Thursday 12 April 2012

parkrun streaks

I love streaks and find that they are an excellent way to keep motivated, and where better to use them than at a parkrun. Here are a few ideas for streaks at parkrun:

Standard parkrun streak:

With this streak you are only focusing on the number of continuous parkruns you run without missing a week. The advantage with this is that you can vary the venue that you run at and still maintain your weekly streak.

Single event streak:

This is the streak that I am currently focused on. I started this streak with Riddlesdown parkrun event 1 and have run every single event since. My streak now stands at 43. I know that the maximum number I can reach is 55, because at that point I will be forced to miss a week as I will be out of the country.

Monthly streak:

The monthly streak is good for those of you that can't make it to a parkrun every single weekend. All you need to do is make sure you run at least one parkrun every calendar month. I am currently on 12 consecutive calendar months.

Personal best streak:

How many personal bests can you run in a streak. Adjust it to suit your own needs. Maybe this is best measured on a monthly basis to avoid overdoing it. For example, you could aim to get a new personal best each calendar month or even just every year.

Volunteering streak:

As you will all know, volunteering is a huge part of parkrun. So why not make a volunteering streak one of your goals. If you are a committed runner then you may not want to give up too many runs. The great thing is that you don't have to! You could volunteer each week to set up the course, or you could even write the event report. For me, I think a monthly streak is the way to go, and I would like to volunteer once per month, for now it will be focused on report writing, but once my running streak has been broken (see above) I am going to try out a few of the different on-the-day roles on offer.

Attendance streak:

Where you mix running and volunteering and both are valid as part of the streak.

The 50 run streak

You participate in 50 parkruns in the shortest number of days possible. Technically this doesn't have to be a streak, but I like the idea so stick with me on this one. On the surface, this looks like a simple case of 351 days (50 weeks), but it is usually possible in less than that as many venues put on extra events over Christmas and New Year. If you took part in the New Year's day trifecta you can make this streak even shorter. From my calculations, if you had run all of the extra events it would have been possible to have done this in 309 days (44 weeks). My calculation does not include any of the bespoke parkruns so mathematically it probably could be done in less days. I am working on this one and I think I can complete it in 323 days (46 weeks).

The 'remembering your barcode' streak

You remember to bring your barcode. See how many events you can run without forgetting it. This one could have some comedy value to it, especially for serial offenders!

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So, there you have it. A few ideas for parkrun streaks. If you have any of your own ideas be sure to share them in the comments section (or even write a parkrunfans blog post about it).

If you want to see how I get on with my streaks just pop over to my blog.

6 comments:

  1. You know, I read the title of this - yes, and even the first paragraph - and I was just thinking, "But where do you keep your barcode?"

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    1. I think that's a completely different blog post! But now you've got me thinking - if you do a parkrun streak (wink,wink), does that mean you just run out in front of all the other runners, end up being chased by a policeman, then escorted out of the park with a huge grin on your face?

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    2. No, you get five yards before being clotheslined by a bloke in hi-viz, throw up your liquid lunch on his shoes and, after being summarily cautioned, end up trying to blame your apparent paucity in the pub to the same crew of grinning jackals who got you drunk and dared you to do it in the first place.

      ...or so I've heard.

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    3. ...blame your apparent paucity on the weather, that should have read. Seriously, the above has never happened to me but, given that most streakers have a job covering 50 yards, surely managing a full 5k would be some kind of record?

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    4. Was that your first win I saw you get 2 weekends ago Dan? When will we next see you back at Coventry parkrun? Paul Blanche has shifted up a gear the last few weeks - he's a sub 18er now!

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  2. Fabulous blog post. Lovin' your work! Like Daniel, I was waiting for the 'Streak Streak'!

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