tim2

We're now near or over 300 most weeks at Rother Valley. I'm now up to 157 runs total at 41 venues.

Just watching Ian Hislop's Who Should We Let In? - it seems nothing has changed in 100 years except the nationality of the targets.

Millom is more "cross country spikes" than trail shoes apparently. A couple of quicker runners allegedly discarded their shoes altogether and ran it barefoot.

Millom is gaining notoriety among tourist parkrunners as one of the hardest to run - it's very wet/muddy and so far has never been done under 20 minutes and most runners are 5 minutes over their usual time. It may ease in summer though, although I'm not sure Cumbria has summer. Rother Valley (whose core management team I am on) is managed by Rotherham Council who helped set it up. We pay £1 to park rather than the usual £5 and numbers have swelled from 50 in 2013 to almost 300 on a weekly basis now. The cafe manager loves telling us how much he takes on a Saturday morning now compared to before parkrun - and that's every week, winter or summer. I think the trick the government will need to pull off in this legislation is how to define who gets to be charged and who doesn't. If a PT uses the park to take one paying person or a group to run/exercise in a public park should they be charged as they are profiting? Professional dog walkers? If I'm a not-for-profit sports club (which an RL club can be) and I don't hire the changing rooms can I use a council pitch for free?

American Justice on BBC2 continues to deliver. Brilliantly put together, this week's episode wound in two threads - children who kill and the election for State Attorney. I was left contemplating the dilemmas faced by law enforcement, judiciary, legal teams and the penal system when dealing with an abused 12 year old child (for that is what he is) who has got a gun whilst living rough on the streets and has executed a homeless man by shooting him in the head. America has some serious social problems and there seems little appetite to deal with them other than by building more jails and locking people in them forever. Black president or orange president, nothing seems to change whilst those with power and wealth live high off the hog in their gated communities.

I liked when they cut to one of the owners in the stand (I think it was Sunderland's) and the woman next to him (I guess it may have been his wife) looked like she was asleep. Given the quality of the game, I'm not surprised.

We walked up to the Fox Glacier but you could only go on it if you paid a guide. Looking at the stats for Rother Valley over 4 years there's a jump after Christmas of about 20-25% (last week saw us get a record 288 runners) and about half of them stick it out. Numbers peak in late spring, fall a bit in summer, go up a bit in the autumn and tend to be lower in December. Rother Valley has grown year on year from 40-50 at the start to a current average of about 200. I actually got two top twenty finishes in NZ due to the number of runners being quite low!

I just ran 3 parkruns in New Zealand including one that went through a live geothermal area. They have a rather more relaxed approach to Health and Safety in NZ and I love them for it.

i was so shocked I started a thread about this on the main page! Even the team who got it wrong put a decent guess in.

Truly amazing.

My aunt and uncle have had a horrible few months. She has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and he has lost his son and has now had a heart attack. None of us can blame $deity as we are atheists.

Yes, I'd forgotten about that. That too.

Meanwhile at Bramley parkrun (yes, that Bramley) the presence of an AED (automated external defibrillator) and some smart first aid almost certainly contributed to saving another runner's life. This equipment is vital at all places where physical exercise takes place, including rugby clubs. Tony Tonks (ex Fev, Giants, Fax, eagles and now Dewsbury) runs a charity that helps spread info and raise funds for AEDs.

Sad news from Doncaster parkrun where local runner Michael Wakefield collapsed and later passed away. No-one expects to go out for a run and not come back. RIP to a fellow runner.

Two things this week. The brilliant Boo Hewerdine and in particular his forced child deportation song - "The Man That I Am" Right now listening to up-and-coming folk rockers Mawkin's latest album after watching them live last night. Fantastic energy and great musicianship.

Just done my 30th different parkrun event out of 117 total personal runs. Lyme Park in Cheshire and it's an absolute beast. Off-road, hilly and (on this day only) a 6foot stile due to a gate being locked. I did Edinburgh last week with 629 people - amazing that a pop-up event that's been and gone by 10.30am could be so easily and slickly organised by volunteers. And this happens every week.

