Parkrun timing glitches - twice in two runs

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Comments

  • Yep, I'm sure the volunteers love receiving your emails moaning about perceived differentials.

    Not like they've got families to spend time with , jobs to go to, their own run to enjoy or whatever else they need to devote time to at the weekend.

    But don't worry I 'm sure amending the database takes seconds to do, so no bother. 

  • Nykie wrote (see)

    Ivor, were you in Yorkshire by any chance? Only at my parkrun the other week, we had two people who don't know the course make a mistake and cut quite a chunk off, by running the second lap the same as the first. 

    Nope - this was in Cambridgeshire.

  • Stephen, you're sounding suspiciously like someone else we all know?. . . image

    Perhaps you should try volunteering yourself, and then you would find out how difficult it is?

  • I have volunteered for a large majority of Delamere parkrun and timekeeped and scanned barcodes.  Human error happens.  Those who complain about said human error want to get their arses out of bed every Saturday and spend their own free time volunteering, going home, spending few hours dealing with software glitches and then having to email back runners who think they have just competed at the Olympics.  

  • Also, lots of front runners go back and run along with slower family members etc, thus going over the line TWICE.  That caused me more problems than anything else as they were messing up the results.

  • Also-ranAlso-ran ✭✭✭

    It's a 5k, not a 100m sprint, and you can't press a stop button? Meanwhile I hope you follow up with the parkrun organisers and the contact provided by Tom Willimas. But please turn off predicitve text so they can take you seriously

  • Steven O'Donoghue 3 wrote (see)
    So there you have it. If you want a weekly timed run, forget Parkrun- time yourself!!!!   I don't think he saw the irony as he was pinging off that email LMAO. image      

     That comment has pissed me right off.  

  • I am sure Steven didn't realise but I am sure he will now.  Steven, parkrun is for FUN.  It is not a fail safe way to get a timed PB to send off to Olympic Qualifiers, it is run by volunteers, many of whom may have never volunteered before or like what happened at Delamere a few weeks ago, the timer died half way through the run.  I will point you to the events page on Runners World, where you can search for 5k RACES in your area, for which you pay a fee, for said accuracy.  However, even then, (like at Manchester marathon for instance), you are NOT guaranteed errors to not occur.  It is called LIFE. Get on with it. Maybe actually do some volunteering yourself to better the accuracy. Seen as you seem so shit hot at having great ideas and all.

  • Graham LGraham L ✭✭✭

    I don't see why anyone interested in their performance wouldn't want to record their own time in a 5K park run. Although I have a garmin, I also use a £4.99 watch from Asda which has a simple but accurate stopwatch function. 

    My local park run is now so popular it can take a while to cross the line so it makes sense to me to start the watch then rather than at the "gun". It's the equivalent of a chip time and of more interest to me unless I'm bothered about what appears in the official results.

  • Which parkrun is it? Am sure they would love your help one Saturday. Though if I was run director and received your email, I would probably decide it was time take a welcome break from it.

    It's a run not a race...

  • Maybe this is a different thread but are there any training plans available that take account of parkrun?  I run hard most Saturdays (unless volunteering) but cannot find a training plan that takes this into account.  Also, I use min/km and so many plans use min/mile which is a bit inconvenient.

  • HeOw wrote (see)

    it is run by volunteers, many of whom may have never volunteered before or like what happened at Delamere a few weeks ago, the timer died half way through the run.


    That scans as though you're still talking about the volunteers.  It would indeed be a bit churlish complaining about inaccurate timings in those circumstances!

  • richard hale 8 wrote (see)

    Maybe this is a different thread but are there any training plans available that take account of parkrun?  I run hard most Saturdays (unless volunteering) but cannot find a training plan that takes this into account.  Also, I use min/km and so many plans use min/mile which is a bit inconvenient.

    Richard, 

    If you mean marathon training plans, then the 4:15 plan has a 3 or 4 mile run on a Saturday (see the link). Other than that, you could incorporate a parkrun in to a long run: quite good training to insert a speedier 3 miles in the middle.

    http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/rws-ultimate-marathon-schedule-sub-415/8080.html

  • Well from now on I'm going to demand a photo finish facility at my local parkrun. And a goody bag too. These volunteers that think they can just turn up at 9am every Saturday, time my 5k, and then provide me with free homebaked biscuits and cakes after are surely taking the p***…

  • I know! We only get cakes when we bring them ourselves on anniversary runs. I demand a refund. In fact, a double refund.

  • I've never had biscuits ! I'm complaining !
  • Oh I am not hard to spot Steven, I am to be found on the flickr website for Delamere parkrun with a bright hi viz VOLUNTEER bib on, blonde hair, smiling.  You see, I don't waste my time emailing Tom Williams to offer pointless advice, I actually do something decent for the running community.  Pity you couldn't have come back on here, thanked everyone who does volunteer and say that you would give it a go yourself one day and your idea was cack.  Would have respected you far more. It is the people like you who make me not want to bother to help but being a person with at least a smidgen of sense, I do understand that you are few and far between.  Thank the Lord for that. 

  • Steven: I think there is a world of difference between someone disagreeing with you, even if forceably, and trolling. Parkrun devotees are generally pretty protective of their community. 

