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Parkrun timing glitches - twice in two runs
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I forgot to add a comment about people going back to join slower runners - we are told to go to the side of the finishing tunnel if anyone wants to do that which eliminates the confusion that can be caused as a time is only recorded if you go through the tunnel itself.
I would always wear a watch and take my own time.....
But the whole concept of park run is that its a weekely timed event that helps you record and show your progress.........
so i will accept that there will sometimes be an error in the system.............I think it is ok to complain if the event gets the timing cocked up on a number of occasions........even if its free you put in your time and effort and expect a certain standard....
and I think people should inform the organisers in a right way so that the park run bosses can put in better equipment or training for the people volunteering..........otherwise the bad feelings and feedback might put others off their own local event which would be a shame.
Ivor, I wasn't referring to you in any way in my comments, I was replying to Steven.
Seren, obviously a certain standard must be kept, otherwise there would be no parkrun but I don't wish to hear comments from runners who really have NO respect for anyone doing it, no idea regarding the set up NOR do they ever volunteer and come out with excuses as to why they can't.
I am not saying everyone has to volunteer but don't come on Runners World, complaining about it.
"But the whole concept of park run is that its a weekely timed event that helps you record and show your progress........."
I'd say it's a free, volunteer-based run around your local park, no pre-entry required, hugely welcoming to novices and runners of all abilities. And free.
I've ran a total of 17 parkruns at 3 different courses and I've never noticed more than a few seconds difference between the official time and my own watch time.
I'm also a Run Director and out of the 14 runs I've helped organise there has been a problem with the finish times on one occasion. I think it happened when some of the finish tokens had got wet and a runner was handed more than one token.
We apologised to the runners and have put some more checks in place to try and prevent it happening again.
I was embarrassed that we had got it wrong but the vast majority of runners were brilliant about it.
I think the accuracy of timing will vary from parkrun to parkrun and it'll probably depend on how long the run has been taking place. If you think your time is incorrect then you should contact them, it'll help them either correct the times or put measures in place to prevent the same mistakes from happening again.
I was at the Delamere Parkrun where the times were off. I was a little confused when I got the result but I know what time I got because I am capable of pressing the button on my watch when I start and when I finish. The voulnteers do a bloody great job and I've been really impressed.
With the huge numbers of parkruns happening there are bound to be glitches occasionally, but it's not like anyone's paid a fortune for it, or is counting on it to get a GFA time etc.
HeOw when you said the timer died I trust you mean the stopwatch rather than the person operating the stopwatch? (thanks for your time and effort btw - it's a great event)
It happened at Richmond on Saturday but that's the first time its happened to me. I think the whole race was out by about 1 minute. Anyway its fixed now and I'd say, so what? as long as the right answer eventually prevails.
I've run 70-odd parkruns at Cannon Hill. The Timer's failed twice in that time - The volunteers put in a big effort constructing a reasonably accurate set of finishing times from people's emailed-in garmin times. Everyone pitched in to sort out the problem, no-one whinged, it got sorted. My personal times have been out by a few seconds maybe a couple of times. All in all it's been impressively reliable and accurate.
Just reading back Steven ,Oakhill sounds good to me,same distance from me as Grovelands.Thanks for telling me about Trent Park"s handicap race sounds interesting.You certainly stirred up a hornets nest there didn"t you.I can imagine them coming for you in the dead of night brandishing pitchforks and flaming torches.I know you agree that the volunteers do a great job you maybe came across in a slightly dismissive manner which I am sure was not the intention. BRIDGE DWELLING COMMUNITY.!! Maybe a mild exageration,but I found it hysterically funny.VIVA THE PARKRUN!!!
I've only recently done 2 parkruns, but I already think they're great.
I can't really believe that email to Tom Williams and Steve's reaction to it. Tom is obviously a busy guy and I think it's great he replied back as he did. Personally, I didn't see any problem at all with the reply that was sent back from Tom.
I think Parkrun is a fantastic concept, but I had no idea that some people took it so seriously! I time myself on my cheap stopwatch - and over the five or so runs I've done so far my time has been bang on with the 'official' one. If for some reason it wasn't, then what's to do apart from shrug your shoulders and use the stopwatch time for your own records? It wouldn't even cross my mind to complain
Tom Williams said right - if you want to know your time as you cross the line, wear a watch. Or stop being so impatient, wait a couple of hours and get your text through.
Or come to one where our timer is excellent as is the admin team meaning that typically we have texts by 10.15. Even so, I wear a watch!!
As someone who has manually typed in 150+ times at my parkrun, I do agree that not all parkruns are equal, but each do have glitches every now and then. I'd imagine that even Bushy Park parkrun does, it's how quickly people can get things sorted. Bushy Park has very experienced people there, but other, newer parkruns might not.
My wife's time was corrected last night. They have acknowledged that things went a bit askew last weekend, and they're now slowly trying to unravel the rest of the results.
There are various reasons for timing going wrong, can be that the timer person clicks too many/too few times or a runner funnel ducks or double crosses - this can make everyone after them move one place up or down the list so can easily make a big difference - if the person ahead/behind you was 30 secs different you will show as 30 secs faster/slower.
We try to spot errors in the results and straighten them out, but sometimes it isn't obvious or we can see there's an error but there's no way of knowing exactly where it happened, we may be able to see it was between P140 and P150 but we can only make a best guess where it was.
If someone mails with the time they got on their watch that can often give the clue to where the error was - given than it's extremely unlikely that anyone would lie about their time we accept what we are told as being true - it's usually obvious what's happened and we can correct a result.
Please note though that you're more likely to get a response if you point out politely that you think there's something wrong rather than going in all guns blazing - 99.9% of runners do ask nicely but it's spoiled by the odd one who goes off on a rant about how bad it all is - we are unfortunately only human
John (Preston Park parkrun Run Director)
http://www.parkrun.org.uk/harrowlodge-juniors/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=6
If you look at the above link you will notice that not only is the time outrageously fast for 2km for a 10 year old boy but everyone in the face broke their personal best by over a minute. It's annoying for the runners who held genuine records to be knocked off the top spot, it makes rankings meaningless and frankly it will put decent runners off turning up at this new Parkrun, which struggles to get 40-50 participants because the record is impossible to beat.
I wish people could apply a little common sense and realise that a 10 year old boy over grass is not going to get within a minute of Zola Bud's 2km world record on a running track and that a jump from 75% to 86% in age group ranking is likely a timing error.
It also means that accurate timings when they do occur may very well be discounted by coaches and others as dodgy and unreliable.
If you think there's a problem with the results (and I think there probably is!) I'd suggest you mail the event and query it.
I did, and got the following response.
Hi
Thanks for the email. What are you expecting us to do with this information?
Tim