Volunteers, you keep us running...
Most of our events are creaking at the volunteer seams at the moment. There is a group of regular volunteers who hold things together but these folks need the occasional injection of runners to bolster the team.
Here is how it should work! If each runner offered up 3 Saturdays in the year to help at their home event then we could be sure to field a full team of volunteers every weekend. parkrun events would continue to operate in the way you have come to expect. Every parkrun event has an email to which you can write to register your interest. This email is generally the name of the event followed by the word “helpers” followed by the usual domain name. So, Bramhall parkruns email for the volunteer community is bramhallhelpers@parkrun.com and Albert is alberthelpers@parkrun.com.
Once you have registered your interest, the event will probably send out a monthly email with the roster for the next 4 weeks showing the roles needed for that event and the opportunities for you to volunteer. Usually at this point, if you know you are going to be free you reply to the email with your selection and the job is done! It’s as easy as that.
When it comes to helping on the day, we are on hand to make things simple and stress free. We accept that mistakes can and do happen and while we always do our best to prevent or correct these, we also know that there is always another parkrun next weekend. So, volunteers can choose what they do to help and where they need help we can offer that assistance.
Because we operate every weekend we are able to build our skills at all the roles in a relatively short time.
Points? I get asked on regular occasions why we only offer points for volunteering on three occasions. The points competition was constructed to reward running. In particular to reward those of you who are consistent and who persevere at your running. So the more you run and the higher your finish positions the better off you will be in the annual competition. You can’t win this competition by simply being the fastest. So in line with our objective of getting every runner to volunteer on three occasions, we offer you full points – the equivalent number of points as if you had won the event. This means that no runner who gives up their parkrun on one of these times is disadvantaged in any way. It’s a win, win situation.
So, it’s clear from what I have said that we want to keep you running. After all we are called parkrun not parkvolunteer. But, and it’s a big but, without volunteers parkrun cannot operate a free model. So, our continued existence and that of your event is dependent on you.
Finally, before I descend from my soap box, I hope you have noticed that I always use the word parkrun and never Park Run nor Parkrun or in fact any other combination of this. This is deliberate. We are parkrun and our runners are parkrunners and i’d be most grateful if you could spread the word.
Nearly another damp squib weekend
parkrun was again threatened with cancellations last weekend as the weather turned cold and some events experienced up to 4 inches of snow. As it turned out one event announced that it would not run but conditions turned out to be okay and as six hardy fools (I mean parkrunners) had turned up the event went ahead.
The guidance we give to our events is that they can cancel at anytime but that we should only cancel when there is a danger to either volunteers or runners.
As a parkrunner we ask that you always check your chosen events website for the latest news because that is the only reliable way to see if your event is going ahead. Of course some of our events also use Twitter and Facebook which are excellent ways of getting immediate feedback.
parkrun introduces three new events in February
We are delighted to announce the start of the following new events:
- Coventry parkrun – 6th February
- Frimley Lodge parkrun – 13th February
- Greenwich – 27th February
Welcome to Steve Osborne of Bushy Park fame who takes the lead at Frimley and to Jason Douglas who is the Event Director at Coventry. Please support both new events by offering your help especially in the early days.
We are looking for people to help with the Greenwich parkrun which will take place in Avery Park. Please email greenwichhelpers@parkrun.com if you can assist.
Good luck to all three teams as they begin the parkrun journey. Lets all support them as much as we can.
Event News
We have had some great feedback from the events:
- Temperatures plummet to -4 degrees at Bramhall.
- After prematurely cancelling their event, Sunderland fields a record breaking 6 runners.
- Reading parkrun requests that you don't park in the boat yard car park please.
- Carl Prewer's wife surprises him by organising a clandestine 40th birthday celebration on an away trip to Edinburgh parkrun.
- Ian Higgins falls behind on the Wimbledon male points competition for the first time in the events history! (I think?)
- Apparently Carol and Suzanne are defecting from Bushy to Richmond?
- Congratulations to Cambridge parkrun on a great start. 71 first timers and 11 helpers.
- January Sweatshop prize winners announced. See event news pages and www.parkrun.com/sponsors/sweatshop.aspx.
- We had our largest ever new registration week with 1114 new parkrunners. Also the number of runners at the weekend exceeded our previous record.
- Attendance records fell at Glasgow, Black Park and Milton Keynes
- Jill Knowles broke the Edinbrugh ladies course record while Josh Guilmant took posession of the Finsbury male record.
- Finally, if your looking for Crispy Corner, you might want to look in Switzerland where he is having a well earned rest. Crispy Corner will return next week.
Drop me an email if you have an interesting parkrun related fact, happening or comment that you would like to share with all parkrunners.
Feedback from the field
Hi Gary,
Now that we are back home, we both felt that we needed to contact the parkrun team. Could you please post this on your parkrun website for all to see:
After returning home after spending the weekend in Edinburgh for my 40th Birthday celebrations, and taking part in the parkrun, I felt a big thankyou was in order to all those involved in organising Saturdays Edinburgh parkrun. A special thanks to Gary for all the help and information leading up to the weekend. We generally found the people of Scotland and especially Edinburgh (where we were staying) very friendly and hospitable.
Thanks again
Carl Prewer
Hi Paul,
We'd just like to express our thanks once more for the amazing work that is put in week after week by the race directors/volunteers.
We have had the great pleasure of taking part in eleven different parkruns just in the calendar months of December and January. It is by getting a sense of all the activity going on simultaneously around the country each Saturday that you can only see the parkrun movement getting bigger and bigger.
We'd like to especially thank the organisers of the following events:
Dec 5th Black Park, Slough
Dec 12th Bromley
Dec 19th South Manchester
Dec 25th Basingstoke
Dec 26th Bedfont Lakes
Jan 1st Banstead Woods
Jan 2nd Richmond Park
Jan 9th Woodbank, Manchester
Jan 16th Middlesbrough
Jan 23rd Finsbury Park
Jan 30th Reading
Notable mentions must go to the volunteers at South Manchester (5/12) who, despite temps of -9c, were out there with enthusiasm and full of smiles and encouragement for the runners. Also, the bunch of nutters at Basingstoke on xmas day running in ankle deep snow and treacherous ice - what better way to spend xmas day morning? And the efforts of The Woodbank organisers on jan 9th must be applauded, pulling out all the stops to keep their event when all around were losing theirs!!!
We hope to get to a few more venues as and when circumstances allow but we would encourage everyone to at least try one or two different events when they get chance.
Becky Hall and Steve Darby
parkrunner of the week
Name: Patricia Cue (But I use Tricia because I hate being called Pat).
Club: Sutton Runners
Age: 55
Home parkrun: Banstead Woods (Previously Bushy, then Wimbledon).
Occupation: Swimming, garden/allotmenting, keeping my family and house in order, lunch with friends now and again. Running with Sutton Runners. I used to be in publishing.
Number of Runs: 129
Number of times volunteered: Twice since June. But on more occassions in previous years
What do you do at parkruns: Look sexy! Putting up signs and car park marshalling. I plan to do other jobs after completing my 100th Banstead parkrun on 10th October 2009.
What do you like about parkrun: Short and sweet and knowing that it is on every week. It's a great way to start the weekend.
Most memorable or funniest parkrun moment: Having Phyllis Flynn take me around for a PB, me going flat-out and her darting around like a puppy dog!
Anything else: I always have a cup of tea and a bottle of wine before a run. My favourite food is pretty much anything, unfortunately.
Happy Running!
Paul from parkrun