European Correspondent.
Event overwhelmed by participants seeking personal best speeds during summer holidays
A seaside Parkrun has been temporarily suspended after “ego-driven” runners tripped and barged slower participants.
Organisers of the Weymouth Parkrun, in Lodmoor Country Park, said the event had been overwhelmed by runners seeking to reach personal best speeds.
They said participant numbers had doubled during the summer holidays as tourists flocked to the free 5km event, which takes place across the UK each week.
The Weymouth Parkrun generally attracts between 300 and 400 people, but there were almost 600 attendees last weekend.
Parkrun gives safety briefings before events, but participants said many runners took no notice of them.
Faster runners were seen barging into slower participants along narrow sections of the congested course, leading to volunteers cancelling the event until Sept 5, when the bulk of holidaymakers would have left.
Weymouth organisers urged people to attend one of many other Dorset Parkrun events in the meantime.
A statement said: “Our numbers have increased over the summer, but more worryingly, the number of incidents reported to the run director have also increased, and if we want to enjoy our Parkrun in the future we need to take action now.
“Each week we have reports of people overtaking when there isn’t room. Runners and members of the public are getting tripped or barged, and with every incident reported comes several hours of work for our core team.
“For the continued success of the event, please give way to other park users. This won’t hurt your time, it won’t stop you from getting a personal best and it will make sure everyone continues to enjoy the event.”
Les Hooper, who volunteers as a race marshal at Weymouth, said: “Having spent a good part of the hour last week shouting and encouraging participants to ‘keep left on the narrow path’, I felt like I was wasting my breath.
“Individuals and groups ignored my warnings, and even flooded around members of the public who were a bit worried by this.”
‘Disgusting behaviour’
One participant said he had been shouted at for not going fast enough at last Saturday’s event.
They said: “[I] didn’t report it, but one runner behind me shouted at me to ‘overtake him, go on!’ when I had stayed behind a fellow who was pacing me. I had no desire and little manoeuvring room to do. I had never experienced this behaviour at Parkrun before.”
Another participant said: “A lot of ego-driven runners cutting you up unashamedly to reach their PB.”
Stephen Lummis said: “People shouldn’t run two or three abreast blocking paths. I know they probably want to chat but on the narrow bits just apply common sense. Obviously barging anyone is disgusting behaviour.”
Parkrun gives safety briefings before events, but participants said many runners took no notice of them.
