The Running thread

[Richard E]

Having only done the London Marathon last year, partly for financial reasons, I’m trying to sign up for lots this year. Have booked in for the Stafford Half in March and the Wolverhampton to Birmingham towpath Half in July and will sign up for the Sutton Fun Run when that opens for registration next weekend. I’m itching to do another marathon.

That will be interesting as part of the Canal near Oldbury is closed off and the diversion take you up and across a busy road.

In the past they’ve set up a temporary platform around closed sections.

[AV82EC]

So parkrun have got themselves all embroiled in the trans debate, and rather than take any sensible measures they've simply deleted all course data and records from the website. FFS.

They’ve got this horribly wrong, the fucking idiots.

[Risso]

Yep, it's a right mess. I do feel a bit sorry for them in that it's a superb organisation, who for absolutely no charge, provide a superb community service that is helping the health of millions of people. And they obviously don't have the means to check gender or do testosterone check or anything like "proper" competitive sport. But the answer surely isn't to a) lie about it or b) just delete everything, thus pissing off millions of people at a stroke.

It's still great, and did mine this morning (another PB) and it was as good as ever, but I found all the results info really useful and motivational.

[Somniloquism]

Surely the blame should be on the right-wing people starting the transgender moan in the first place and threatening to get the funding pulled if they didn't enforce gender separations. As you point out, the idea is supposed to be fun, inclusive and for everyone. Obviously you do have competitive people enter as well, but then they should also be strava addicts and just use the segment timings on there if they want to "beat a course record".

But lets blame Parkrun.

[Risso]

Surely the blame should be on the right-wing people starting the transgender moan in the first place and threatening to get the funding pulled if they didn't enforce gender separations. As you point out, the idea is supposed to be fun, inclusive and for everyone. Obviously you do have competitive people enter as well, but then they should also be strava addicts and just use the segment timings on there if they want to "beat a course record".

But lets blame Parkrun.

I don't think it's the "right wing" as such. It seems to be another battle between radical feminists and radical trans advocates, as per usual. I can see how it could be slightly galling if you're a woman with a record in a course, to have it obilterated by somebody who used to be a man. What the answer is though, I have no idea.

[Somniloquism]

So a report comes from a known right wing think tank telling the government that:

The report continues: “The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) must require all national governing bodies, within 12 months, to update their policies to ensure there is a protected female single‑sex category. This should be made a condition of funding, with taxpayers’ funding withdrawn from those that do not protect female same‑sex sport.”

Written by Lottie Moore, the head of biology matters and equality and identity at Policy Exchange, the report argues that even the community sport event Parkrun should be threatened with sanctions. Hailed for its community‑led approach to increasing physical activity, Parkrun describes itself as an organisation that is “positive, welcoming and inclusive”, where “there is no time limit and no one finishes last”. According to the report, however, Parkrun currently records the self-identified gender of its participants not their sex. That policy should be reversed within 12 months, it says, or public funding should be removed.

And it is not the right wing doing it?

So the Parkrun choices seem to be have people checking the actual gender of every entrant at every run, or just remove the category times from their website. Seems they have done the latter.

[AV82EC]

It’s the wrong decision but as I’ve said elsewhere I really don’t care that much to get worked up about it. And as far as I’m aware parkrun doesn’t get government funding so Policy Exchange can shove it up their arse the bunch of culture war right wing loonies.

[TopDeck113]

As a parkrun plodder of over 10 years, I'm rather pissed-off with an organisation that has done so much good for me and millions of others globally.  I liked the stats, not because I have a hope in hell of being a course record-holder,  a sub-17 male runner or, indeed, identifying as female going sub-20 but because it gives a bit of context to what's going on at the front of the field when I'm in the back third.  Also, as someone who likes going to different events, the data on average and record attendances was useful.  A quick glance and you had an idea as to parking availability, whether to bother going to the café post-run, etc.  All part of the parkrun experience!

Anyway, on a positive note, despite being over 10 minutes slower than my parkrun record (it's the knees...), this morning I achieved my fastest run since last February.  So not all bad!

[charlatan]

Surely the blame should be on the right-wing people starting the transgender moan in the first place

Surely the trans lobby did that?

[charlatan]

And why do you think women runners moaning about men beating them while claiming to be women renders them right wing anyway?

Presumably parkrun had the option of declaring the categories to be sex rather than gender based. Some people might lie, but then they would be cheats. And people have always been able to lie about their age along similar lines. Those who have competed as male in the past would thus be easily identified as cheats (as would those whose age didn't tally with that given for other events when they were younger).

