There's a good chance that official Parkrun times and placings will get the chop at some point in the future, just like other data was removed in 2024.

Sharron Davies stated in an interview yesterday that Women's Sports Union is preparing legal action against both Parkrun and Sport England as they see them as in breach of equality law.

There were a couple of posts on this yesterday and quite a few responses that politics and parkrun shouldn't mix, but unfortunately that's not what these people believe. Putting aside any rights and wrongs, it's worth looking at the practical effects of this action if it succeeds.

Parkrun will either need to enforce the gender categories in what they see as the "correct" way, or remove all elements of competition from the events: no placing, no times, no records. The only measure will be that you've crossed the finish line. Ms Davies says in the interview that she "doesn't mind" which of these happens.

Some people have suggested removing gender categories completely, but that wouldn't work. The aim is to stop men and women, as they define them, competing in the same category. A single category would, according to them, breach equality law.

As I can't see any way for Parkrun to enforce categories in the way that these people define them, the result will probably be no more placings and times on the Parkrun website, app, or email. They can't stop you measuring your time on your watch, of course, but we'll probably see the end of official Parkrun times at some point.

According to Marathon Handbook, Parkrun has a deadline of Friday to change its policies or legal action will be taken. The article also cites two organisations that have changed their policies as a result of similar legal threats, and Parkrun itself removing course records after criticism from a think tank.

ETA - One route forward for Parkrun suggested by JHock93 is it there are no categories, similar to "open" categories at other running events where men and women compete together. We'd lose other categories (I wouldn't be able to see how badly I'd been beaten by all the other old men) and for many courses there would be no such thing as first woman to cross the line. What an incredible victory for women in sports that would be. However we know that moving the goalposts wasn't enough two years ago, so who knows if this would be enough to head off legal action.

My local parkrun, Taunton, this weekend had 424 finishers with a population of 61,500 people.
However I was in Tonbridge, a much smaller town with population of 41,000 and had 656 finishers.

So, assuming both towns have tourists, there’s a higher % of runners in Tonbridge.

Both towns have a neighbouring parkrun similar distance apart: Bridgewater and Tunbridge Wells.

Both parkruns are established: approx 580 each.

Are there other towns with smaller populations and higher % of runners? thus making them UK’s active town

The link to this Facebook post is here: https://www.facebook.com/share/18BZhcAUvu/

I was never able to run more than 1km, but started hitting gym and loads of walk, managed to shed 20kg (121 to 101kg), and then joined parkrun for a 5k.
Managed to run 5k in 30:13, only practised twice before and gym best was 40:00, I think it was crowd which pushed me to do in 30:13.

Questions I have got is that, I have mild pain in knee since Saturday, and I have been walking 8-10km daily (averaging 15k steps), should I be cautious and not do 2 5k runs in a week with this intermittent pain? Or shall I continue and it will go away?
I donot want to make it worse to the point that I cannot walk.
Please advise.
P.S I am wearing professional running shoes so knee swelling/pain would be most likely over weight related.

I saw there was a post in this reddit a few months ago once it was announced, so figured I'd post as a participant for anyone interested in potentially taking part.

It was my first parkrun, which was the case for nearly 200 of the 251 participants. There was smooth organization with lots of friendly volunteers and we started promptly at 630am. Several people had flown in internationally for this event which was cool to see! Our half marathon and marathon in December is a great destination race which is no stranger to international participants- but I was quite impressed to see people visiting for this event too!

I (and most others) had never seen the barcode system before but its pretty nifty how "lean" you can make the race results process if you do gun time rather than chip, and have keen volunteers at the finish line. There seemed to be few hiccoughs there which was nice!

They picked a very good route- not a PB course, but I remember getting on google maps a year or two and trying to hypothesize where we could have a parkrun and couldn't come up with any answers. The island is less than 200 sq km, and finding an area that a) could be used 52 times per year b) has minimal traffic c) has ample parking and d) is close enough to the densely populated areas that everyone would drive there and e) isn't just invading someone's neighborhood had me thinking a parkrun might not be viable.

Now that I have the app I'll definitely do more of these in the future- I've already been searching for parkruns that coincide with upcoming trips. Its a great idea how simple the process is, no bib pickup, no pins, no registration process, you can do it on a whim etc.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the event (or the Cayman Islands in general) if anyone is considering participating

I won’t link to the Daily Mail, but a friend sent me a link which details the tranaphobes have set up a running club to join as a protest against trans runners (Reality Rules Runners UK). I wonder how many who register for this will have no runs or volunteer credits to there name a month on?

Anyway, let’s all wear pride flags and show our support and solidarity to the LGBTQ+ community at our next events.

