Spoiler alert - this comment is going to be divisive. It’s prompted by RunforJoy’s comment about cutting his run short following a spell of injury.
The C25K and associated programmes, and Park Run, are billed as not competitive. But I’m sorry to say I read a considerable number of posts that don’t suggest this. I’m all for self improvement, but it would be great if we could just all pull back a bit - what does it matter if you achieve your goal now or in a years time in all honesty?
And can we call the ‘Injury Couch’ something a bit more positive, such as the ‘Recovery Couch’ please?!! My aims when I started were to complete the programme, and run a Parkrun. I was also very worried about getting injured as a work colleague had started a C25K (with a running club, incidentally) and spent over a year trying to get over injury. So if anything I have taken it slower than anyone and sometimes I feel a bit useless when I read some of the posts on here.
However , 2 years later and I’m still running regularly (admittedly it waxes and wanes) but I’m still going and because I have slacked off at the sign of a niggle, I’ve avoided having to completely sit out. I did my first Parkrun on Saturday but didn’t really enjoy it as found it really competitive. I did it in just under 34 mins (which I was happy with because I’m 54 years old with the worlds shortest legs 🤣🤣) but I was 71st out of 85 runners which actually made me feel quite demoralised. I am going to give it another go though, to see if the second time is a better experience for me.
I do acknowledge that there are lots of hugely positive comments on these forums, and Parkruners who are lovely and genuinely supportive of others, and I have personally benefited from these and would not wish my comments to detract from that.
But my point is - everyone who is doing their best is more than good enough - try not to let the competitive chatter distract you.
Written by
Sewnotfit
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
I think the majority of people on the forum do just that - encourage everyone by celebrating their runs, however slow or short. I've been on the forum for 2 years and have never felt it's competitive or discouraging, ever. Far from it, everyone respects everybody's running. Yes, some people post their times (as you just have, which could be discouraging, as you are faster than me, but no discouragement felt).I think sometimes we can be competitive with ourselves, which can be good or bad, depending on our mindset.
I don't think anyone here means to be competitive with other forum members. It's interesting that you perceive it like this. It sounds like you are running how you like, and that's good in anyone's book, including the vast majority of forum members. I wonder if you are feeling pressure to 'improve' whatever that means, so are perceiving people's posts negatively. Take care.
Weird... I have been on this forum now for more than a year, have reached 30 minutes, 5K, 10K and 10 miles. That said, I am MUCH slower than you, because for 5K I need 40+ minutes. My (one and only) 10 miles I did in 2h12 (which is most people's half marathon time) and was proud of it. So I am much slower than most people here, but I have NEVER ever felt any competitiveness here on this forum. On contrary actually, despite being a snail, I only feel encouragement here.
I don't mean to sound harsh with this, but I fear that if you feel any competitivity here on the forum, I think it is mainly in your head. Maybe you feel competitive yourself? Because I compare myself very easily to others (hence the reason I also stopped drawing because all others are so much better than me). But I have never felt that way here. On contrary even...
Agreed! I can get competitive with myself, but I never want to do parkrun, ever. I love running by myself. Sometimes I'm tough on myself. I am a snail, but have run long runs. I know nothing about VOMax or heart rate running. When I read people's stats I just think 'that's great', even when I don't understand them!
I’m newish to the forums but I haven’t noticed any competitiveness at all really. Lots of posters encouraging others to take things slowly and go at their own pace. Lots of celebration of other people’s achievements. Lots of posters warning against trying to go too fast too early or increasing too much in case of injury. Lots of posters telling others to rest and go very gently when recovering from illness or injury. It’s almost the opposite of competitiveness that I see here.
I think sometimes we can read posts differently depending on our own mood, or misinterpret tone when things are written down rather than spoken out loud.
Thanks to those who have replied. You are right, I’m beating myself up too much. I’m going to withdraw a bit and concentrate just on myself. Thank you for the perspective xx
Take care and hope you don't put pressure on yourself! Just do your thing in your own way, it's all good. If you decide you want to run further, that's all possible too!
