Has parkrun Become a Victim of Its Own Success?

Comments · 166

• TH

  @TheVeganRunner · 5 days ago · pinned

  Has your local parkrun got busier - and has that changed the experience?

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• PE

  @peterbunyan2695 · 5 days ago

  So Lee how about another vid showing what goes on behind the scenes. Showcase the work of those invisible volunteers, the Event Director, the Volunteer Coordinator, the Set Up and Take Down crews, the Volunteer Coordinator, the Token Sorters and the Results Processor all of them needed to enable a Parkrun and not much noticed by the participants.

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• LI

  @listey · 4 days ago

  It absolutely chucked it down today and it was such a lovely experience having so many fewer people there.

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• SI

  @sianchild · 4 days ago

  One factor you didn't mention is that volunteer numbers haven't increased at the same pace as runners - if there are more people you need more scanners, token sorters, marshals etc to ensure it's safe.

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• MI

  @middleagedrunningman · 1 day ago

  Really enjoyed this.<br>Despite being an experienced runner I only started parkrun a couple of years ago and I love it. But….definitely a different feel at larger parkruns to the hidden gems.

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• RI

  @Rich_Runs · 5 days ago

  Maybe have two parkruns at the busier venues, one after the other. &nbsp;So instead of one with 800, you can have 2 with 400. Start the second at 10am. Many of the 9am finishers can volunteer at the second one and vise versa, so not only ease congestion but have a bigger pool of volunteers. Obviously you only get 1 running credit so no benefit to doing both, although you would get 2 volunteer credits for volunteering at both.

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• CH

  @chesshead · 4 days ago (edited)

  2 solutions: 1. Have an 8 o&apos;clock unmarshalled run for anyone who wants to go that early and can get under 30 minutes. They can then volunteer (marshall) for the main run at 9 o&apos;clock, and their times are added in to the one set of results. People currently don&apos;t want to volunteer because it prevents them running. Some people could run 8 o&apos;clock and 9 o&apos;clock but only their first time is published in the results. They only get one run credit. This first idea should increase the number of volunteers overall and reduce the main field size at 9 o&apos;clock. 2. Runners must have a minimum volunteer ratio otherwise they appear in results as unknown runner with no time. After 10 runs, you must have a volunteer ratio of at least 10%. I know someone who has run over 500 parkruns and has never volunteered! It was our final event today. We have too many runners. We have a few places where we could have parkruns if only a hundredish runners showed up, but we don&apos;t have enough volunteers to make that happen. So from now on we are a big hole in the parkrun map.

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• MI

  @mikeclark93 · 4 days ago

  As a Weymouth regular I notice &nbsp;we get a huge number of tourists in the summer months, which is great. It adds to the buzz and atmosphere generally. However on the down side I&apos;ve noticed one or two people ignoring the local etiquette &nbsp;and one guy in particular barging through and when challenged said he didn&apos;t care as he wasnt coming back. &nbsp;Such a tiny minority that are not invested in the event can have a disproportionate effect which leads to you making this video.

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• PE

  @petercollins1670 · 4 days ago

  Some very good points here. When I became Event Director at my local parkrun almost 10 years ago (I did it for three years), the first thing the people who run the common said to me was that if they&apos;d known it was going to grow from double-digits to 300-500 people running every week, they&apos;d never have given permission. We now get 500-700 each week, so god knows what they think. Happily, they can see the upside of the event and still let us run. Your point about suitable venues is well made – seeing some of the courses on youtube videos, it seems to me that all too often they&apos;re way too narrow to allow for ease of overtaking and for the inevitable running two or three abreast. In the end, it&apos;s not the Olympics, and not even a proper race (though some run it like that), so to my mind (I speak as a fairly fast runner, but I know I&apos;ll get shot down for this) it&apos;s up to the faster runners, who can see what&apos;s ahead, to show some contrition and not barge people out of the way or get angry with them. That&apos;s not to say people shouldn&apos;t keep left (or right, or wherever) when required, but in the end for a lot of people it&apos;s a social run, and hooray for that. Yes, in some places, it&apos;s a victim of its own success, but the pluses way way way exceed the minuses.

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• JO

  @johnjaap1691 · 1 day ago

  Logic says starting another event nearby will halve the numbers but what actually happens is the new event is an empty space waiting to be filled by new runners. A few move from the old event but their places are quickly filled. <br>Locally we&apos;ve gone from 1 event in 2013 with ~400 to 5 in 2026 with total ~2000. <br>Difficult to review stats as weekly numbers vary depending on races, weather, holidays, but the original event has grown ~10%, the new ones have drawn in the rest. If we started 10 more it would reduce numbers but another one probably wouldn&apos;t make a noticeable difference.

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• L2

  @L233233 · 4 days ago

  I guess I can consider myself fortunate that the Parkrun in my small German city of 130k rarely gets more than 50 participants. I don&apos;t think it would be as relaxed if it was 500.

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• JA

  @James-Henderson · 5 days ago

  More parkruns will require more volunteers, a few parkruns have been struggling because of a lack of people willing to help.

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