Alexy Dury: Our Deaf parkrun takeover!

Back in October 2018 my friends and I met up at Northampton racecourse parkrun for a run, cuppa and signwag afterwards. Michelle Lewis was leading the parkrun on the day and wanted to take photos of us Deaf runners. She mentioned that she wanted more Deaf runners to come to Northampton so we got in touch. 

Many Deaf people were familiar with me running, especially with the London Marathon, which I did back in 2015 and 2017.  At that time I informed everyone on social media of my suffering through hard training and bad toes, all the way through to the main event, so I was a major inspiration for my friends and family.

I continued running and meeting up with Deaf friends all the over the UK. Maybe creating  the modern day “Deaf clubs” through our runs! More and more people are becoming interested in running, both hearing and Deaf!

We have a Facebook Group for Deaf Runners and a parkrun Group for Deaf & Hard of Hearing people to give updates about how they are getting on with their running.

Michelle and myself agreed to go ahead with a Deaf parkrun as a part of Deaf Awareness Week in May. Deaf Hub (where I work) agreed and I contacted all deaf local organisations to work together at the deaf Northampton parkrun takeover!

There have been Deaf parkrun takeovers in the past – I have seen these happen in the past in Bristol, Eastville and Rugby and they were brilliant! There was a great atmosphere and the parkrunners loved it!

I gave a brief sign language lesson at Birmingham Cannon Hill parkrun before the British Deaf Association AGM took place at the MAC (Midlands Art Centre) which was right next to the Birmingham Cannon Hill parkrun! I taught parkrunners how to say “thank you” and “I love parkruns” in BSL – British Sign Language. There was 876 parkrunners there on that day! 

Getting Deaf volunteers for the Northampton parkrun was the hardest part of all, I think. Many of them were new to parkruns, even though I had mentioned it to them many times.

I think some of them would have benefited from taking part in one before they volunteered.  But it was good for them to come and see it for themselves and hopefully they will get inspired and run it one day and become hooked like many others have!

I was a bit nervous giving them volunteer roles as some didn’t know what to do. But I reassured them that there will be other volunteers who know what they are doing and will help them out on the day. It all worked out really well. Everyone enjoyed volunteering and telling me their experiences afterwards. They all had different roles and experiences from tailwalkers to timekeepers! 

I delegated to Damo to lead the meeting to explain to all the people who had never done parkrun before how it works.  Damo was very keen to volunteer and he has been a regular at Northampton parkrun. So he was the best person to explain about how to do the parkrun barcode and how the course is set up.

One of the Deaf first timers on the day was a lady that I coached regularly at Moulton Joggers club. I was so proud of her for finishing her first parkrun – well done pal! 

One of the run directors put up me on a step ladder so I was facing 600ish parkrunners, all with their serious running faces on, OMG! I was introduced to everyone as a run director! There was a sign language interpreter in front of me who did the voice over into the microphone so all the hearing people knew what I was saying. I told them all about Deaf Awareness Week – one week celebrated annually and explained why it’s important to Deaf and Hard of Hearing people. 

I also talked about the importance of having everyday conversations with friends and family as well. I then briefly explained the parkrun rules and then celebrated several people’s milestones – two parkrunners were successfully completing their 50th runs today, a lady celebrated her 60th parkrun on her 60th birthday! Another runner was on his 300th parkrun. We gave a big round of applause and hand waves for all of them!

I then told everyone that there were Deaf volunteers spread out over the course, from marshalling to funnel managers! So they needed to sign something to them as they passed by.  This could be a hand wave, or signing “Thank you” and “I love parkrun”. Together we signed “I love parkruns” 3 times! It was brilliant to see everyone signing at the same time. It was awesome! I loved it! 

After that the parkrun started.  It was such an adrenaline rush to be the run director and address 600 parkrunners.  It was an amazing experience but it was over very quickly! 

I went and stood about 100 metres from the finishing line.  I was cheering on every passing runner! It was really amazing to watch them all. I got them waving at me – some signed “I love parkruns” and I signed back “Thank you”. It gave me shivers down my spine to see so many people using BSL, even the fast runners managed to sign something quickly as they passed me! All the other Deaf marshalls also enjoyed getting the signed responses from the runners. 

I had fantastic feedback from everyone including runners and volunteers!☺ After the parkrun we went off to Moulton Community Centre and had the Deaf Utopia event for the Deaf Hub organisation, again as a part of the Deaf Awareness Week. We had a very busy day. 

Thank you again to all the Northampton parkrun volunteers who help our new deaf volunteers on the day. Thank you deaf volunteers – Hope you have enjoyed it! and well done to several deaf first-timer parkrunners on the day! 

Alexy Dury is born and bred Deaf, BSL user, she enjoys reading books, running, cycling and travelling. She says: “I have been working with different Deaf organisations all over the place for over 20 years. Now I am working for Deaf Hub which is based at Northampton but still live in beautiful Oxfordshire! 🙂 “