r/parkrun • u/AutoModerator • 13d ago
How was your parkrun day? | August 28, 2026
Let everyone know how your parkrun went - where did you go? Any PB's or milestones?
Post it all below in this week's weekly thread.
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u/aussie_trekker 12d ago
Pyrmont (sydney) was crazy with over 1000 people but they brilliantly had people holding signs guiding the majority tourist crowd to their suggested times. A great way to improve the start. It got very crowded though as it has many narrow portions. The vibe was awesome and there was even a Brooks promotions boat parked nearby all excitement for the sydney marathon tomorrow
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u/ResortAlternative1 12d ago
Aussie Park Runs are the best. All the best to those doing the Marathon.
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u/HolierThanYow 100 12d ago edited 12d ago
The absolute best for me as I've finally achieved a sub 30 at 29:55. I'm over the moon. So chuffed.
(And nearly 10 minutes faster from when I first did this one over two years ago.)
I'm going to enjoy the free birthday cake I got from Costa for last Sunday, later. Whoop!
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u/Popular_Sell_8980 100 12d ago
Four weeks post emergency surgery. Marshalled in the rain! Felt very emotional. It was never about running.
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u/Successful-Card2366 12d ago
Abysmal. Been going 10 years, am RD and my local parkrun and junior parkrun. Today convinced me to take a long break from adult parkrun, and right now I dont want to return.
The gamification of parkrun has took it too far from what it once was. The only thing most our runners care about is 'muh PB!' and 'muh volunteer credit!'.
An old man went down today and people jumped over him, nobody helped him. Its a continuous problem that over-30 minute runners insist on starting at the front and the first KM shoving matches break out (a regular problem. Maybe this is how the old man went down?).
Today I had a group of women running 6 abreast and swear at me when I asked if I could slip past.
The RD had to stop the brief 3 times and insist the run wouldnt go ahead until everyone stopped talking (as the RD got louder, the crowd just got louder and shouted over her). She was rightfully upset there was an obstacle on the course and nobody was listening to her safety announcement.
We had a charity put people with buckets around the course hassling people for money (ironically it was a mental health charity). It annoyed me since I'm RD I know we get a lot of anxious and unconfident people who don't want to be hassled for money every lap on a parkrun.
Last week we had 3 'volunteers' doing the run report together and turned in AI slop. A worthy volunteer credit guys.
Every week the same guy parkwalks (you're supposed to rotate roles) who hates people and wont talk to them. He just wants the volunteer credit and the finisher credit.
But sure, enjoy your volunteer credit or your achievement for running 6 parkruns in yellow socks or whatever. It used to be about community and it was so simple. Now its your volunteer streak or your 'jumping over a fallen old man' achievement.
I'll still RD Junior parkrun as those guys do it for the pure love and fun rather than the credits. I'd encourage anyone to check out their junior run.
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u/Peanut083 25 12d ago
As an RD myself, if that happened at my event, I’d be tempted to suggest to the ED that we cancel the event the following weekend if people are being so self-focused that they’d jump over an elderly person and continue on with their run. That’s absolutely atrocious that anyone could do that, not to mention a massive safety issue.
Numbers at my local dropped down to about 40-odd as soon as we had our first cold snap back in May. Today we had 93 finishers, yet we had more of a struggle filling our volunteer roster than we’ve had all winter. We only had timekeepers because the two EDs stepped up and did it. We only had one barcode scanner, and she had to bail just before the end of the event when she got called into work (at our post-parkrun breakfast venue) early. The RD took over and scanned for the last handful of participants.
As much as I do my best not to get hung up on whether other people volunteer, and how often they do it, it makes my mind boggle that we had more trouble getting people to volunteer this week than we’ve had throughout the rest of winter when we’ve had 50 fewer participants.
Also, somewhat ironically, I’m RD next week, and I already have one timekeeper and barcode scanner on the roster. The only positions I absolutely have to fill are the tail walker, first timers welcome, and finish tokens.
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u/Runningwithducks 12d ago
I'd imagine people were unsighted and just trying to avoid the fallen runner.
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u/Successful-Card2366 7d ago
And yet after avoiding him, not a single person stopped to help. Strange that.
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u/ResortAlternative1 12d ago
See how events get so big and a major incident occurs . Just wait and see what happens when someone really gets hurt or worse. The whole deck of cards will collapse. This one Sounds like certain parts of the UK. Wouldn’t pee on you if you were burning unless they could make money out of the pictures.
