It was another busy day at Pitshanger Junior parkrun, with plenty of runners, volunteers and 7 GoodGymers in total. It was great to see Chris back at one of our tasks after a bit of a break and she was marshalling along with Maria. Chris is not be confused with Chris who was one of many funnel managers.

The first of the 119 finishers was timed at a hair over 7 minutes by Sevan, which is rather speedy. There was more drama to come at the other end of the field as the last runner (let's call her Joan for the sake of the pun) collected an army of hi-vis clad troops in her wake. They included many Duke of Edinburgh marshals and tailwalkers Kash, Steph and Angela, who got up early to attend her first GoodGym session. Welcome Angela! 🥳👏🙌

Joan's poorly camouflaged army marched towards the funnel and stopped just short. There was a stand off, with everyone in the funnel wanting Joan to peacefully cross the line and Joan being a bit grumpy and threatening at the gates. Eventually, Joan's army was dispersed and her mum convinced her to complete the 2km and collect the last finish token. Disaster averted for another week.

This year's GoodGym Ealing's Christmas party didn't encourage us to get more steps in - it was just opposite St Mary's Church, at the New Inn pub in South Ealing! Big thanks to Iram, who found and booked the venue! The room we had was nice and quiet - until we started popping the Christmas crackers!

The jokes from the crackers were a perfect, silly warm-up to the traditional GoodGym quiz, prepared by quiz masters Sevan and Iram. The prize? Chocolates - and, if you were vegan, chocolate bars. Yum!

Just as if there was not enough joy (there was!) during the quiz, Santa himself visited us. He was very secretive - we couldn't guess his identity or where he got his gifts from. From books and plush reindeer to best of the best shower kits, everyone received a little something to take back home.

What a fun and festive evening it's been!

Every community has its own traditions to celebrate festive times. GoodGym Ealing is no different. Our Christmas tradition since 2018 (with some breaks) has been kicking off the season by decorating the Christmas tree at St Mary’s in South Ealing to get the church ready for the Christmas services.

Eleven GoodGymers and one new GoodGymer-to-be were welcomed at the church by Wei Hei, Revd. Joy French and her husband, Clynt. It was a great opportunity to meet the vicar, who, although new to Ealing, showed a familiar warmth and - pun not intended - joy. We’ve been treated to some Christmas tunes, mulled wine, and minced pies, yum!

We had a Geordie Santa, The True Santa, and a bunch of helpful elves on our team. Not all the elves had expected to be following a Christmas dress code, but Thaiza got them covered! She brought all sorts of festive headwear, making everyone a bit more sparkly.

Some elves got busy decorating the tree, and others headed to the gallery for a work at height: a little bit of dusting. The good news was that our earlier session in September hadn’t left us with much dust to bust.

With Joy very pleased with the outcome of using our Christmastifying skills, the team headed to the New Inn across the road for more festivities: Christmas crackers, quiz time, and Secret Santa!

The rain held off in Ealing for the whole day, just until 18:45 when the Tuesday night group run started. Refreshed by a mild drizzle, a group of runners led by Sevan looped around Walpole Park to meet Kash - a single person in the walking "group" - at the tool store. Harvey, Steph and Sevan came to help pick up the tools, which Kash thought was awesome. It's nice to have mates who have your back around when you're aware of strangers hiding in the nearby bushes while you're busy unlocking padlocks!

With an ample supply of chopping and shovelling tools in two wheelbarrows, the quartet marched to Lammas Enclosure to meet Chris and Bryon at the Transition Orchard. With the task owner, Trevor, unable to make it to the session that night, Sevan explained two jobs that needed to be done.

First task, cutting back brambles in the small forest area destined to become a hedgehog habitat, was tackled by Bryon, Harvey, Steph and Kash, after agreeing that not everything that had thorns could be classified as a bramble and obliterated.

Chris and Sevan focused on another job: snipping brambles and mulching around fruit trees. First, of course, they had to identify the fruit trees. Bryon did well in that matter, spotting a tiny apple under one of the trees. But there were also tiny oak trees growing under the presumed apple tree. How did they get there? Maybe the apple was a foundling, too?

Thanks to teamwork, two work lights and head torches for everyone, the six GoodGymers achieved good results despite the darkness. Our unstoppable team keeps going all year round, no matter the season. Next week, we will run to help Hanwell School of Boxing, a charity that supports young people of varying ethnic backgrounds in participation in sports. Sign up now!