Today down at Llandaff Fields, Nic, Michael and Flo from GoodGym were helping out at Cardiff junior parkrun.

We were all in a similar part of the course. Nic was marshalling about 100 metres from the start and finish area. Michael was marshalling at 'run in' (the main duty being to direct the runners into the finish area). And I (Flo) was marshalling 'start/finish'. Somehow despite my previous practise as a human cone, a lot of juniors did not realise they had to go round me and follow the actual cones to the finish funnel area. There were definitely some cut corners, but I suppose I should be blamed as the marshal for providing inadequate instructions. To redeem me, I did an excellent job of putting the 'Caution Runners' sign on the gate leading to the park. Nic did not have any issues with marshalling, and was able to provide great support and advice to the runners.

Michael was also given the honour of performing the 'first timers welcome' briefing. Cardiff junior parkrun has had some trouble recently with 'briefing duckers'. A briefing ducker is someone who is new to Cardiff junior parkrun or parkrun in general, but does not attend the first timers welcome. These aren't put on just to give Michael something extra to do. They are important to explain the course, the health and safety instructions, the rules, and how the barcode scanning and finish funnel tokens work. I didn't hear of any problems at the end though, so Michael clearly did a perfect job.