  • Isnt a troll someone who pops up, says something a bit 'tasty' and then buggers off again ? So not quite the same as all but one people on this thread.
  • Hallam - exactly.  My friends are run directors at Delamere, they go without fail, through sickness, bad weather, with their 9 month old baby, week after week and organise it, then they go home, spend hours sorting out times, glitches etc etc.  For FREE. Believe you me, if anyone had the audacity to complain/whine to them, they wouldn't ever return to our parkrun because they'd have to get past me. It just ain't cricket and it is one thing I am very passionate about.  Steven, you epitomise a "troll".  Did you not see the "irony" in that. Oh wait. You don't know what irony means.

  • I have done 6 parkruns. I have had 5 perfect times on the one that didn't there was a total timer failure (they knew what position you had come but not your time), they then spent ages asking people to send in their times and then pieced together the results. There also followed a lot of facebook updates on what they were doing to stop it happening again.

    No complaints from me. Parkrun is ace, wish I could do more but really it is too late and too short for what I prefer to do as a weekend run (just a personal preference).

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    We get similar complaints from some of the youngsters at our rugby club, where they moan about some of the poor quality refereeing decisions. Once you xplain to them that the officials give up their free time to enable us to play they soon see the light. We also have the saying "no ref, no game" you just have to accept that humans (volunteers) can make mistakes. You either live with it, or have no grass roots sport at all.

    If this was a proper professionaly , paid for, event then complain all you like
  • Mr PuffyMr Puffy ✭✭✭
    HeOw wrote (see)

    I have volunteered for a large majority of Delamere parkrun and timekeeped and scanned barcodes.  Human error happens.  Those who complain about said human error want to get their arses out of bed every Saturday and spend their own free time volunteering, going home, spending few hours dealing with software glitches and then having to email back runners who think they have just competed at the Olympics.  

    HeOw wrote (see)

    Hallam - exactly.  My friends are run directors at Delamere, they go without fail, through sickness, bad weather, with their 9 month old baby, week after week and organise it, then they go home, spend hours sorting out times, glitches etc etc.  For FREE. Believe you me, if anyone had the audacity to complain/whine to them, they wouldn't ever return to our parkrun because they'd have to get past me. It just ain't cricket and it is one thing I am very passionate about.  Steven, you epitomise a "troll".  Did you not see the "irony" in that. Oh wait. You don't know what irony means.

     

     

    Exactly!

    When I made my comment I was thinking in particular of the woman at Delamere who was scanning barcodes while carrying her baby in a sling.

     

  • HeOw:

    Must make a visit out to Delamere soon. We were contemplating including it in the Cheshire / S Manchester longest parkrun route, but decided it was a bit out on a limb to fit in (sorry). Sounds like you have a good community going: how many are you getting typically?

  • Susiechops wrote (see)

    Which parkrun is it? Am sure they would love your help one Saturday. Though if I was run director and received your email, I would probably decide it was time take a welcome break from it.

    It's a run not a race...

    I assume that's not directed at me, even though I was the thread-starter.

    I've deliberately not named the runs I've had timing issues at, basically because the one I ran on Saturday is still in its infancy and I had absolutely no quibbles whatsoever about the organisation and marshalling - until I saw the times that went online. The course is lovely and offers some real variety, which is a contrast to the previous Parkruns I've done at a fast venue where it's 3 laps of an oval park. I'll  definitely be back to both.

    It doesn't actually matter and won't really affect my future participation - I record my  times on my Garmin anyway. My question was purely that - how much stock should I place in the online stats? Not entirely sure I have a conclusive answer to that, but seeing as though I'm nowhere near troubling the top of the tables, I'm not overly fussed.

    I'm more than happy to volunteer at one or more runs in future, but as I'm currently partway through a fairly rigid training schedule, of which a decent-pace Saturday morning run is a part, I won't get to it for a couple of months.

    Can't speak for anyone else in the thread and don't intend to.

  • Actually, that comment was for you.

  • You do realise that it's possible to send an email in these kind of circumstances and be perfectly pleasant about it?

    I asked the question here prior to anybody mailing anybody, purely because it had happened twice in succession and because I was wondering if we'd been genuinely unlucky or whether we should start considering it "one of those things". 

    The Mrs has emailed them. I haven't seen the mail, but I imagine it will have been polite, factual and toned in a way that nobody receiving it will have had their day ruined.

    A motif I'm noticing on this forum is that people seem to get the terms "sending an email" with "complaining loudly and rudely" slightly confused. They're really not the same thing.

    As it happens I nearly forgot my Garmin on Saturday, but armed with some of the testimonials from this thread I'll just make a point of having it with me in future. Note: this isn't a complaint either.

  • tonyp2604tonyp2604 ✭✭✭

    My tuppence worth as someone who has done 30+ Parkruns and volunteered both as second timer and token giver...

    We have a back-up timer at our runs - then both sets of times are compared to ensure consistency. I'm not 100% sure but if a range of place tokens is out of sequence is out of order compared to the the rest in a race, then it should not be rocket-science to work out what the correct placings are by referring to the recorded times. I was a token giver (one of two) at our recent 100th Parkrun event (over 250 runners) - quite a job with bunches of people coming in thick and fast in the middle... one thing I noticed that there was a load of "unregistered" tokens (they had numbers but no bar-code; which were never used) so it might be that some of these might have slipped into the wrong place.

    I have only experienced one problem at my local Parkrun - my Parkrun time was one minute faster than the time on my watch - but this was sorted within a couple of hours of emailing the team. Only other "complaint" is that the timing can be a little out - I notice sometimes that the time gap in seconds between myself and the runner infront is a little dodgy but hey! Generally, Parkrun is a great thing to have in our city and it would be nice to see more others than the usual suspects volunteering.

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