When the ladies in the photo below, with the 2 dogs, came round the corner behind me, their dogs were loose, but not far away and under control. My only concern was that they might mistake my tripod, or me, for a lamppost! The first thing the ladies did when they saw me kneeling down to take photos was put their dogs on their leads. We smiled at one another, I thanked them, and away they went, and when they were further down the path they released the dogs again . .

As parkrunners we all need to show other users of the parks we run in the same courtesy. That includes people like me who aren't actually running. The photos below are all of other people enjoying a run around Willen Lake this morning. I could easily have taken twice as many, and when I took them I didn't know I was going to write this.

We want other park users, particularly runners, to go home curious about the event they've just seen - to go home and try to find out about us. Unfortunately today at least one runner will have gone home upset about parkrun, probably telling her friends about those rude parkrunners. Because today, soon after the start, another runner who was running against the flow of our parkrun, was forced off the path because one of us just barged through with no consideration.

I know how easy it is to get carried away at the start of an event, the adrenalin gets pumping and it's like we're wearing blinkers, I'm sure I've done it myself at some stage. But parkrun isn't really a race, except perhaps against yourself, and if we're going to be allowed to continue to use these lovely parks then we can never forget that we share them with everyone else. If someone gets in your way, well yes, it's irritating. But there's at least 30 more parkruns next Saturday, so having to make room for somebody this week doesn't matter. It's not as if it's the one big event of the year you've been targeting.

And if one parkrunner gives offence to another park user, it reflects badly on us all, and it might jeopardise the future of any number of our parkruns. So let's try to respect the other people and the creatures we see on our parkruns, and treat them the way we would like them to treat us.

Sorry to rant . . it's just that I care and I want to be able to come back next week, next month, next year . . it's what Saturday mornings are for after all . . and when these two little guys are older, I'd like them to be able to enjoy parkruns too . . ☺