In this compelling video, we delve into the latest controversy shaking the foundations of the parkrun community. Amidst growing debates over transgender participation and the unexpected removal of key performance records, it seems parkrun might be avoiding the tough conversations. But is silence really the answer? We’ll dissect the changes that have swept through parkrun’s website, removing male, female, and age-graded records, and explore the implications these actions have for runners of all backgrounds.
This isn’t just about the stats or the competition; it’s a reflection of a broader societal debate on inclusivity, fairness, and identity in sports. From the voices of volunteers to the experiences of transgender athletes, we’re covering all angles to understand the depth of this issue. Whether you’re a parkrun regular, a concerned community member, or simply intrigued by the intersection of sports and social issues, this video is a must-watch.
We’re not shying away from the difficult questions. Instead, we’re inviting an open, respectful dialogue on how parkrun can navigate these waters while staying true to its core values of inclusivity and community. The discussion is far from over, and it’s time to bring it to the forefront. Join us as we probe whether parkrun’s actions are a step back or a move towards a more inclusive future. Your thoughts, experiences, and opinions are crucial to this conversation—share them below, and let’s keep the dialogue going. Remember to subscribe for more insightful content as we continue to tackle the pressing issues facing our communities today.
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Our running community is a diverse mix of ages, abilities, cultures, religions, ideologies, skin colours, sexual orientation, economic background and yes, genders. In my last video I took the parkrun statement at face value and I avoided the elephant in the room. But
It’s clear from the comments section on that video that in this video I really do need to address the transgender issue. I also feel the need to clarify one or two of the points I made in that last video. It’s
Become clear that my video was, for some, the first they’d heard about parkrun removing any data from their website. And it seems I wasn’t quite clear enough about what had been removed, leading some people to believe that all race results and all timing and all data had been taken off the parkrun website.
So no, your individual results from each parkrun event remains. You will still see your pbs and you will still see your age graded result. What has been removed are records. So the male, female and age graded record for each individual park run event as well
As the global parkrun male, female and age graded records. There’s also some lists have been removed. The top 500, the male under 17 minutes list, the female under 20 list and you can see here what I showed on the original video, the old website, compared to the new website.
There was also some confusion about my position on the matter. Some people felt that on the one hand I was complaining that stats about other runners had been removed, whilst at the same time arguing that parkrun is a race against yourself and you shouldn’t compare
Yourself to other people. So, to clarify, I like comparing myself and my performance to others. That’s why I enjoyed looking at those records and those lists. My point about comparison was specifically directed at new, inexperienced or perhaps anxious runners who might be put
Off or intimidated at seeing those stats and comparing themselves to others. For me, it’s motivation and inspiration, but for others I can see that it might be off putting or intimidating. As runners, we are here to and park run exists to encourage and breed confidence in new or
Anxious runners so that perhaps one day some of them might join a running club or even enter an official race. And parkrun is a superb way of easing new runners into racing into a competitive environment without it being too scary. We can’t water it down too much.
Now, moving on, I have seen some suggestions that perhaps my views or opinion on this subject should not be respected because although I’ve done a few parkruns, I have only volunteered four times in 13 years and that’s true. I really should volunteer more often. However,
I do try to support parkrun in other ways. I’ve made countless videos promoting parkrun and encouraging people to sign up and run at their local event. Furthermore, for the past five years, I have donated three pounds a month to park Run forever. If you feel you would like to support parkrun financially
And keep it free for everyone, then you can sign up @parkrunforever.com and while we’re on, if you are finding this video enjoyable, useful or interesting, then please do consider subscribing to this channel. And if you want to support us even more, you
Can join as a member where you’ll get exclusive video content not available to regular subscribers. Okay, onto the subject that I deliberately avoided in my last video. I didn’t want to talk about this because quite frankly, I’m in no position to. I am a white,
Heterosexual male with all the privileges that comes with I have never suffered discrimination for who I am and I live in that little bubble of everything’s fine. Just time for a quick look at tomorrow’s papers. The Telegraph leads with fineness resumed after major incident the Guardian goes with
Major tragedy forms grisly backdrop to General OK ness. The sun headline simply reads fine, the Mirror OK and the Daily Mail everything’s fine. Fear it, fear it. Whilst parkrun have refused to acknowledge this, both in their original statement and
In the very recent open letter by Russ Jeffries, many believe the changes to the parkrun website have been made in response to growing calls for transgender athletes, transgender women in particular, to be removed from the parkrun female category because some of the parkrun
Records are now held by transgender athletes, which some believe is unfair. Now you will appreciate that this is a huge topic in sport. There is much debate and as yet little agreement on how well aligned performance metrics are between a transgender woman who has undergone full hormone replacement therapy and a cisgender woman.
