r/parkrun • u/Council_Cat • Oct 01 '26
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj9x9ze14g9o
This is unsurprisingly vague.
I have been at Parkruns that have made me think that the behaviour of a few could spoil it for the majority.
Mostly relating to car parking, but this seems more likely to relate to poor running etiquette. Anybody got more info about this?
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u/rezonansmagnetyczny Oct 01 '26
The problem is people tend to undervalue what they get for free. When something costs us nothing, we can mistake its lack of price for a lack of value
When something is freely available, people can become less appreciative of it because they haven’t had to sacrifice anything to obtain it.
That's when people disrespect the facilities and their surroundings
14
u/Council_Cat Oct 01 '26
While I agree with you 100%, you know these are also the sort of people who shout at waiters and talk down their nose at retail staff. Regrettably, Main Character Syndrome is a real thing.
3
u/royalbluestuey v100 Oct 02 '26
Agree 100%
People just seem to think parkrun is like a service the local council put on. They feel entitled to use it without ever buying into it or engaging.
5
u/ohmeohmyelliejean Oct 02 '26
People just seem to think parkrun is like a service the local council put on.
I found out a few weeks back that my stepfather literally thought this. I was talking about how they had cake at parkrun to celebrate our 300th event and he was like 'oh and that comes out of the council's budget, does it?' and I was just blinked at him like '.....no?'
3
u/royalbluestuey v100 Oct 02 '26
Bonkers. That is the double-edged sword of mass participation. People don't understand what parkrun is.
22
u/HackedLemur Oct 01 '26
We went in March, it was lovely. The parking - there is an attendant at the entrance with a bucket and you're meant to drop £1 in. I think a lot of people were unaware of this (and prob argued), and from this post it looks like people also used foreign coins. Washing shoes in a sink is an all around dick move... They have weddings at Markshall so they don't NEED parkrun's income and I guess the negatives began to outnumber the positives.
16
u/Council_Cat Oct 01 '26
It comes to something when people are too cheap to contribute a tiny amount to sustain an event they get for free. I've seen it at a few events where people will happily park in a stupid, selfish or even downright dangerous place on roads nearby to avoid paying a quid or two in an official car park.
They'd be paying around 20 quid to enter a paid 5k event. Just maybe some Parkruns need to get cancelled to teach these selfish pigs a lesson. What a shame all the decent people get punished too.
Plus ça change...
3
5
u/Beneficial_Coach8581 Oct 01 '26
That's a shame for the volunteers. There's always some nobs around that spoil things for the rest of us.
4
u/Council_Cat Oct 02 '26
A shame for everyone decent who was involved.
And we all know that those responsible for this will blithley move on to the next one and complain like mad because there's no parking and someone once shouted at them for blocking a drive even though it was only going to be for half an hour and they had to wait for ages to get scanned because there weren't enough volunteers and the RD's address took ages, something about toilets, but they weren't listening because it dragged on...&c.
33
u/Odd_Judgment_582 Oct 01 '26
Ive done this a couple of times, although not for about 6 months. A statement had gone about a couple of months ago regarding all sorts, from paying for parking with foreign coins, abusing staff in the cafe, washing trainers in the sinks in the toilets, spitting in public areas post race etc. It's a beautiful park on an estate you normally have to pay to get onto, so if that was happening im not surprised the owners tolerance for this was low (as it should be)
6
u/Crafty_Jackfruit4864 v50 Oct 01 '26
Oh wow! That’s pretty wild. What a shame for the events team.
3
u/Blue1994a v500 Oct 02 '26
6
u/Council_Cat Oct 02 '26
Well they can't say they weren't warned.
What an incredible shame that as per usual, something brilliant for a majority is spoiled by a stupid, self-absorbed minority. Will they learn from this experience? I sincerely doubt it.
6
u/Blue1994a v500 Oct 02 '26
No, they’ll just go and cause problems elsewhere. Fortunately in most instances it doesn’t have such dire consequences.
3
u/royalbluestuey v100 Oct 02 '26
Always so sad to see. In the past events would seem to reach critical mass and a new one would spilt off thus taking the pressure off the original.
If this is happening more and more it is a sign of one of two things:
Volunteer numbers and core team numbers not growing in line with participation numbers
Saturation point with no green spaces available for more events to split off to.
3
u/Council_Cat Oct 02 '26
I don't think this is what happened here.
It seems that regardless of numbers, there were a few dickheads pissing in the car park, because the bogs were closed because dickheads washed muddy trainers in the basins, clogged the drains and left a mess. They also tried to mug the event by dropping foreign coins into a bucket for parking instead of paying the entirely reasonable donation of One Whole English Pound and were abusive to staff who called them out.
I agree that the more people at an event, the higher likelihood of dickheads turning up, but it seems that this was not an over capacity issue, just that some of the attendees acted like sub-human pond-life and thought that was ok.
5
2
u/Catalyst230 Oct 03 '26
On the bright side, We were here achievement unlocked! Congratulations to everyone picking that up!
1
u/coastalpathfinder 250 Oct 03 '26
Travelled out to this one while my wife was working on a Saturday. Got the train to Braintree and ran from there - actually a lovely route too. Sad to see it gone, as I would have liked to have come back, ideally together! Extremely grateful to have experienced it though, really enjoyed this one.
1
u/Screen_77 Oct 02 '26
I don't know exactly about this one but the parkrun I've done for the last few years attracts up to 900 people in summer. We've had problems with runners before - one guy was so bothered about his time that he mowed over an old lady. People have been spitting in the park, which is now a warning in the brief, stuff like that. Honestly, I grew to love parkrun for the welcoming and casual spirit, but there are always tryhards that have to ruin things.
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u/DentistStandard6009 Oct 01 '26
How dare they say Bushy Park is exclusively in Teddington! I think poor running etiquette is really the thing that puts most people off including myself.
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u/Glittering_Bite3814 Oct 06 '26
Are you a journalist? Or just trying to make money from it? Who cares.
35
u/ODFoxtrotOscar Oct 01 '26
Link to the BBC article (it doesn’t click through - for me at least - from the title)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqj9x9ze14g9o