It was a very early start for a sunny Sunday morning for the 13 GoodGym volunteers helping out at the Cardiff 10K. Excitement was in the air with two hours to go until race time. As an extra bit of excitement for us, we got to welcome Helen to her first GoodGym good deed ... welcome Helen and we hoped you enjoyed the experience and will come and run with us soon. Not only that but today's community mission marked Martin's 100th good deed.... Congratulations and the colourful sparkly wings await you on Tuesday Mr Graff!

After collecting our volunteer T-shirts the start and finish line volunteers gathered for the briefing before being split into those to help just at the finish and those to help at the start pens then the finish... we were given the dual role of start pens and finish area! We headed to the start area and were split into two teams... one would be looking after the orange pen and making sure people entered the correct pen safely while our other team were tasked with directing people to the pens. After seeing off the 2K fun run we got in position with tapes put up to mark the boundary between each colour pen. Mike demonstrated a fantastic limbo underneath one of these tapes and a giant leap over another. Some of us were positioned at the pen entry gates and others along the outside of the pens directing. At 10am came the countdown .. 10,9,8 .... and go!! It was fantastic to watch 9000 people move through the start in such a seamless manner... the race was underway!

This is when in true GoodGym style we sprung into action! Armed with our black bags we collected up all the hundreds of water bottles and energy gel sachets as well as all the abandoned jumpers and other clothes. The clothes were to be donated to a charity which helps homeless people. From the last runner crossing the line to us finishing clearing the start area was literally 5 minutes... awesome job guys!

But our task was only half complete... a quick dash over to the finish area ready for our next tasks.

Mikey, Fiona and Lucy were allocated to the T shirt section. Fiona armed herself with medium T shirts and was handing them out on rapid fire! She reported that she was so fast the static built up and she was getting a shock off of each runner she handed one to... now that's speedy! Mikey took on the less glamorous but essential role of cardboard box folding and laying out the next tens of T shirts for the other volunteers to hand out ... take a look at how neat those boxes were... great job Mikey! Lucy became Mikey's assistant and passer of the next piles of T shirts to the other volunteers but did manage to hand a few T shirts out ... Emma Wilkins having ran the race asked for me to be her T shirt giver.. aww well run Emma! Meanwhile Sophie was busy on the water bottle section hastily handing them out to the tired, thirsty runners as they came through the finish area. On the medal section were Peter, Martin, Mike, Karin, Sara, Marie, and Helen. They were busily congratulating the runners crossing the line and handing out their well deserved medals. Peter took the opportunity to give Ben his medal after he completed his volunteering as the 45 minute pacer.. And he finished bang on time, well done Ben! Ben later discovered the dangers of wearing a pacing flag as he bent down to pick up his water bottle and hit Welsh Dave with his flag.. oops! Thanks to Meg and Welsh Dave for support and photos of the GoodGym runners too!

In the blink of an eye it was an hour and a half since the race had started and most runners had already finished the race. Just as we thought our volunteering experience was over there was an urgent SOS from the baggage drop. They were struggling with the queues of people trying to collect their bags and could we all go over to help. We duly agreed and quickly made our way to the event village to help. What followed was a fun if not slightly stressful and infuriating game of hunt of the bag. The joy of finding the one you needed and handing it to a happy runner only to then be faced with another hunt for the next bag. Working together and with the other volunteers, after 20 minutes the queues had vanished and the bag drop tent back under control... phew!!

And that was that... 4 hours had flown by and our task was complete. I think it's safe to say we were all pretty tired and even commented how it's perhaps easier to run in the race than be a volunteer but we all had so much fun and laughs and enjoyed seeing and helping the runners achieve their goals.

And as for the GoodGym runners there were PBs galore.. well done to all of you! Together as a group, the GG volunteers, runners and cheerers headed to see our good friends at Big Moose Cafe for a well earned coffee and a treat to eat.