The highly anticipated "Parkrun of Tour (South London edition)" finally arrived! The last Saturday of January brought out nine GoodGymers (+2 unexpected GGers....but more on that later) to run Burgess Parkrun together on a gloriously sunny, but windy morning.

Ensuring that we all started together, everyone met up ten minutes before so that we could head to the start line together. Most of us had run a parkrun before, but it was Claire's very first time. Kaz was a relatively new parkrunner with his first parkrun being a Brockwell with GG Lambeth late last year and for Sam, this was his first parkrun since lockdown (previous Parkrun was in March 2020 in Mile End....).

Everyone arrived on time, but we met Nathan at the start line as the Race Director did her speech. In true Parkrun tradition, this race didn't start at 09:00, but credit to them for starting at 09:03 😜

Off we went at our own pace, but we all noticed Michael booming to the front and weaving around. Nathan, Kaz and Sam kept together until they didn't....in the end the results were:

• Michael #55 place (20:37)
• Sam #145 place (23:30)
• Nathan #159 place (23:43)
• Kaz #218 place (25:30)
• Emma #301 (27:20)
• Hannah #388 (30:32)
• Aine #444 (33:15)
• Tilly #468 (35:33)
• Claire - UNKNOWN (couldn't find you)

This Parkrun had 509 participating. As mentioned earlier, we had two unexpected GoodGymers! Firstly, I met Helena in the funnel, she is a "lapsed" (still active, but hasn't been in a while) GG Southwark member who was pleased to see so many GGers come out and will need to dust off her GG shirt to attend a mission or group run soon and Ana, the AA for Wandsworth and Hounslow, who came to run Burgess Park with her husband. She was also impressed by the turnout, so kudos to everyone!

Well done to all for coming out and running together! Parkrun is not only about the 5k run, but the social coffee afterwards 😉

The next "Parkrun on Tour (South London edition)" takes us slightly south to Brockwell on the 26th of February. Come if you can as we explore other parkruns together! There should be a good showing of GG Lambeth members and this time, I'll look out for a cafe beforehand 😉