parkrun UK Omdömen 19

Got in touch with Parkrun about one of their runners posting publicly to thousands online the real identity of a fellow runner who was trans alongside their location, threatening violence and harassment. They got back to me, saying they weren’t ‘in a position to police social media channels’ - fair enough, but when the email ends (plus their FAQ page!) with ‘everyone is welcome at parkrun’, you’d expect them to be a bit more concerned about someone using parkrun as a jumping off point to harass another runner. I’m glad to see other reviews who have found it welcoming - I’m just disappointed that for such a clear case of discrimination within parkrun, they don’t seem to take the safety/wellbeing of their community very seriously.

2025 - first year in ages where parkrun management have not screwed up and upset their core supporters..... probably because they finally got rid of the terrible CEO. So onwards and upwards for this force for good and a magnificent aid to a healthier lifestyle, both physically and mentally. Thanks to all the wonderful VOLUNTEERS.

One word to describe this: brilliant!

Parkrun changes lives!

There are over 800 Parkruns in the country, each staffed with enthusiastic volunteers and in unique and varied locations. From the town centre parks, urban dockyards, racecourses, countryside locations, lakeside woods and more, there will be a 5k run/walk/jog near you.

The only complaint are a few men - and it's mostly men - who believe that "Self ID" of gender is a problem. It's not. We all run together, the time is for you - and only you, and the only alternative they want is to exclude LGTBQ participants or gender checks at the finish line! It's nonsense.

Parkrun is a welcoming, warm community that embraces communal exercise, where you can have a leisurely pootle around fantastic courses or try to better your PB each week. And it doesn't matter if you do it in 15 minutes or 50 minutes; 5k is still 5k!

I was involved in the setting up of my local parkrun. I volunteered over 100 times and was heavily involved. Unfortunately the competitive element ,which I believe is important in running , was gradually taken away until I decided I did not want to take part anymore.
I was just about to have another go when I found out that they were removing all the statistics which to me makes no sense at all.
The management have no respect for all the volunteers that give their time every week.

Such a great concept only to be utterly ruined by autocratic managers.

It is free but you will be bombarded with emails trying to sell you very overpriced stuff.

It’s also utterly awful that the management continues to allow men to run in the female category, spoiling the event for many women. Then they removed the stats (which many people loved) to try and hide the fact that men were claiming women’s course and age grade records. Then lied to everyone about why they had done it.

To be clear it’s the management that is the issue, the local event organisers, work hard and are great, but are being utterly let down by the very questionable direction the senior management team is now taking parkrun.

I have been attending parkrun for over 11 years but no longer volunteer or buy the merch. Since they refuse to change their gender self ID registration policy it’s clear they care nothing for fair sport for women and girls. Their attitude towards the people who want to bring back the stats is shameful.

Parkrun HQ still haven't addressed the gender issue and discrimination against women and girls born female at birth. It is now more than 6 months since the UK Government warned parkrun UK to get their house in order, giving them 12 months to solve this problem. Yet parkrun HQ hide their heads in the sand and refuse to tackle and take action on this topic. This situation needs to be resolved urgently before the UK Government request that all UK Councils withdraw their permission in allowing parkrun UK to use their public parks and other spaces. This consent and authorisation is critical to parkrun continuing to take place at weekends. The 12 month timeframe expires next February 2025 or shortly thereafter. There was dialogue between the UK Government and Sebastian Coe's World Athletics on one side and parkrun HQ on the other side over the transgender issue. Both the UK Government and World Athletics recommended to parkrun HQ that they adopt a 'female at birth' category, but Russ Jefferys, CEO, parkrun Global refused to make changes outlined in the Policy Exchange report. The Policy Exchange report said "Sport England, the Government's body for community sport should tell parkrun HQ that it must collect participants' data based on biological sex, rather than gender identity. If this does not happen within 12 months, taxpayers' funding should be withdrawn." Alternatively, the UK Government could take other action or other major sponsors could withdraw their funding.

