At long last Liverpool now has a parkrun,thanks in no small part to a few members of the running club I'm part of being instrumental in making it happen.
I haven't managed to get to one yet but I was wondering,given the whole ethos of parkrun and it's all-inclusiveness,wether or not I would wear my club vest when I eventually get around to running one.
Apparently I'm not alone as a couple of people have posted similar thoughts on our club forum,well three so far,one yes,one no and one undecided!
What does everyone else think? What's it like at other parkruns?
Comments
I cant remember the stat exactly but I think 60% of people running are unattached.
Wear your club vest and you might attract some new members
Its pretty mixed at all the ones I've been to, just wear whats clean and comfy seems to be the order of the day!
I wear my club vest when I want to make a race effort, I think it helps my whole psychological approach.
Just a normal vest / t-shirt if I'm doing it as a steady/easy run.
We have a large number of local clubs in vests at my parkrun.
As parkruns are not licenced races, you don't have to wear a club vest if you belong to a club as far as uka rules go.
I'd wear mine, but for these events it is a free choice.
I was told the etiquette was you didn't wear a club vest.
SJ
Peter is right, there is no etiquette - just come in your jim jams if you wish. It might save you time early on a Saturday morning.
(I've just noticed how wrong that comment sounds, but I cant be arsed changing it!!)
The bride was getting used to the dress as shes trying to be the fastest bride at VLM!
At least its not a centipede or bottle costume.
To be fair, it didnt look to slow her down much - it was white so maybe she was a member of Virgin Active running club? Are they still going?
Phil - Theres no discouraging of wearing club tops at any of the parkruns that I've seen.
Another noticable change in what people wear as time goes on is that a bigger and bigger proportion of the fields are taken up by people wearing parkrun '50' and parkrun '100' t-shirts, even at the new events.
I would expect this to keep on increasing over time, coupled with an ever growing influx of Xempo tops of course.
wasn't it talked about when park runs first started up that vests were not to be encouraged ...............I think as they didn't want people to think that you had to a mamber of a club to take park...........to emphasis their inclusiveness............
But I think they soon discovered that as long as you tell people and ensure them that all ranges from 15 mins to 50 mins take part then people will take come
I wear my vest asit sens out a message you do not need to be a speedy whippet to join a club and hopefully more people will consider joining one
I think the idea of 'dicouraging' club vests would be so people believe it's allcomers welcome, I know the idea of running in something full of sesoned runners would put many new runners off.
The ethos is they are for everybody.
SJ
What you're not getting is how new runners just assume anybody in a club vest will be a better runner, PC I'm not quite sure why you're so uppity about it when I only said what I was told by the race director !
SJ
But saying that something is for 'everyone' doesnt mean it is just for non-club runners....it means everyone!
One of the big positives is how the top end of the running spectrum have wholeheartedly embraced parkruns as part of their training regime. I'm sure Marigold will go from strength to strength now that he has lost his parkrun virginity last Saturday.
For newcomers, the whole issue of what people wear is a complete red herring because by the time you get to see what people are wearing you are already there. And I cant believe that anyone who has actually attended their first parkrun doesnt feel as welcome as the next person and that applies to all the parkruns across the country (or at least those that I've seen, which now numbers 40+).