The average parkrunner this week

Well what kind of week did parkrun Pat (the average parkrunner) have this week?

The average parkrunner (parkrun Pat) ran 26:56 this week.
parkrun Pat's all-time parkrun average remains at 26:36.
parkrun Pat ran 20 seconds slower than his/her all-time average this week, but 8 seconds quicker than a fortnight ago.

Other weekly global parkrun stats that might be of interest:

• 10 new clubs were represented at parkrun for the first time.
• 2 new parkrun events took place for the very first time.
• 1,435 new runners ran at parkrun for the first time.
• Between us we ran 90,040 km last weekend.
• The total cumulative distance covered by all parkrunners at all parkrun events is now: 9,637,870 km!
• At this week's rate, it is likely that we will pass the 10 million kilometre (2 million runs) mark on the 12th January 2013, almost a year to the day of passing the 5 million kilometre mark.

The average parkrunner this week

Well what kind of week did Pat (the average parkrunner) have this week?

The average parkrunner (parkrun Pat) ran 27:04 this week.
Pat's all-time parkrun average remains at 26:36.
Pat ran 28 seconds slower than his all-time average this week.


Other weekly global parkrun stats that might be of interest:

• 10 new clubs were represented at parkrun for the first time.
• 1784 new runners ran at parkrun for the first time, roughly 48% of the weekly new registrants total from last week.
• The total cumulative distance covered by all parkrunners at all parkrun events is now: 9,454,990 km!
• At this week's rate, we will pass the 10 million kilometre mark on either the 5th or more likely the 12th January 2013, almost a year to the day of passing the 5 million kilometre mark.

The average parkrunner this year

Back on the 13th January 2012 parkrun was preparing for it's 1 millionth completed run, which was achieved the following day. At that time, I calculated the average time taken for all completed runs to date. I didn't know it at the time, but that was parkrun Pat's time. Back then, the average was 26 minutes and 14 seconds. Not bad for the average parkrunner.

I have repeated the same calculation today and have found that parkrun Pat has slowed. Has it been the weather? Do we have some harder parkrun courses these days? Has parkrun attracted more slow(er) (or shall I say less fast) runners over the last year? Have parkrunners been taking it easy for the last year? Have faster runners moved on to other things? I really don't know the answer. But what I do know, is that parkrun Pat's average time is now 26 minutes and 36 seconds, slowing by a whole 18 seconds per runner per run over the last 11 months or so.

And as we haven't yet reached the 2 million completed runs mark, what this actually means is that Pat's average parkrun this year has been slower than that, very close to 27 minutes in fact.

So if you see an average (or shall we say "typical") parkrunner out there running in the coming weeks, remember to give them as much encouragement as you can, as we all have a shared responsibility to help parkrun Pat to improve that average again. Pat can't do it without you. Well that's a lie really, if everyone else speeds up, you could crawl on your belly and parkrun Pat would still get faster. But you know what I mean, we can all help make parkrun Pat's average time a bit faster.

Myself and my son are going to be making parkrun Pat's average a little slower for the next few weekends, so I need at least 2 of you to commit to counter-balance those with sub-20 minute times each week. Any takers?

Happy parkrunning!

Introducing parkrun Pat (just an average stat!)

I'd like to introduce you to parkrun Pat by way of a little ditty (please bear with me, I think I must have eaten something strange!):

parkrun Pat is just a stat,
Pat could be man or a woman at that,
Pat might be thin or could be fat,
But Pat is just an average stat.

Pat could be an adult or child you know,
Pat isn't particularly fast or slow,
Pat can run the whole way though,
And Pat is never a no-show.

parkrun Pat will always be,
A parkrun regular like you and me,
The parkrun sort you'll often see,
Going for a parkrun PB.

To parkrun, Pat will always go,
Pat listens to the parkrun show,
Pat is the parkrun average Joe,
And could be anyone you know.

So that is parkrun Pat.

Pat is a parkrun regular. Ever present. Male or female. Adult or child. Fast or slow.

Pat is not a real person, Pat is the parkrun average. And through statistics I will try to keep you up to date with how Pat (the average parkrunner) progresses over the weeks and months. As parkrun grows, how will Pat's average performance change? How many times will Pat have run? How will Pat run each week.

I will try to keep you posted every now and again.

P.S.
Pat = parkrunner average time

P.P.S.
I might recover from this (hopefully temporary) spell of insanity fairly quickly and we may never hear of Pat again, but you never know!