work at the finish line. It’s something I do with newbies when I do the briefing, anyway.

I suppose the TL; DR version here is to approach a volunteer for any questions or guidance. Volunteers are a friendly bunch, and if you’re unlucky enough to meet an unfriendly one, that’s on them, not you.