The day started off bright and sunny by Woking Bandstand in the park. By the time I arrived at 8:15 the Run Director was already by the bandstand with most things organised. I went along the course to catch up with Jon who was already going around the course to setup the start line. I took a longer route to help do part of the course check. Once I arrived at the location for the start line, Jon had just arrived so I helped complete this with him and we both headed back to the bandstand. Slowly more people were arriving and the sound of chatter grow louder. Alys then arrived with a big smile after enjoying the cycle she had arriving at the task. We ask Rich, one of the Volunteers to take a photo of us but he kept moving trying to keep his shadow out of the photo. But we started to joke at least you have a shadow and don’t need to chase it like Peter Pan 😊. We all got organised and our rolls were confirmed what roles we were doing for parkrun. Alys had the exciting spot by the lake were a well needed power-up could be offered. I had the role of time keeper. The briefing was down and we all got involved in the countdown to head to the start line after the briefing had finished. Once Everyone was in position for the start, the time keepers were asked if they were ready, and then asked the children if they were ready. After a big shout back YES, the count down was heard and then, GO shouted the Run Director, quickly followed by a big crowd of children running towards the first volunteer. I had and the other time keeper had our times aligned and headed towards the finish line. The kids ran the first lap in just over 4 minutes which was a good time for the first lap especially as it was a lovely and sunny day.
And with not too much time that pasted the first finishers were coming up the final hill so myself and the other time keeper went to the finish line, waiting for the runners to come past the finish line. The first finisher completed the course in just over 8 minutes and he was very happy with that.
After the 20 children completed the course, we realised the tokens weren’t in the correct order so with quick action we lengthened the line and made sure the children coming through remained in line and in order so that they can get their correct token for the time they had done. Lucky enough the crowd of children quickly eased off and we were able to correct the token issue. It was fantastic to see all 153 children have so much fun completing junior parkrun with great weather