Yes, you can reduce testosterone levels and muscle mass in a transgender woman. However, things like bone density, hip structure and height cannot be changed, and that can be a performance factor in certain sports. Then, of course, there are runners who have not
Gone through any gender reassignment but who are identifying as women and who enter parkrun as women. And then, of course, you can’t stop men simply gaming the system and registering for parkrun in the women’s category. Now you’ll never get rid of blatant cheats. But one argument
Is to have a separate category in which genuine transgender women and those identifying as women can register for parkrun. And indeed, those categories do exist. In parkrun, you can register as another gender identity or prefer not to say no one wants cisgender women to lose out to what they feel
Is unfair competition. But parkrun is a fun, free, supposedly non competitive event, and parkrun can’t be expected to carry out testosterone level testing or sift through thousands of runners to identify those who’ve registered in the wrong category. And you simply cannot force people to register in a particular category. Let me just read
You one message I received from a lady called Mary. I do have her permission to share this with you. Mary has a 23 year old daughter who has fully transitioned and gone through all the medical treatment and is just trying to live as normal a life as possible. Mary says, my daughter
Runs with me and other family members at parkrun. None of us are very fast and would never come near any course record. We do it because we love it. The national debate about trans people has been toxic lately, I. E.
Trans people are predators or cheats, etc. And it’s impacted my daughter’s mental health. For that reason, positive experiences like parkrun are important for her. Fortunately, she isn’t obviously trans to look at, and most of her friends, work colleagues,
Etc. Don’t know her history. So if she wasn’t able to register as a female at park run, then she would have to choose between never joining in another parkrun again or essentially outing herself, which in this day and age can be dangerous.
My daughter isn’t a cheat, she’s not a danger to other women. She, like the vast majority of trans people, are just trying to get by without being excluded or hounded out of daily life. Now, I can completely understand, and I’m sure you can, that if you go through the
Emotional turmoil of deciding to live as a woman and the physical hardship of transitioning to live as a woman, you would hope to feel accepted as a woman in every facet of your life. At the same time, if there is a significant performance difference and cis women are losing
Out to trans women, even without any malicious intent at parkrun, then I can fully understand that frustration as well. Yet park run isn’t a race. But we all know that people race it. We all know that some people take park run very seriously, and they use it not only to
Improve their fitness and meet their friends, but also to challenge themselves and to compete against their previous times. And yes, compete against others. As I mentioned earlier, park run can be a gentle introduction to racing to the competitive environment.
It can be a stepping stone to running club memberships, official road racing, cross country events, and even your first marathon sure, some people will only ever do park run, and they’ll only ever jog around and chat socially to their friends, and that’s absolutely fine.
But that isn’t just what parkrun is, and parkrun themselves need to acknowledge that. I don’t know what the answer is. I totally understand that parkrun simply can’t facilitate the effective overseeing of gender categorisation, even if they were to use the England Athletics rules from April 2023, which
State that transgender women must compete in the gender category of their birth. A fun, free event like park run simply can’t and shouldn’t have to oversee or facilitate that. But I still don’t think it warrants taking those stats away.
As I discussed in the previous video, it’s not just the speedy, super fast runners that enjoy looking at that data. Many of us further back in the pack were inspired and motivated by seeing the course records from various events, and we were amazed and impressed by
The incredible performances of the age graded runners. So what do you think? What should park run do? Did you like seeing the stats? Is parkrun being watered down? And how much do you care if it is? Just for the record, I’m not a fan of the phrase anti woke.
If anything, I’d consider myself woke. After all, being woke refers to having an awareness of social injustice and systemic racism and inequalities affecting marginalised groups. If anything, that sounds like a pretty good thing to be if you ask me.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here today to apologise. Why did you say ladies first? That’s sexist. It’s just a standard greeting. Let me start over. Gentlemen and ladies, says the man. Okay, sorry, humans, basketballs, talking parrots, and whatever else is out there. Whatever. It’s whoever. Actually, it’s whomever.
All right, just calm down, okay? Now you’re tone policing us that makes me uncomfortable. The last video I did on this subject is up here. If you’re not up to speed, go and watch that now, and I’ll see you over there in a second, and I’ll see you on the start line
Next time. Take care. Bye.
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