I do believe that human nature automatically makes us compare ourselves to others. Sometimes this is good and can help push us forward and expand our boundaries. Other times, this comparison doesn't help and we need to pull back. A bit of a yoyo affair. As someone who is still doing the C25k program, I find that this forum does encourage us to simply do our best, whatever that is for the day and to celebrate our accomplishments, our strength, our determination and our desires. Don't be hard on yourself. Listen to your body, your needs. Sometimes it doesn't come together, sometimes it flows and feels like magic. It's all part of the journey. Trust it.
I think you are misinterpreting our self-improvement goals. Our running communities recognise the importance of having goals as something that is first experienced on the C25K programme. Many many graduates ask for help with getting into and keeping a habit of regular exercise. The setting and measuring of achievable goals is a very important motivational method, which is why we provide tools like the Quest and the Magic Plan.
We have never encouraged competition or comparison with others, and I personally do not see this happening. I have looked at the post from Runforjoy to which I think you refer healthunlocked.com/bridgeto.... and I see a person who is disappointed and concerned that he is not yet achieving a level of fitness that he is aiming at for himself, with no reference to anyone else's performance. He also recognises that he may be pushing himself too hard and may need to adjust his goals. Further, he received a lot of very concerned and sensible advice from community members, not one of whom suggested that he was coming up short against any sort of standard.
Of course overreaching can cause problems. Whilst we encourage goals, we do our best to advise that our members set realistic ones!
parkrun I agree can have an element of competition for some people, but the group running and data they provide can also be used as a self improvement tool - if your goal is to get faster at running 5k, or also just if you would like to run with others, or attend parkrun more regularly. They also provide stats for showing up as a volunteer! However, not everyone enjoys parkrun, I have seen many community members write about it not being for them for various reasons.
I also understand your point about the "Injury Couch", but this is a term that has been around for a long time, and has become an important (and very tongue-in-cheek!) way for our members to provide support and sympathy for one another. Those of us with an injury are not sitting on the sofa but are working as much as possible to recover and get running again.
If you would like to discuss any of this over personal chat, my "door is open" - mostly anyway, I have a meeting later this morning so I may not answer straight away.
I’m sorry you feel there is some competitiveness on here, although I truly believe it isn’t meant. Personally I am pretty competitive with myself, and when I have a good run, I like to share that because I am pretty excited about it and I know that everyone here will genuinely be really happy for me. And it works the other way round too, I love seeing how people have improved, what plans they’re on, and how they’re getting on. My brother runs and I would say that he’s the one person I wish I could run as fast as, but that’s just plain old sibling rivalry 🤣! Nothing to do with being sensible!
I hope you continue to enjoy your runs and have fun with them. All the best 😊😊😊.
I think it took courage to post your comments and maybe there will be some who agree with you. For me personal find the forum very supportive and I take from it what I need to. It's always reassuring to read those reminders that we need to run and be able to hold a conversation at the same time....and they do come up quite often. I am definitely running for me but I have to confess I've always been a tad competitive. I think it was innate in my family, 7 siblings, when you are towards the end and always on catch up. I like to think I'm improving my stamina for the longer runs, I only started 18 months ago and at 71 I'm getting more conscious that there is a finite limit to improving physically. So....Enjoy your running wherever it takes you, get support when you need it, and gloss over any unhelpful bits.
As a fellow short legged woman who's even older than you I sort of get where you're coming from. To read 'I did an easy 10k, relaxed pace of 5'42"....' can be very demoralising. Very occasionally I'll get within a whisker of that speed because I'm nearly home, running down a hill and/or need the loo. My normal speed is a few minutes slower per km. Once I realised I wasn't comparing like with like I decided to ignore the numbers and enjoy what the other person was actually writing about.Regarding Parkrun, before I did my first I had a good look at the site for my local one. My worry was that I'd be last. The stats they publish enabled me to realise that I'd be in the final 25% of finishers so that gave me a realistic aspiration. On my first one the competitive spirit overcame my and I did a PB but pulled a ligament. For the record my PB is about 4-5 minutes slower than your time and I finished where I anticipated in terms of time.