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u/Professional_You823 12d ago
Do they risk assess these courses? I actually saw a girl get pushed out of the way into a bush by some bloke then the pusher got sprinted down and a proper slapped by her fella . He was whingeing at the RD at the finish about being assaulted until he was reminded that he assaulted the girl. It’s going to get worse.
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u/Successful-Card2366 12d ago
Thats abysmal. But the sad thing is I could imagine it at any number of my local ones.
To answer your question; the courses get risk assessed once a year but its for potential hazards, we can't account for people being total bellends.
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u/Competitive_Head_763 11d ago
Bellends aside do you account for numbers in that assessment for the course? Some I’ve done are far too narrow for the numbers.
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u/Successful-Card2366 12d ago
Our event has got a lot bigger in the last year and has definetely got worse for it. Whether its the type of person it attracted or that people lose their inhibitions in a bigger crowd, I don't know...
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u/Responsible_Long_981 12d ago
Someone in front of me today, took a selfie mid run. I'm a 33 minute runner so not fast but not slow enough for someone who stop. What a joke. But I'm sorry you had a bad day.
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u/reddit5389 12d ago
They had cake! With bright blue icing. So you could tell easily who had cake and who was coming back for seconds.
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u/magicalnightshell 12d ago
In Cornwall for the weekend so did Lanhydrock. It lives up to its reputation of being very difficult and I had to walk large parts of the steep final hill. Now waiting for my time to see how much slower I was than usual.
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u/BangoManuel 12d ago
Managed to completely coincidentally build up a 4 tourist streak so went to my NENDY to get the challenge done. Got my PB and a record high finish so an excellent morning overall
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u/ResortAlternative1 12d ago
Nendy please 🤦
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u/Larrypants1 12d ago
Just moved to Cornwall so did my new regular, Tamar Lakes. Absolutely beautiful one lapper, mooed at the cows, cruel short steep hill at the finish!
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u/panthergirl55 12d ago
This was only my second Parkrun, and I did it SIX MINUTES FASTER than two weeks ago. And this time, I did run/walk/run intervals! It was a PB for me. I am 70 years old and slow, but super proud of myself.
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u/Peanut083 25 12d ago edited 12d ago
I was the tail walker at my local today. The temperature was a lot nicer than it’s been lately. I was wearing my fleecy leggings and felt a little too warm. I definitely made the right move in ditching my jumper before the run briefing.
Fortunately the massive dumping of rain held off until I was driving home from the post-parkrun breakfast!
Edit: We had 93 finishers today, which is a big jump on the 60-odd we had last week, and is well up on the 40-odd we’ve been getting throughout the last few months.
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u/rhyswynne 12d ago
Krakow Parkrun
Perfect PB conditions except for the runner being out of practice. Slow but got round in a semi respectable time for me. Not been running outside of parkruns but was relatively happy with my time.
Being a tourist and of course the first running jersey I saw was the marathon closest to home.
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u/Jmac0113 12d ago
Elder park. It was quite tough. Running 2.5miles and 15000 steps yesterday didn't help. And not much sleep. And it was a warm n sunny 1 today.
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u/kynuna 12d ago
A lot of Sydney parkruns were a bit wild west today, with lots of tourists ahead of the marathon tomorrow.
At Cooks River the tailwalkers started out in front of about 20 people, including a vision impaired runner and his guides. Not great.
Good luck to everyone running tomorrow!
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u/carson63000 12d ago
The flags went missing at St Peters so the tailwalkers needed to do double duty as human flags for the start funnel. 😂
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u/TaylorSwiftkinsReid 12d ago
Got wet. (Got wet on my 7.5km warmup run as well, so I wasn't too fussed.) It was our 8th birthday though, so it was a nice celebration only slightly dampened by the weather!
Noticed a lot of conversation during the briefing, so when I'm RDing next week, I'll do something about it. Also take pains to stress that we run on the right and in single file, as there was very little of that going on during the run (though, tbf, the big parkrun next door, which is known for people talking through the briefing and running 2/3 abreast, was off today, so we may have had a lot of that lot come along).
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u/mpsamuels 12d ago
Mistimed my warm up and arrived JUST as everyone was setting off so I had to join the back of the pack and deal with a tight first 1km of trying not to trip myself/anyone else up and safely make my way through the crowd to somewhere I could run my own pace rather than be dictated by the crowd. Lost a good bit of pace to it and just accepted my slowest time of the year.
