Two GoodGymmers took put in quick shift clearing Christmas Trees from the streets of Hackney, now that Twenty Night has passed.

A quick scout of the area around Hackney Downs, and 6 Christmas trees were shifted to the collection point.

Thank you Sooz for organising.

Volunteered at Hackney Night Shelter

Volunteered at Hackney Night Shelter

It must have been something about today's arctic conditions mixed with a hint of sunlight that drew our biggest congregation of Sunday morning volunteers for which we, and all of today's hardy runners (and their coaches), were all extremely grateful - if the phrase "start the year as you mean to go on" has any truth to it, we're in for a bumper year at the Fields!

In all we had fifteen generous souls don the high viz and position themselves neatly around the course, including as Marshals (Sarah, Hilary, Sooz, Lucinda, Anna, Lobo, Kareem), Timekeeper (Rue), and Tailwalker (Louise), with Nick as today's RD conducting the merry band - we were also grateful for visiting volunteers from Cheltenham, Highbury Fields, