A post for the Byxbee parkrun curious

 Let's get these bits out of the way up front:

• There are no race medals. 
• There are no race shirts.
• There isn't even a race bib.
• The only distance is a 5K. A pretty much flat 5K.
• And it's always the same course.* Always at 8 AM, every Saturday**. 
• And, technically, these aren't actually races, but timed events.

* Actually, Byxbee did change the course. See below.

** Holidays can mess this up, and there is a bonus event on Thanksgiving day.

I started running races back in 2009, and am now creeping up on 400 events (not counting those I've volunteered at). (Yes, there is a spreadsheet.) I have a LOT of race bibs, shirts, and a wall of finisher medals. And some really impressive coasters. 

But I had never run anything like a parkrun (yes, it is lowercase) event until they started up at the nearby Byxbee Park in Palo Alto back in 2019. (They just held their 70th event on April 30, 2022.)

I knew all of the above facts, and I knew one other fact—parkrun events are free. And almost as good, you don't have to enter or signup for them - just show up and run. Or walk. Or dance. (No bikes or skateboards though. Dogs and strollers are fine. Hoverboards are right out.) The only thing you have to do is to go to their website and sign up for a bar code that you show when you finish so they can give you a finish time.

Some details

There are 46 parkrun sites in US—surprisingly, there is only this one in California. (There was one at Crissy Field in San Francisco, but after the COVID shutdown, they were unable to restart.) 

It amuses me that California has fewer parkrun events than Colorado.

The Byxbee parkrun averages about 50 participants per event. There are a group of regulars as well as a fair number of out-of-town visitors. Like from WAY out-of-town. parkrun is wildly popular once you get out of the US, and there are people that collect parkruns while vacationing. (It's funny when a fast British person is trying to stick to the left while all us locals are sticking to the right. I've not seen any deaths yet.)

Worldwide, there are a bit over 2,000 events every Saturday. Some events will have nearly 1,000 participants. And all you need to run any of them is your barcode. Well, and to actually be there.

When you look at a map of all the parkruns in the UK, it looks like you can't swing a soggy brolly without hitting one.

The race start

First, there is a pre-race briefing where the Run Director for the day explains the rules and course, then welcomes visitors and recognizes anyone hitting a milestone (more about these later). Depending on the RD and the weather, these briefings can be really short or fairly detailed.

"How many of you want to pet a goose?" (Tip: Don't try it. It will not end well.)

There is also a bag where you can leave any jackets and such you don't want to run with. (It's very informal, so leaving car keys or phones is ill-advised.) Additionally, Byxbee is blessed with a proper set of toilets right at the start, along with a fountain for filling your water bottle.

A rainy pre-race briefing - that building is the bathroom (which is often the pre-race star).

Once that's over, the participants all wander over into the start chute, the RD yells "GO!", and the time keepers start their clocks.

Once the runners leave, the finish line volunteers move the start line back about 100 yards and set up the finish line.

The course

When the Byxbee parkrun first started, it used a single out-and-back course.

Note that "bridge." It becomes important in a bit. The "S/F" is the start/finish.

You went out 1.55 miles, turned around, and came back. There was very little chance of getting lost, and it was all fairly flat. 

Then the park people said that the bridge (which is actually a tidal inlet of some sort) needed to be replaced, and parkrun needed to modify their course. 

And this is what we use today:

Note how much shorter the red line is. Also note the impossible to see green marks that indicate parking areas.

We start at the same place as before, and well before the bridge, make a turn and follow the water for a bit. (What's funny about this stretch that the above map doesn't convey is that there are small hills that limit your view of the trail, so you don't see the turnaround point until you are nearly right on top of it.)

After the turnaround, we retrace our steps to the start, except the start has been moved about 100 yards further away, where there is another turnaround, and you get to do all that over again. You will swear on that second lap that the turnaround you're looking for has been moved even further away.

A fun thing about this double out-and-back is that you get to see all the runners several times - the fast ones, the slow ones - everyone! Another fun thing is that you are near the bathrooms when you are at the halfway point - that can be quite handy. 

The finish line! Or the halfway point! 