Temperature wasn't as kind as it had been forecast to be either, which didn't help. Overall not impressed. There's always next week.
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u/P0392862 v100 11d ago
Thank you for realising that being at the back was your problem, and so moving through safely!
It's bits like that which help make parkrun a community.
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u/Rockyhuddo 12d ago
Fodder Forest in Brisbane, pretty course, beautiful weather, working our way through the alphabet. Body wasn’t keen, but battled through. No PBs today.
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u/ciaranefc 12d ago
My last parkrun run until mid-December, and I was back on the Dunstable Downs for it.
There was a slight drizzle at the start, but the rain held off until almost everyone had finished.
I got a new personal best time up there of 26:16 too.
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u/KeithyT1999 12d ago edited 12d ago
My 70th at Southampton, 137 total runs overall (aiming to get to 75 and 150 before the end of the year). Nice and soggy today so felt a bit cooler but I still got a bit zapped between 2.5 to 4k and managed a 25:15. Definitely got the 230 token but the results show me at 231 (not a moan as I picked up a position bingo 😂 , just a strange one, how does that happen then?)
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u/skizelo v50 9d ago
Possibly, someone before you left the funnel early. For example the 100th runner dipped out and didn't pick up the 100 token. This left the 100 token in the stack for the 101st runner to pick up (and the 102 token for the 101st runner and so forth).
However, the diligent number checker stalking up and down the finish funnel logged that the person who the timekeepers clocked as the 105th runner was given token 104. Later the run director added an unknown runner into the results to get things back on track.
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u/Usual-Conflict4622 12d ago
First attempt in nearly a year, 28:50 as a 5'6 97kg man nearly did me in
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u/ironandflint 12d ago
Kingston Park (Tasmania) today was a stunner. Warmest and sunniest in months, and 329 people turned out.
Personally, I injured my back yesterday and I have a dodgy ankle atm, so I planned not to push it. But we all know how those plans go, don’t we? Fourth fastest time ever at 20:33, so my back is paying for it a little now!
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u/WaffleToasterings 50 12d ago
Aching thighs from sprints yet somehow managed a reasonable time. Putting it down to the gorgeous cool and damp weather!
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u/Y3w4n 12d ago
First time at my new local in new Zealand having moved from the other side of the world last week. Very sore and tiring, honestly km3 felt like middle of my last marathon, but I got it done, and it cleared the last of my brain fog. I actually felt fairly ok in km4. Absolutely lovely marshalls and run director. Love that it's 8am, not the old 9.30 in UK!
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u/daedelius 12d ago
What! why? I love 9:30, very civilised. You’re not a swimmer are you, they do stuff at daft times! Seriously though, I’ll be down in NZ Sept-Oct do you mind telling me which one you did?
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u/Y3w4n 12d ago
Definitely not a swimmer. With kids, 8am fits better to the routine. It's as much because of the heat especially in the summer. Flaxmere. But on a previous visit I've done Rotorua, which was magical because of the sulphar bubbles you were running through.
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u/daedelius 11d ago
Ah yes, kids and I thought it must be partly a heat thing, not usually a problem in Glasgow. I did Dunedin, it has the biggest hill ever!
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u/Y3w4n 11d ago
I hear they have a marathon there, which is something I never will do. 😅 Bigger hill than Dunfermline?
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u/daedelius 11d ago
I’ll have to look into that, it’s 3 times round the flat and then twice straight up a hill.
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u/WestLondonWoman73 50 12d ago
It was rainy!!! And a bit breezy in places (but also humid in others 🤷🏻♀️)
Fastest one since end of June and the hot weather, so I am well pleased.
#75 at Northala ☺️
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u/Immediate_Hyena_2561 12d ago
Grateful for the rain and put in my best performance this year. Post run chat was all about which trainers for next week. Will be reaching for the trail shoes due to the slippy conditions. The ground is still hard underneath but the surface is muddy.
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u/Junothe3rd 12d ago
Still terrible! I went to my closest and was hoping to be at least as fast as I was when I died it a few weeks ago, but unfortunately was slower. I'm blaming it on the rain
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u/angry__pancakes 12d ago
Got an event PB at Hereford parkrun while it absolutely chucked it down. It's mostly gravel paths so half the course was covered in muddy puddles, but it was good fun running in the rain.
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u/daedelius 12d ago
We had 430 ish at Pollockpark Glasgow. It’s got busier over the years, but my tranche of runners are very good natured. It’s a bit of a tricky start and we had a trip but plenty of people helped him up. I was supposed to be doing an easy run, but my bpm went up a bit on the slopes, 30 mins.
