A very windy Saturday morning and 19 Goodgymers headed towards the seafront to volunteer at Southsea parkrun. Storm Dennis may have gone but there was still a strong head wind of 25mph that runners would have to deal with on the return leg of the run.

Jen took up the role of turnaround marshall which meant she had a wind assisted cycle up to the 2.5k mark to then stood out of any shelter in the wind and rain for all runners to go past. Due to the high winds she lost a glove (green leather in case anyone finds it on future beach cleans) and also the cone wasn’t staying in place so Jen decided to be the cone for the duration of the run.

Tracey headed to the pier to marshall, Sarah wearing pjs under her trousers for extra warmth (who knew) was joined by Aimee where they took their position at the beach café.

Sam, Angela and Vicki were tail walkers, Sam had washed her hair, blow dried and straightened it for her role (taking it very seriously) although by the time she came back to the finish she wasn’t looking as glamorous as she did when she left. Vicki help the walkers entertained and morale up by singing family favourites such as ‘If you’re happy and you know it’

The rest of us were near the finish each taking up our roles; Mel and Judy were funnel managers; Rachel and Tim were on tokens; Dr Jo had the responsibility of being a timekeeper; Val, Lynn, Rosie, Catherine, Jo (North) were barcode scanners. Duncan joined up with the RD and was also RD2 to assist with the running of the event and Lucy decided to run it and then help sort out the tokens when she’d finished.

By the time the last runners were in we all headed to the local café for hot drinks and food and to reacquaint ourselves with fingers and toes that we had lost at some point.

We were told that we’re more than welcome to return and help out which I’m sure we will. Hopefully next time the wind and rain won’t be as bad.