The start/finish area has two close but small parking lots. A condition of getting to use these trails is that we have to avoid parking there, leaving them for the normal people. The hard to see green marks above show the places we are allowed to park.

So how is the timing done?

I've done a number of DSE races, which are somewhat similar ($5 fee to cover the finish ribbon and such, but with varying distances and race sites), and never really understood how they did timing. I get it now and parkrun turns out to be similar, with some key differences. 

When you finish the parkrun, there are two time keepers, who each launched a parkrun app on their phone when the race started. Every time a runner goes through the finish chute, the time keepers tap on the app to enter a finish time. At the end of the chute, the runner is handed a finish token with a barcode on it - this token defines what place they finished in. 

The runner then takes that token and their personal barcode to another volunteer that scans the two, tying a person to a finish spot, and after the event, that place is tied to a time keeper time.

So, what could go wrong? You can probably guess at the issues that can come up.

Someone comes through the finish chute but has nothing to do with the race. There is always someone that thinks it's funny to pretend to be in the race, who will play up the finish, then walk away laughing. An advantage of the two lap course is that the time keepers get to see all the runners at the halfway point, and this can help you recognize the humor-challenged twits. But not always - and sometimes one or both time keepers will get tripped up by that. So you end up having to remember what number is bogus. (You can't delete the time on the spot.) This can cause the results to be off by a runner, which can take some time to sort out later.

Note that the runners have no bibs or, like with DSE, ribbons pinned to their shirt. There is no way, other than memory or shouting at them "ARE YOU WITH parkrun?" (remember to shout lower-case), to know who is actually in the race. 

Someone finishes but has no barcode. This is fairly common; either they forgot it or didn't understand the need for it. This isn't a huge issue - they get a time as UNKNOWN and it doesn't affect anyone else's results.

Phantom touches. This is also fairly common - it's really hard to not accidentally tap the phone (or to tap it twice) sometimes. With two time keepers though, this generally works out OK, with the phantom touches sticking out a bit. (You can also use the phone's volume controls to enter a time, but I haven't tried that enough to feel comfortable with it.)

Rain. I just found this out at a run a few weeks ago; smart phones with touch screens are incredibly clever, especially when they are waterproof. But a wet screen can react in unpredictable ways when it's tapped. Mine would put in double taps, or ignore a tap then do a double tap when I tapped again. Mine, ironically, kept switching to the Weather app, or going into the delete app mode. (Next time I will have an umbrella to prevent most of these issues. Fortunately, the second time keeper was wise and had an umbrella and ended up with solid results. And the rain seemed to have kept the twits at home.)

Someone gets a finish token and then goes home. This is pretty bad since those tokens are used every week, and a missing one means extra math for the person who is trying to sort out all the times and barcodes. Generally, it's just that people don't understand and assume it's like a finisher medal. A small, boring, weird, plastic finisher medal. 

Your finish time

At some point after the race, usually within a couple hours, you will get an email that tells you your finish time and a few other bits about the race, plus a link to all the results. It's really nice that they track what your parkrun personal best is (both forever and this year).

Volunteering

I'm sure this varies wildly at the other parkruns, but Byxbee has these volunteer positions:

Race Director: There is a small core that rotate this duty around. These people are superstars. They have to make sense of the time keeper times, the barcode scan, and the twit rejection.

First Timer Briefing: This person gathers the people that have never run at parkrun together and explains the course, timing, needing a barcode, and that they should NOT take their finish line token home. This person can get a volunteer and run credit if they also run the event.

Parking Guide: This person stands in the road and explains the parkrun parking rules to people unfamiliar with them. This person can get a volunteer and run credit if they also run the event.

Tail Walker: This person is the guaranteed last runner. (A fun bit at parkrun events is you will never be last, and you can go as slow as you need to - there is always the tail walker somewhere behind you.) This person gets a volunteer and run credit. It is a highly sought after position!

Mrs Notthat as the most adorable tail walker ever!

Far Course Marshal: This person walks out to the turnaround point (about 0.75 miles) and sets up cones along the way. They then stay at that point until the tail walker comes by a second time, when they return to the finish area, picking cones along the way. This is the person that benefitted the most from the course change. (I like this job - you get to see the whole course and cheer on the runners. I usually bring my camera and take a lot of pictures while out there. You do have to get there a little early though.)