Chief Operating Officer for parkrun Tom Williams said: "We are extremely disappointed that Stoke Gifford Parish Council has voted to impose a charge at Little Stoke parkrun. “parkrun has had unprecedented success in engaging the least active and encouraging them to exercise regularly. Providing free weekly access has been fundamental to this and we are disappointed that this opportunity is to be removed for the residents of Little Stoke. "Our aim is to break down barriers to participation in, and delivery of, physical activity and this is consistent across 850 parkruns worldwide, which are all delivered by volunteers and are free to take part in. Imposing a charge at one event is something that contradicts our founding principles and would set a precedent that threatens our future. “As a nation we must make a decision about whether we want to be healthier or not. The costs to all of us of inactivity and poor health are immense. parkrun has had enormous success at bringing communities together and promoting physical activity in safe and welcoming social environments. "The past six months have been an uncertain and difficult time for everyone involved with Little Stoke parkrun and our entire global community of more than two million parkrunners is behind them as we discuss our next steps.”

It's a one-off start-up charge to pay for the equipment, increased insurance, additional IT infrastructure and presumably it is also used to cover ongoing and future costs. £3K comes from parkrun themselves (from its sponsors or however else it raises it) and £3K has to be found from elsewhere - usually a council - and this goes to parkrun. Our council found it almost immediately and it was ensuring that all start-up conditions were met (safety, contractual stuff, volunteer training etc.) that took the most time. I believe it was a higher council that provided the original funding for Little Stoke, not the parish council. A lot of parks get money back from charging for car parking and from their cafe (which is usually packed after the event) but Little Stoke has neither of these.

I am a Run Director at 2 parkruns, one of which I helped to start. Unless you've been there, you don't understand that it is a unique thing in modern times - a true community event. I have run over a hundred times at 23 events, one of which is in Australia. To start a parkrun you need £6000, 50% of which is provided by parkrun. Councils themselves are the normal providers of the remainder as it gives them a massive tick in the box in terms of health in the community KPIs. After that all running costs (excuse the pun) are met by parkrun. Computer systems, equipment maintenance, insurance etc. The explosive growth of parkrun has lead inevitably to a larger organisation at the top with some people working full-time. This makes the free, community and volunteer led ethos harder to maintain. However parkrun must do this. If they back down once, all park owners will want the same. 400 events, £10K each per year - a lot of money to find if you want to keep it free at the point of use. In the end Little Stoke will lose its run but they will find somewhere else.

I need to lose 4kg - the problem with Ultra training is that it makes me really hungry and I overeat.

Officially it's parkrun - one word no capitals! My home run is Rother Valley - single loop and really flat - unusual for South Yorkshire. I've done 104 so far at 23 different venues and am helping set up a new one at Poolsbrook near Chesterfield. I'm not near a PB at the moment (it's 22.45) but am training for a 30 mile Ultra at the moment so endurance beats pace right now. I've also volunteered over 50 times. We've steadily risen from 50 runners when we started to about 200 now - in some ways I like the smaller numbers because you get to know everyone - we've made some really good friends as a result. My best memory is running with Bailey Matthews at both Rother Valley and Clumber Park. A true inspiration.

There's a bit of Ray Davies / Kinks in there as well. Glenn Tilbrook's solo shows are fantastic and he often performs in very small venues. I saw him in a 100 person venue in Sheffield and it was one of the best gigs I've seen. They actually wrote Cradle to the Grave and some of the other tracks in 2012 and mentioned the Danny Baker project back then. I don't know if the delay in actually completing it was a consequence of Baker's illness.

Just taken delivery of Squeeze's new studio album, the first one since the late 80s. I love it but then I'm a massive fan. I think they are vastly underrated and are great live. I've seen them in full band format, as a 2-piece with just Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook and also solo.

Seth MacFarlane has just about pushed the limits as far as he possibly can in the USA with the latest Family Guy episode on BBC2 - 'The 2,000-year-old virgin', in which Peter and his friends meet Jesus and try to help him lose his virginity. In the meantime, I've finally started watching The Wire on Sky Box Sets. Pretty good - certainly deserves its reputation but I still think The Sopranos is the best TV drama ever made.

It relly looks so naff now - the miming, the bored crowd and the only available safe DJs seem to be Mike "UKIP Calypso" Reid or Noel Edmonds