Sir – This morning, my wife and I took our two children — four and two — to visit the Natural History Museum on Parks Road. We walked up Keble Road to Parks Road to cross at the pedestrian crossing.

The Town and Gown Run was taking place. Runners were running in both directions, with the road separated into two lanes by traffic cones. There were no notices to be seen indicating either that the road should not be crossed, or where the best place to cross was and we could not see any marshalls nearby to guide us.

My wife and I picked up our children and waited by the pedestrian crossing for a number of minutes until there was a gap in the first lane, when we then walked quickly across to the traffic cones.

At this point, a marshall ran up to us and shouted angrily and aggressively that we could not cross there.

As we were already halfway across, and I was keen to cross as quickly as possible, I said that I was crossing and moved to the other side of Parks Road.

The marshall continued to be very aggressive and shouted at my wife that she was endangering our children.

At this point a spectator shouted at me, whilst I was holding our son, that I was a pr**k. She then repeated this and carried on insulting me.

My wife and I found the experience intimidating and embarrassing and both our children were frightened by it.

The Oxford Town and Gown Run is clearly a great event, the aims and runners of which I wholeheartedly support.

At the same time, could I ask that in future:

1: Appropriate crossing points are clearly indicated on Parks Road, particularly when normal crossing points are not in use.

2: Marshalls are encouraged to look for and assist people who need to cross the road.

3: The woman spectator might consider whether calling a father a pr**k as he crosses the road with his son is really the sort of behaviour she would like that child to experience.

Chris Wild, Eynsham