2019-03-23 12:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grok_mctanys
grok_mctanysSo I've been doing parkrun for a while now, and one of the platitudes that I've had in my head for a while was that "getting to the start line is the hard part".
Just getting up on a Saturday morning at the same time I'd normally get up during the week, having a light breakfast, putting on my running gear, and heading down to the park - that's the tricky bit. If I can just manage that part, the run itself is just putting one foot in front of the other, and how hard is that?
Well, running is actually quite hard. But one of the nice things about parkrun is that you don't have to run the whole thing, and lots of people don't. In fact, you don't actually have to run any of it. There are often a few people who walk the whole way each week, which is fine. Still, you can put as much effort in as you like, and it seems like a bit of a waste to me if I don't put some effort in, so it is actually hard.
Sorry, I'm getting off track a bit. Anyway, one day my brain had a look at the "getting to the start line is the hard part" line I'd been telling myself, from a bunch of different angles, and I realised that it's actually demonstrably true. Trivially so, even.
Every single time I've made it to the start of parkrun, I've finished parkrun. One time I almost gave up at the end of the second lap, but I didn't. However, there have been a number of times where I meant to go to parkrun, wanted to go to parkrun, but didn't. My success rate at finishing parkrun once I've started is 100%, but my success rate at starting is considerably less.
Extrapolating, there are probably fewer than a handful of people each week who start parkrun, but fail to complete it. I'd estimate that the success rate of people who finish any given parkrun once they've started is 99% or greater. But how many people try to make it to parkrun, or want to make it to parkrun, each week, and fail? It's almost certainly greater.
Looking at the event history for my local parkrun, there are normally between 300 and 450 runners each week, with a max turnout of well over 500. On the weeks that have closer to 300 runners, how many of the missing 150-200 do you think are deliberately taking a week off? Some of them certainly, but all of them? No, there are a lot of people out there who mean to go to parkrun each week, who fail to make it to the start line.
Just showing up and getting to the start line is the hardest part. Once you've done that the rest is, well, not necessarily easy, but probably manageable.
There's a metaphor for life in there somewhere...
Just getting up on a Saturday morning at the same time I'd normally get up during the week, having a light breakfast, putting on my running gear, and heading down to the park - that's the tricky bit. If I can just manage that part, the run itself is just putting one foot in front of the other, and how hard is that?
Well, running is actually quite hard. But one of the nice things about parkrun is that you don't have to run the whole thing, and lots of people don't. In fact, you don't actually have to run any of it. There are often a few people who walk the whole way each week, which is fine. Still, you can put as much effort in as you like, and it seems like a bit of a waste to me if I don't put some effort in, so it is actually hard.
Sorry, I'm getting off track a bit. Anyway, one day my brain had a look at the "getting to the start line is the hard part" line I'd been telling myself, from a bunch of different angles, and I realised that it's actually demonstrably true. Trivially so, even.
Every single time I've made it to the start of parkrun, I've finished parkrun. One time I almost gave up at the end of the second lap, but I didn't. However, there have been a number of times where I meant to go to parkrun, wanted to go to parkrun, but didn't. My success rate at finishing parkrun once I've started is 100%, but my success rate at starting is considerably less.
Extrapolating, there are probably fewer than a handful of people each week who start parkrun, but fail to complete it. I'd estimate that the success rate of people who finish any given parkrun once they've started is 99% or greater. But how many people try to make it to parkrun, or want to make it to parkrun, each week, and fail? It's almost certainly greater.
Looking at the event history for my local parkrun, there are normally between 300 and 450 runners each week, with a max turnout of well over 500. On the weeks that have closer to 300 runners, how many of the missing 150-200 do you think are deliberately taking a week off? Some of them certainly, but all of them? No, there are a lot of people out there who mean to go to parkrun each week, who fail to make it to the start line.
Just showing up and getting to the start line is the hardest part. Once you've done that the rest is, well, not necessarily easy, but probably manageable.
There's a metaphor for life in there somewhere...
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