This used to be a great public activity, until the organisers decided they would allow men to run in the women's category. Women's records are no longer their own, as faster men bump them down the rankings. When challenged about this unfairness, parkrun doubled down, and allowed their misogyny to overrule common sense. They're now losing volunteers, like me, in their droves, thanks to their arrogance and failure to engage with their supporters. I'm boycotting parkrun until the current leadership are replaced by people who know what a woman is; centre their participants and events over corporate jollies; restore our trust by strict fairness and sportsmanship; and they bring back the stats they removed to try to obscure their discrimination towards women.

I’d give parkrun as an organisation 1 star, it has forgotten about its people in pursuit of greater revenue, parkrun are not listening to their participants and the majority of its core runners, who if were on side are free marketing, as it stands now these runners are upset about the removal of some statistics which are extremely motivational for 1,000’s of participants, therefore the word being spread about parkrun now is only derogatory about the organisation itself.
The volunteers and participants on the ground at a Saturday morning parkrun each week I would give a 5 star review

Parkrun has just celebrated 20 years of existence. It started as a community event and I believe the organisation were true to their values for the first fifteen years.
Unfortunately, charity status and sponsorship is the only thing that is chased now.
Loyal parkrunners have been let down by a CEO who seems only to be interested in money.
The organisation now imposes rules without consultation, for example the banning of dog harnesses and the removal of helpful statistics. It is more of a cash cow than a community event now. Their turnover has increased from 3 million a year to 5 million just recently. Staff expenses are massive and the volunteer groups are made to beg for money to buy equipment.
27,000 parkrunners signed a petition asking the management to engage more appropriately and the representatives were just met with sarcasm and hostility from the founder of the organisation and the CEO.
They were told "it's our playground, and if you don't like it you should just leave"
It's now a divided community and doesn't feel inclusive.

Used to be a running group that supported individual improvement in a socially competitive environment.
Changed direction and is now focused on sponsors ,money .

Created by the people for the people and now taken over by money hungry CEOs who want to destroy everything that is great about parkrun.

Such a wonderful social enterprise to engage millions of people in free, weekly exercise. Everyone is welcome and so many have experience the fun of weekly runs and cafes and friends. Long may it continue.

You can travel the world and use the same free barcode to run at other events. It’s quite amazing.

Used to be good. But then the lies and dictatorship started.

Seem to think that removing the stats that so many people judged themselves against is for the benefit of everyone. It’s not, it’s basically a lie to cover their approach towards women’s sport. Simply not acceptable. Their core values are seemingly all lies based on this. They don’t care as it’s “their playground and they can do what they like, so if one person leaves, 100s will be waiting to replace them” or so their claim goes.

Power hungry CEO driven by money, yet doesn’t seem to want to answer where all the money actually goes… salary and bonuses it would seem. Not a charity at all, it’s a big fraud

Parkrun used to be a good initiative. Then it went ‘woke’ and discriminated against women and then lied to its base of supporters for removing the beloved statistics that encourage vast numbers of people to improve. This was because ‘stats on a website are a barrier to participation’.
Strange though that Elder runners used the age grading tables to push themselves to move up their rankings, as they can’t look to beat the younger runners.
Course or age group records have been removed meaning those runners who trained so hard for their achievement have now had it removed, and unable to show it to their children.
Certain neuro diverse runners were attracted by the stats, now that’s been taken away from them they feel left out and lost.
A ‘most events’ table to encourage parkrunners to visit other events has been removed to, get this, ‘save the planet’.
It’s safe to say non of the studies, data or research that parkrun say they have done to justify these changes has been released. It’s just a case of ‘trust me bro’.
All this is to be ‘more inclusive’
Yes that’s right, they think they are being inclusive by discriminating against hundreds of thousands of parkrunners.
Parkrun use words like ‘kind’ ‘supportive’ and ‘inclusive’ when in fact they should use words like ‘mean’, ‘bullies’, discriminatory’, ‘offensive’ and ‘liars’

Parkrun used to be an excellent weekly timed 5k run open to all ages and abilities. Unfortunately, when Russ Jefferys took over as CEO, decisions such as the removal of the stats and his arrogant “we’re in charge we make the rules attitude” have alienated many parkrunners and taken the movement in a direction alien to what we all knew and loved.

Fantastic way to improve your health. Friendly. Opportunities to join in at your own pace. You can walk, jog or run. It’s your personal journey to pace yourself. No competition with others. Family and friends of all ages can join in.