Introduction

Let’s get the controversy out of the way before I use every possible superlative beginning with the letter ‘A’ to compliment an amazing Ardgillan parkrun.

The HQ of parkrun recently decided to remove course and age-category records from their website. What started out as something I considered a nothing suddenly became a whole pile of something. It was bad enough the notice of the intended change was leaked but once the reason for the change started going viral as parkrun dodged one of the most contentious social issues of our generation (Gender Identity) then I felt like I was being labelled a bigot. HQ should have surrended and gone in reverse. I feel they could have kicked this issue down the road by saying something a long the lines of;

Sorry a new issue has come to light we need to re evaluate this. We don’t condone leaks like this. We’ll present this again in six months. Sorry to anyone who may have felt we don’t want you at parkrun we do.

They didn’t they opted for the classic corporate strategy of don’t back down, DOUBLE DOWN. Never mind that this is only effective if you’re not reliant on volunteers, you have an army of soldiers ready to conquer, occupy enemy territory and your aim is to destroy your competition all the might your resources can muster. HQ seemed intent on making sure volunteers and participants concerns were less important than people who might join parkrun. All of this had me uhming, aghing and finally arghing at HQ. They say they identified the display of course and age grade records was a barrier to participants. I’m calling this a bluff. Here are the top barriers to physical activity according to the American College of Sports Medicine

1. Lack of Time

2. Social Influence

3. Lack of Energy

4. Lack of motivation

5. Fear of injury

6. Lack of skill

7. Lack of resources

8. Weather Conditions

9. Travel

10. Family

I had to check my inbox wasn’t stuffed with ads from the very same HQ team that advertise £130 shoes to participants weekly. Any potential participant looking at this must surely see the attire brands endorsing parkrun and think I don’t have that maybe this isn’t for me. I also can’t help but notice that course records on any sport aren’t listed above. I’m also going to reveal to wild surprise, shock and awe that parkrun in the UK and Ireland goes off at 9 and 9.30 am respectively in other words if you work early Saturday morning which I did for many years parkrun isn’t for you. Why didn’t parkrun move the time for these participants? I could go on all day but let’s penulitmately deal with the fear of injury- why no warm up at senior parkrun? There is only 30+ years of evidence from the entire field of sports medicine endorsing it and before someone arghs at me and says do it yourself ,I’ve spent the last 15 years as a coach teaching people what has been assumed they already know. The warm up was always assumed knowledge until I started delivering it then the feedback was ‘we had no idea what we were doing until you warmed us up’.

Finally, social influence. Parkrun have done a brilliant job binding us together with maximum stick social glue. I have great friends from parkrun I would have never met only for the fact that we organised, volunteered or ran at a parkrun together. HQ have now done a great job a tearing this social fabric into pieces. They fudged the dog leads issue, then the fast people with buggies had to remind parkrun that they had every right to move fast even with a buggy and now what was the inspiration of course and age records has been taken away. I now feel like the message is it’s wrong to go fast at parkrun or it’s wrong to have a gender identity at parkrun. What parkrun represents is becoming unclear to me and as more controversy surrounds parkrun the less likely I am to volunteer. This situation reminds me of one of my first lessons in business. Early on I was trying to find my feet in customer relations, failing miserably and then I read this;

There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everbody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. Sam Walton

Anyone in parkrun HQ who thinks they aren’t vulnerable to this customer behviour is kidding themselves. All behaviour is communication. Most parkrunners who are bothered by this will say nothing and run elsewhere, buy gear elsewhere, volunteer elsewhere. 20,000 of them told HQ directly they want the records back in this petition. Our experience in politics thought us that for every 10 people who told Julie and I they had a similar problem we assumed twice that number hadn’t bothered telling us but would communicate by voting us out. I hope parkrun correct this and restore the records because if they don’t this feels like the beginning of a downfall. Good things have been ruined before and as much we all want to believe that parkrun is special it is no more special than any other special thing that slowly failed into obscurity.

With all this in mind nothing will stir your soul to be awe inspired like the views at Ardgillan parkrun. This course is the hardest parkrun I’ve ever completed but I can see why people come back every week. The amazing view of Irish coast is the backdrop to your run. At times I was jogging along pinching myself wondering if this was real.

Journey through parkrun Ireland

We reached 35 parkruns in Ireland at Ardgillan parkrun.

At some point they’ll probably take away most events it’s bound to offend someone or be a barrier to participation but I’ll keep my own record here. At the time of writing the Ireland most events is showing the error below. I hope what I’m writing isn’t prophetic.

Course

Stroller safe

It is safe for a buggy but the surface is very hard to navigate. Edward normally takes in a morning nap at parkrun on this surface even with our pick up truck level buggy he couldn’t nod off. I had to slow down and make course corrections but it was rough. Not impossible though.

Live a Little

You will assemble in front of the castle with the amazing view of coast right in front of you. Look at it, take a selfie, go onto instagram live and shout about it for god sake do something to remember this sight because it is not at every parkrun.

On the final hill I was almost horizontal pushing the stroller. I received huge encouragement from one of the early finishers on the final hill. He jogged back down the hill distracted Edward (who was crying because he couldn’t see me) and gave me great encouragement to keep going. I hope you get that on your visit to Ardgillan.

Volunteers

To volunteer email ardgillan@parkrun.com for parkrun

Conclusion

Ardgillan will attract you back over and over again and set your soul ablaze with hope. HQ at parkrun unfortunately might try and quench that fire for years to come.

Quote of the Week

The art of conversation lies in listening.

Malcolm Forbes