Free, weekly, timed, 5k runs (or walks) are made feasible through volunteers. The only (for me personally) logic of referring to a parkrun venue as an ‘event’ is because in most cases there is nothing between about 10h00 on a Saturday until about 07h00 (or 06h00 for summer time venues). Suddenly vehicles arrive; flags go up; a start-line and finishing funnel get built with cones and ropes; portable table set up for tags, scanners, etc.; a gazebo might be erected. Then people start arriving. By about 07h45 announcements start and at 08h00 the runners/walkers present are set off. The duration of each is timed, a finish token with corresponding number to the split activated on the stop watch. Both each participants barcode and the finish token scanned—latter retrieved for future use. When the tail walker is in, the timing and scanning stop. Then everything gets collapsed and loaded into vehicles (or stored on site) and taken away.
None of the above is feasible without people. Each event needs at least an event director; one/more time keepers; one/more scanner operators (pending the number of participants). Dependant on the nature of the parkrun, one or several marshals might further be needed.
To encourage/incentivise volunteering, parkrun introduced a ‘Volunteer club’ (v25 Club)—anyone who reaches the milestone of having volunteered on 25 different occasions at any of the parkun events may claim a free 25 volunteer t-shirt (https://support.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/articles/205762442-The-Volunteer-club) and (http://www.parkrun.com/about/our-clubs/)
There are several ways to go about volunteering:
- Simply indicating upon completion of an event to the funnel manager or run/event director preparedness
- Checking the volunteer roster of an venue http://www.parkrun.co.za/*name of parkrun*/futureroster/ and by emailing *name of parkrun*helpers@parkrun.com indicating barcode number and preferred volunteering role/s (https://support.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/articles/200566523-What-do-the-volunteers-do-) or (http://www.parkrun.co.za/woodlands/news/2014/01/27/parkrun-volunteer-roles/)
- Simply open a recent parkrun newsletter, results email or volunteer email, click on 'manage my profile', then 'email options', then select the events you'd like to hear from and click 'save opt-in events list'. You will then receive regular emails from those events letting you know all about their volunteering opportunities.
- If intending voluntourism while planning on visiting a particular parkrun one can email (*name of parkrun*helpers@parkrun.com) in order to convey intentions.
Provision is made for volunteers to complete a run/walk, by arriving early and completing own run/walk prior to volunteering; self-timing; and manual recording by the event director. [Unfortunately this has been discontinued. Some volunteer roles, however, make provision for completing a run/walk during the parkrun time-frame as well as volunteering, for example, tail-walker.]
Volunteering is quite satisfying. It is rewarding to give back by enabling others. It is quite pleasant observing how others derive satisfaction from giving their all or just succeeding to complete. I find it fascinating how a group of people that all start together can stretch out over the entire course of a two-lapper. Volunteering allows for some mingling with other volunteers, getting to know people, for the about 20 minutes before the fast runners start coming in. Serving a marshal or as tail walker gives the opportunity to encourage participants. People often enjoy finding photos of their exertion, which calls for a person to volunteer as photographer. Volunteering as ‘VI Guide’ entails accompanying a visually impaired parkrunner/walker through the course and thereby receiving both a run/walk credit and a volunteer credit when fulfilling this role. There are several other potential volunteer roles.