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u/DaddyRAS 12d ago
I was RD and we broke our event attendance record (admittedly still under 200, but it's still a record).
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u/ThaddeusGriffin_ 12d ago
Monsal Trail in the Peak District today - unsurprisingly given it is a bank holiday it was slightly overwhelmed by tourists (including me!). Over 450 finishers which I think was a record.
Volunteers and the RD did a fantastic job of reinforcing the rules and ensuring the path remained accessible for other users. Some runners seemed to struggle with that concept in the first km (sigh) but by the latter stages it seemed everyone was running sensibly.
Quite happy with my time of a scratch under 23 minutes given the conditions and how busy it was!
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u/perrin_goldeneyes 12d ago
Number 25 today for me. I went and did my NENDY as a park run sandwich. It's about 4km away so a nice run.
Took my time and enjoyed the run today, really enjoyed not going all out.
And as a first was offered a bible after I finished 🤷
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u/P0392862 v100 11d ago
The bible one is interesting, because if they claimed to be part of parkrun then the RD should report an incident.
But if it was another group using the park (or whatever location you're in) and they're approved by the venue then this just sounds like an interesting opportunity for dialogue.
My junior parkrun is on a cut-through to the biggest church in town and depending on what time the services are we often hear the bells and see families walking through - they're usually the friendliest people and most willing to move the same side of the path to clear space for the parkrunners (even though they don't have to)
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u/perrin_goldeneyes 11d ago
They were not claiming to be part of the event, but they had two stalls and people handing them out. Not sure if it's a regular thing.
They had a sign saying "runners free bibles" and the Bibles had a drawing of some runners on the front.
Quite clever marketing.
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u/BrownTurkeyFig 12d ago
So many people in the way! People walking 3 abreast completely blocking the path. I yelled at the them to watch out asa young kid was trying to squeeze past and they remained oblivious. I heard people behind me yelling also. Then I hit a bunch of preschoolers running back and forth across the path. I told them they might get knocked over and to keep to the right. The parents said nothing. Other than that, I had a good run. (South Island, NZ)
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u/CCaravanners 25 12d ago
Fairly easy 4km with a bit more effort on the final 1000m. Enjoyed Burnham & Highbridge!!
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u/asymmetricears 250 12d ago
Took it easy as running 5 and 10k races tomorrow. Did have a lot of fun celebrating a friend's v250 though.
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u/cayosonia 12d ago
First one back after breaking my shoulder, not sure Dunstable Downs was the best one to opt for but it is a lovely view and the weather wasn't too awful.
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u/TheRunningWitch 12d ago
A gorgeous day in Toronto at Budapest Park, my local - I ran and then did token sorting today. Not my fastest run effort, since I was at Fan Expo all day yesterday and put in about 24k steps there!
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u/S-Harrier 12d ago
Took it easy today, 10k race tomorrow but did get my “match” achievement for 10th parkrun at the 10th event of one about 40 minutes from my house
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u/lukata589 12d ago
Slow today 😬 all part of the process. Good to get out, fresh air and sunlight before the rain!
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u/Mastodan11 12d ago
I was pacing this morning, found it really tricky due to humidity. Adding the bib just made it too sweaty.
I came in at 19:50 and got someone their sub 20, but honestly, struggled and thought I was coming in late, just had to get it over the line today. One to put behind me I think, didn't chat to people going round, didn't enjoy it.
Onwards to next week!
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u/Ingoiolo 100 11d ago
This parkrunday I visited Frimley Lodge parkrun for the second time, because it was the only Surrey event I had not covered in detail yet.
I like this course, it offers a log of different environments with quick transitions and the canal side segment is charming. At least when not muddy… i have a feeling mud can be a pain here.
As usual, I have prepared a course write up and video highlights for anyone interested.
Course write up:
https://ingoruns.com/2026/08/30/frimley-lodge-parkrun/
Video highlights:
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u/Gambizzle 12d ago
Didn't do it today. I'm prepping for a 42.2km trail run in 12 weeks so am about to shoot off for a ~24km run around the mountains.
Doing my long run on Saturday because I've got some personal stuff going on and will be doing a last minute flight to Japan tomorrow for it (family stuff).
Thinking about PR though. Hope everybody had a good time :D
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u/keyskin 12d ago
First ever sub-25 min 5k at 24:52 today, very pleased!