EDIT: A really simply way to show your support is the rainbow laces, which I wasn’t aware of before. Thnaks to those that pointed them out https://www.stonewall.org.uk/get-involved/support-us/rainbow-laces

EDIT 2: Also to be clear, what I wasn’t clear about was what I meant by a pride flag. By all means wear one as a cape if you wish, I just meant the image - I don’t have an actual pride flag, but a t shirt with it on which is what I’ll wear this Saturday (and my rainbow laces if they arrive in time)

EDIT 3: A follow up post as many people don’t seem to appreciate this.

If you do 2 different volunteer roles in one go do you get 2 x volunteer points or just 1
Eg if you were photographer and tail walker

We're expanding our ambassador network in the US and are recruiting ambassadors through Sep 13. If you're in the US, and you or someone at your event is interested in helping parkrun continue to grow and thrive, pease don't hesitate to apply or share this info. https://blog.parkrun.com/us/2026/08/27/apply-now-join-parkrun-usa-as-a-volunteer-event-ambassador/

Started 27th October 2018. 250 yesterday at Jubilee parkrun

Have done some in the past but they are super hard for me. 5k to me is a long way 😅 I’m a slow runner, approx 40 mins to finish.

How should I get back to them? Shall I just go for it? Or should I do some short runs myself first? I get anxious about running alone which is why I enjoy parkrun.

Any help is massively appreciated, I am really not knowledgeable in running at all 😅

UPDATE: thank you everyone! I’m going to just go to my local one next Saturday, I’m really excited. Thank you all for your comments and tips and tricks, you’ve all motivated me and reminded me how welcoming and inclusive parkrun is! 🙏🏼😁 thank you

Given some of the reactions to what I wrote here I think it’s worth reflecting on this.

Asking out of curiosity, more of a shower thought.

Say you're trying to speedrun a league with your mates and try to get the most points but you're a slow runner. Could you potentially get the volunteering credit as a tail walker, and get runner credit as well? Smaller points since you'd be last of course but I reckon it could be worth it? And top up with volunteering on Sunday Juniors too obviously. Yes I'm going full Barney Stintson.

This shows the whole course but edited to show lap 3 of 3. I’ll tie my hands behind my back next time.

I completed my first ever Parkrun today and I loved it!! ☺️ I had a lovely little baby 16 months ago and haven’t done a proper run (other than casual jogs) since she was born. I managed to do pretty well (38 mins, which is slow to most but to me that’s great 😂) only stopping to walk a couple of times on hilly bits, and maintained a manageable pace.

Here’s to more Parkruns in the future 🥂

EDIT: thanks so much to everyone for their lovely replies!!! You are all correct - I’ve caught the bug and am counting down the days till the next one 😅

Hello,

As it says above, someone asked me to post to follow up how today’s first ever park run (and first ever organised run) that I’ve ever done went

All I can say is, what a fantastic morning, everyone I spoke to was great, even saw someone I hadn’t seen for over ten years and caught up with them

Managed to knock 3 minutes off my PB to get a 27minute 3 second finish (probably from the excitement and also the motivation of everyone/marshalls)

But yes, great morning, great time had and I’ll definitely be back for more! 👏🏻

I know none of us want to think about anyone having the need for an Automated External Defribrillator (AED). Parkrun has provided them in UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Ireland and Japan, but are working on it for other countries. I'm in Canada and my parkrun does have one.

https://volunteer.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/articles/13085261930513-2-6-Automated-External-Defibrillator-AED

Do you know if your parkrun has one? Yes, I know the link says that it will be mentioning in the pre-run briefing, but I was surprised to learn today that many at our location were unaware of it. (There was an incident today with a non-parkrun person who was near our event base. They used a different AED.)

Just something I think we should all be aware of.

Has anyone ordered a tshirt lately? Completed my 50th today so would like to get one!

I’m a uk women’s size 8/10, wondering if a small or extra small will be better

If anyone is the same size and have ordered a top your opinion on the fit would be appreciated 😁

Apologies if this isn't the right sub, I'm not a runner and the only time I run is 9am Saturday morning!

I'm after an app / Wear OS watch app that essentially allows me to see "at this pace, you'll finish in 35.10".

It seems to be a a pretty basic feature (in my inexperienced experience at least 😁) but I can't find it anywhere.

I really don't want to be setting much up in the app if I can help it, I just want time elapsed, distance travelled and expected finish time.

NB: not to be confused with km pace

I was looking at my challenges and my namely only has one letter in it, because I tend to run at the same few places.

I wondered what I could be called based on the letters I actually have, and the best I could come up with was:

Bea or Abe single-letter-surname (which feels like cheating)

If I'm allowed to repeat letters, I could be:

Hebe Hawe

So if you like parkrun and word games, who could be your parkrun alias?