I'm now doing Parkrun with my husband. He will finish 5 minutes ahead of me without any more effort than I'm putting in. This is because he is (a) male (b) taller than me (c) has longer legs than me and (d) is 4 years younger. So of course he can run faster than me, but when we look at the age graded score I'm actually doing better than him so we both win.
I frequently get lapped by the front runner whose time is half of mine so he's going through the finish as I'm starting lap 2. Instead of being demoralised I just marvel at the way he is moving and how his body seems designed for this stuff, unlike most of the runners (no I'm not being a pervy old lady, it's just credit where it's due).
In all the time I've been on this forum I don't think I've seen a negative comment. Even when someone is bemoaning having had gremlins and living on chocolate and red wine there's never any hint of 'pull yourself together you failure'. Instead it's 'why don't you try...' or 'this worked for me...' or 'never mind at least your running tights won't fall down because you lost weight'.
Some of us are competitive and it's really difficult to shut that off. Nobody thinks you should be doing better Sewnotfit , we think it's great that you're doing what you're doing and thinking about stuff (at least I do )
I have never found these forums competitive, but I do try to make a concerted effort to never post my pace on C25k as it can put off newbies (not many, a lot are quicker than me 🤣). I like that this, the middle forum, isn’t full of ultramarathon reports… nor is it filled with sub 20 5k reports. If I choose to feel inadequate I don’t need to do it here, I can go to junior parkrun and see a few 11 year olds who can do the 2k in sub 8 minutes… or I could look at Kipchoge’s Marathon pace and work out how many times he’d lap me on a track 10000m (quite a lot is the answer). Comparison is always going to steal some joy (unless said Mr Kipchoge is a member of course!)
I get what you are saying about Injury Couch… but recovery is something I do every day, not just when injured, so for me recovery couch doesn’t work… healing couch? 🤷♂️
Parkrun is either competitive or not depending on the mindset of the runner… a friend runs one of the most brutal parkruns in under 20 minutes, but is never aware of his position, some of the slowest runners are competitive with each other in the final 200m with a sprint finish after 45+ minutes of running. Some there are both fast and competitive of course, but I only see those guys for about 60 seconds at the start and again for a minute or so when they lap me… I took great joy in not being lapped once… when I looked at the times for the day it was a very close call 🤣. I have managed to never run fast at parkrun… my PB is about 5 minutes quicker than my parkrun one. The beauty of parkrun is none of it is compulsory… don’t want a place or a time? Don’t cross the finish line, just peel off to the side… or maybe finish, take your token, don’t look at it, hand it to the scanner and don’t give them your barcode… then you have no idea of your time or place, but have had the benefits of the supportive community and a safe, organised, event without anything that can steal the joy of the run.
Running is what you want it to be… our only thing in common is we are runners. We are fortunate to enjoy a solo sport that can be done with no opposition or scores. There are indeed ways of scoring it… but neither faster or further is necessarily better. A better runner, in my opinion, is the one that enjoys it the most, and they can hold finish token #1 or #500 at parkrun. The last over the line gets the biggest cheer, when the first person finishes there can be 3 people there to cheer.
I've been on this forum for a while and have experienced nothing but encouragement. Through often very friendly banter, with a grain of misinterpreted competitiveness. That can be variously interpreted. I always bang on about how competitiveness is reserved for pros only, and all we do here is run for fun & health. Unless you run in races, which of course (by nature) is competitive business. Then you can expect that some speedo-gazella geezer overlaps and disappoint you. Then again, only one guy will finish top. The others read the stuff on the back of his t-shirt. Whichever way you look at it, in our amateur world, it's all good fun. Oh, talking about being competitive, my 5K time compared to yours is a blast . I do it in ....... minutes. 😉
Hi Sewnotfit , while I completely agree that "everyone who is doing their best is more than good enough" I was really taken aback by your saying that it was Hidden 's post that prompted yours. To me there was no hint of competitive chatter, parkrun wasn't mentioned, and all the responses were supportive.