"Which way do I go?" Everyone loves seeing the far course marshal!

Close Course Marshal: There is really only one turn that a runner could miss (although there are many cones, so you would have to try pretty hard). At that turn, there is a course marshal. It's maybe 0.25 miles from the start.

"Which way do I go?" You go past the close course marshal four times!

Time Keeper: There are two of these. You need a phone that has the parkrun volunteer app on it. This is one of the more challenging volunteer positions, although you quickly get into a rhythm and, barring a flock of twits or a surprise rain storm, this can be fun. 

Time keepers are not allowed to take bribes.

Token Hander Outer: This person is at the end of the finish chute and hands the finish tokens to the runners as they come through. They also try to keep an eye on anyone that doesn't immediately go to the token scanner and might walk off with the token. (Once you are handed your token, it really doesn't matter when you go to the token scanner, and sometimes people leave their barcode in their car, but it's good to know that's what's going on.)

Token Scanner: This person scans each finisher's barcode and finish token, using the same parkrun volunteer app as the time keepers.

Photographer: This person takes pictures of the runners. They are posted on the Byxbee parkrun Facebook page.

Milestones and shirts!

parkrun recognizes several milestones, both as a runner and as a volunteer. In the past, you would be sent a shirt for free when you hit one of these milestones, but today you have to pay for the shirt (in pounds, or farthings, or something like that). It's actually fairly cheap and is a fun thing to wear.

I reached my 25 run milestone earlier this year and ordered my shirt. You don't get to choose the color - that's defined by the milestone, and for 25, that color is purple.

Me after finishing, walking past the telephone pole ranch. (Or perching poles, depending on  your point-of-view.)

It has been great to see more and more purple shirts showing up at the Byxbee event - Mrs Notthat got hers a few weeks ago.

And then you see someone with a 250 shirt (green), and you wonder, how is that even possible???

My next milestone is 50, and I'm a long ways away from that. I hope to hit the 25 volunteer milestone before then (I'm at ten, as of today). 

There are other shirts you can purchase just for fun, along with a variety of things to personalize with your barcode so you don't have to dig it out of your wallet when you are all sweaty at the end of a run. 

Is parkrun for you?

Probably.

Byxbee parkrun is all on gravel and is pretty flat. (There is a gradual hill, but you likely only notice that hill when you need to find a reason for going so slow.) The course is the same every week, and some will get bored with that. A fun thing though is that there are a number of other trails in the area (including some small hills), and a number of runners will spend post-race time on them.

There are geese that seem to live to taunt the runners, many other waterfowl, and jack rabbits. These trails are also popular with normal people and bicyclists, but that never seems to be an issue. (Well, other than the twits mentioned earlier.)

"I know turtles that run faster than you!" The geese can be cruel.

The lack of a medal or bib may be a deal-breaker for some of you. That lack of an entry fee maybe will put that deal back together again though.

There are a core of 30 or so people that seem to show up nearly every week, so you do get socializing opportunities. There are some that are fast (well under 20 minutes) and some that get their money's worth (take about an hour). 

The casualness of these events is really nice, and removes most normal race day pressure. It's not uncommon for someone to show up, run the first lap, then drop for one reason or the other - maybe they brought their kid or dog and that kid/dog is not up to doing a second lap. If you wake up and are not feeling it, that's fine; you aren't wasting a race fee if you decide to sleep in.

Byxbee Park is maybe a bit of a drive if you live in the East Bay. I'm surprised at how many people drive down from San Francisco or from the East Bay, but, well, it's a free 5K!

Should other races be nervous?

I don't think so. And actually, parkrun events serve as a bit of an introduction to racing and trails for many. They help remove the fear of "what if I'm not fast enough" and "will I get lost." People will start to get curious about other courses and distances. You see a wide array of race shirts at these events, which often end up starting conversations. 

And that's about it. If you've read this far, you are likely a bit more than "Byxbee parkrun curious." You should come out and give it a try.

Just leave the dang geese alone.

That's it - move along…