Professional pride!

At parkrun we like to focus on the fun of walking, jogging, running and volunteering, and not to take the competition side of things too seriously. It’s great to be outside, being active, being with others, being happy, being proud of your achievements.

But we are also more than that! parkruns are also held on accurately measured 5k courses. What does this mean? Well, it means that a course measurer has gone around the course with a course measurer’s wheel and measured that the course is exactly 5k and not any other distance.

Sounds simple? Well, you would think so, except that many large running races over previous years have not found it so easy, with several examples of marathon and half marathon courses being short.

All of our events in Scandinavia (with the current exception of Tøyen parkrun) also have kilometre markers on the course which have also been accurately measured. Again, that’s not always the case in a big running race, even if one has paid lots of money to enter it. I remember a large running event in Stockholm, which shall remain nameless, where I could see from my watch already after 2km that either I was setting some world records along the way or the signs were in the wrong place…….

So why is this important then if parkrun is focussing on the fun of running? Well, we know that people are rightly proud of achieving a PB at parkrun, and being able to measure their progress over time. It doesn’t matter whether you are running 15 or 50 minutes at parkrun, it’s still nice to know that you’ve achieved that on a course which you know is accurate.

Likewise, the atmosphere at a parkrun is friendly and relaxed, but we’re proud that the simple but clever timing system that parkrun uses means that you get a ‘to-the-second’ time every time you run.

As we’ve said before, parkrun is exactly what you want it to be. It could be being active for the first time in years, or running an event as a family, or using parkrun as a training session towards a longer-term goal. But whichever it is, you know you will taking part on an accurately measured 5km course and getting an exact time – and all our teams are very proud of that!

Happy parkrunning everyone!

Deri Thomas
Country Manager
parkrun Sverige