I constantly compare myself adversely to others, so can empathise with that. I also dislike many of the aspects of running that others enjoy, and conversely love those that many others hate. It doesn't mean that all those other runners are wrong, nor that I'm wrong. We're all different. Enjoy running your way, not someone else's.
Apologies to anyone who found my post offensive in any way. That was certainly not my intention. I try and encourage others as best I can and also document my successes and learning opportunities.
I have enjoyed contributing and learning from some great people on this forum.
However, after consideration have decided to withdraw.
I really hope it isn’t just this thread that’s made you leave? It would be such a shame if so-read the replies. Nobody thinks you said anything wrong or offensive.
That's very disappointing. I enjoy everybody's take on their runs, often there's points made that resonate with me. The only thing I would ever be concerned about is rudeness or obviously bad advice. I would seriously hope that you reconsider, and return to the forum.
It's a real shame, as you've helped give me such encouragement recently and your posts are always great! I'm sure that Sewnotfit wasn't singling out your post, but maybe it just triggered some thoughts. I can't see that your post about stopping your run could in sny way be seen as offensive or competitive. I hope you reconsider! That said, not even sure you can see this post now! We miss you.
We're all different which is why this forum is amazing.Your views are as valid as anyone else's and from a purely selfish point of view I frequently find your posts very entertaining posts .I hope you reconsider. .
Oh no. Huge apologies Alan. I feel so bad and this is at least partly my fault as maybe you wouldn't have seen this if I hadn't tagged you. My intention in doing so was to support you. And I've literally only just seen your post, too late.
I'm going to back off off for a while as i'm feeling that I don't know how to word posts to give the meaning I'd like.
I'm so sorry you feel like this - I love this forum because I find it so supportive and nonjudgmental. I've never taken other people's times as affecting me, I'm usually just happy for their progress (which is just as well, given my lack of progress lately🙄)Parkrun, though, has many guises. I have volunteered a few times, and it can feel very different week to week. Your local may be particularly fast, or some running clubs may have descended on it on the day you went. Check out the run results to see if that was a normal week, then you'll know what to expect next time. Some weeks everybody seems to whizz around, other times there will be a good few slow joggers or walkers. There will always be competitive runners. A lot of them will turn up at parkrun. Some of them will be self-centred oafs. Ignore them. Most are just people concentrating on their own runs. There will be the odd fool who is literally busting a gut trying to get past you at the finish to push themselves up the ranking - more fool them.
Acknowledge the marshals who cheer you on, and clap you home. That should cheer you up. Or find a friend to run with. Some parkruns have a friendlier feel than others, is there another one you can try?
(I know what you mean about the Injury Couch - but I think it's been called that for too long to change it now! I have just decided that I'm in the Convalescing Corner if anyone cares to join me 😁)
It's so subjective isn't it. I get what you're saying about positivity, but consider your post again, you're demoralised about a sub 35 minute 5km, at this point I'd be delighted with that, I'm struggling (various reasons) to get sub 38. Actually I don't want to go faster I just want to get back to my pre covid, pre-can't run because of joint injection. We all have different goals and abilities, this is where we share, or moan, sometimes the run is only a small part of the post.
That said, it would be a dull forum to visit if we all said and felt the same things. Personally I have found it welcoming and supportive, damn sure I would never have made it to 10k without this.
I consider myself slow; others see me as being fast.
I see people attempting to push the boundaries of their capabilities and I celebrate that. I also see people simply doing something they have grown to love, and I celebrate that too.
I see myself doing both of those things and want to share that.
I can only say that I have never seen the forum as competitive. I don't post very often but I love to see how other people are getting on especially as I've been unable to run properly for nearly 4 months now, although I am back on the road to recovery.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
(at least I do 
Best advice for keeping up the habit?
First week of the magic plan and first Parkrun 
6km Club run & shall I enter the London sprint?
‘Trust10’ free runs on National Trust land every 4th Sunday of the month
And so it begins...W1R1 / Parkrun 😃🏃♀️❤️😎
