What is parkrun? It’s a free, community event where you can walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate.
parkrun is 5k and takes place every Saturday morning. It is positive, welcoming and inclusive, there is no time limit and no one finishes last. Everyone is welcome to come along.
Sounds great, but then you discover its timed. For some that provides competition and motivation which is very positive, and for some it adds a layer of pressure which can be unhelpful.
There is another group of people who simply enjoy the event and the time is irrelevant, or they recognise that their position in the run is not going to be their measure of success or enjoyment.
For Patrick Hall and Charlie Hall this week they were measuring success by the number of parkruns they have each completed, 250 and 50 respectively. Congratulations to them both.
For Colin Ousby who is recovering from treatment to correct an irregular heartbeat walking and completing parkrun is part of getting back to normal. Colin is delighted with his progress and looking forward to running soon. [picture]
Recognising the faster runners, in terms of time, is appropriate and first to finish was Tommy Power of Hallamshire Harriers Sheffield AC in 16.22, and first female was Sally McCullock of Eden Runners in 20.54. Congratulations to them both.
There is another measure of success which can be interesting which is age grading which allow athletes to compare results in a different way.
Age grading takes your time and uses the world record time for your sex and age to produce a score (a percentage). This score allows you to compare your personal performance against other people’s performances even though they might be a different age and a different sex to you – the higher the score the better the performance.
Age Grades are calculated to allow rough comparisons between all Parkrun participants, and should not be taken too seriously. For example, age grading makes no allowance for different weather conditions or the varying terrains of our courses.
So this Saturday Marian Hesketh of Preston Harriers was first with an age grading of 85.77 per cent which is brilliant.
Using the age grading might be away of achieving consistency in performance and letting the time take care of itself. Remember parkrun is about having a positive experience so what matters is that you come along and walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate and make a great job of just being you.