[Risso]

So a report comes from a known right wing think tank telling the government that:

The report continues: “The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) must require all national governing bodies, within 12 months, to update their policies to ensure there is a protected female single‑sex category. This should be made a condition of funding, with taxpayers’ funding withdrawn from those that do not protect female same‑sex sport.”

Written by Lottie Moore, the head of biology matters and equality and identity at Policy Exchange, the report argues that even the community sport event Parkrun should be threatened with sanctions. Hailed for its community‑led approach to increasing physical activity, Parkrun describes itself as an organisation that is “positive, welcoming and inclusive”, where “there is no time limit and no one finishes last”. According to the report, however, Parkrun currently records the self-identified gender of its participants not their sex. That policy should be reversed within 12 months, it says, or public funding should be removed.

And it is not the right wing doing it?

So the Parkrun choices seem to be have people checking the actual gender of every entrant at every run, or just remove the category times from their website. Seems they have done the latter.

I don't know which think tank that is, but they're a tiny pebble in an avalanche of hatred between the trans and feminist lobbies. At worst they're standing on the sidelines poking sticks. None of the feminists I've seen fighting their side would appear to be what you'd call right wing at all, far from it.

As I've said before my view on the trans debate is that people should be free to live their lives as they choose. However, as with anything in life there are small areas where there will be issues, and sport is one of them. This is just another example.

But anyway. Well done on the run TopDeck, fastest run for a year must have felt good.

[Risso]

It’s the wrong decision but as I’ve said elsewhere I really don’t care that much to get worked up about it. And as far as I’m aware parkrun doesn’t get government funding so Policy Exchange can shove it up their arse the bunch of culture war right wing loonies.

Actually they do, grants from Sport England.

[Somniloquism]

Parkrun have worked like they have for 20 years with no issues. They literally state it is a run not a race and just record times for peoples interest. Then the totally non-right wing Daily Mail ran a story last summer about someone running fast in the 44-49 category and that started it. Then the totally non-right wing Policy Exchange followed that up demanding the Government strip the charity of any "tax-payer" funded money unless they demand every entrant proves their sex. So rather then demand birth certificates for a fun activity (whose actual records were held by professional runners who had represented their countries at Olympics,) they decided to remove the timings from view instead to placate the non-right wing people moaning and to emphasize the run's are just meant for fun and not competition.

So yes the problem here is the trans lobby and the left wing. Well done for seeing through it all.

[Risso]

Parkrun have worked like they have for 20 years with no issues. They literally state it is a run not a race and just record times for peoples interest. Then the totally non-right wing Daily Mail ran a story last summer about someone running fast in the 44-49 category and that started it. Then the totally non-right wing Policy Exchange followed that up demanding the Government strip the charity of any "tax-payer" funded money unless they demand every entrant proves their sex. So rather then demand birth certificates for a fun activity (whose actual records were held by professional runners who had represented their countries at Olympics,) they decided to remove the timings from view instead to placate the non-right wing people moaning and to emphasize the run's are just meant for fun and not competition.

So yes the problem here is the trans lobby and the left wing. Well done for seeing through it all.

Sigh, whatever you say. This story has been going since a lot longer than last summer. But I'll leave it there, as it's not what this thread's for.

[charlatan]

Parkrun have worked like they have for 20 years with no issues. They literally state it is a run not a race and just record times for peoples interest. Then the totally non-right wing Daily Mail ran a story last summer about someone running fast in the 44-49 category and that started it. Then the totally non-right wing Policy Exchange followed that up demanding the Government strip the charity of any "tax-payer" funded money unless they demand every entrant proves their sex. So rather then demand birth certificates for a fun activity (whose actual records were held by professional runners who had represented their countries at Olympics,) they decided to remove the timings from view instead to placate the non-right wing people moaning and to emphasize the run's are just meant for fun and not competition.

So yes the problem here is the trans lobby and the left wing. Well done for seeing through it all.

Without the trans lobby and the left wing would there be men claiming to be women competing across all manner of sporting events (a problem by no means limited to Parkrun and one which comfortably predates the Daily Mail or Policy Rxchange getting involved as you may possibly have noticed)?

Are the feminists who have been banging on about this for longer than the Daily Mail all right wing or are you a left of centre person for whom right wing is a convenient diss for pretty much anything which can be construed as political that you don't like? Why not call it far right and claim some social justice warrior bonus points?