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Saltwood Boxing Day Run   News Breakdown of run categories in Results Welcome to the revised website. | ||||||
A salutary true tale | |
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The article (left) is lifted from Metro newspaper. It couldn't happen in the bdr since anyone "winning" who is not called Coleman would be
suspected straight away! Another way of cheating has unfortunately been demonstrated on boxing day. I am alluding to the habit of some to hold their own race before the official run starts. It is probably viewed as smart. Easier to run with fewer people. No bother with entering the run. No expense. Get to the pub first. Selfish. I don't suppose anyone involved in this will be reading this but ....... Whilst the run is held on public footpaths and public roads, rights of way do not pertain to mass organsied events. Permission and cooperation with landowners is needed for the run to take place. Insurance for the run is a serious issue and this is much clouded by unofficial entrants. Consideration also should be afforded to the organisers who are out on a limb each year to put the event on. They should be able to account for all starters as having finished. |
The Parkrun phenomenon Upon completion of the
course they again get the card read and their elapsed time is computed. There is no mass-start and no race.
A runner might take
interest and pleasure in beating their pb, beating their friend's time, monitoring personal fitness or whatever.
Some have
turned visiting different parks as an end to itself. Other have accumulated a massive number of Parkrun miles.
(much more green than air miles!).
Runners will benefit, not least, by having a varied, select and scenic run of a fine area,
devised by a local expert. Maps can be downloaded from the website.The data is centralised into a huge and detailed database so that you can see all your performances and that of othere, campare yourself with age-group or peers. The very glorious thing is that it is all free. No entrance fee is levied and registration is free also. Sponsors pay costs and organisers are unpaid volunteers. It could be used for charity but there is no direct provision for this within the event organisation (so no pressure). Naturally, when someone has run a Parkrun they will then know the course and be able to do a run whenever they like. Most folk like to spin Parkruns into a social structure and things like child-minding and creching are possible. It is a brilliant English idea but is catching on like a plague in many parts of the world. Could it be used for the bdr? Well no, and you can see that some of the principles, as seen above, do not fit. However runners could register with parkrun to get a bar-code. Two years ago bdr runners had bar-coded numbers and bar-code reader was at the finish. Event organiser Greg Boorman rejected its use and a chaotic manual finish was favoured. Poor results were out on 9th January instead of good ones on the day of the run. When I last looked there were no parks in South East Kent but it will expand. Whitstable is the closest. Registered runner numbers are edging towards 200,000 and events have extended to Afghanistan and Iceland. 
©Stuart Collins - or otherwise identified as | |