7 Goodgymers (plus an honourary member Master Mansfield) set their alarms early this morning to marshal and run in the Leamington Spa Half Marathon in aid of Raceways and Marathon Kids.

At 8am sharp Lil and Allan were at their marshal meeting points in Lillington and Cubbington respectively ready to be briefed by their sector leaders. Philip, Nigel and Katherine were not far behind with their 8:15am briefing just slightly further along in Cubbington.

At the same time Tom (visiting from Birmingham GoodGym) and Lydia were readying themselves at the start line to take on the 13.1 mile challenge.

With only a slight delay at the start we received confirmation that the runners were off by 8:43am whilst we waited in our marshal spots in anticipation. Allan's road was missing some "road closed" signs so he had to improvise by doing his best bouncer impression. It wasn't long until the first runner came sprinting past and the cheering began in earnest.

With a long drag uphill for the first few miles of the course, there were smiles all round as runners spotted the nice downhill respite along Windmill hill. It was lovely to spot Tom's red GoodGym t-shirt out on the course and we all gave him a hearty cheer!

Once the runners were past our marshaling points it was a dash into the centre of town for most of us to take up position near the finish to cheer the runners over the line. Phil followed the runners on his bike acting as an additional tail cyclist and providing updates to the organisers on how everyone was getting on.

Sorry we didn't manage to spot you Lydia but there was an extra big GG cheer for Tom as he sprinted towards the finish line looking determined - well done Tom!

It was a true West Midlands "Great Get Together" with 3 different GG groups represented - bring on the Commonwealth Games :-)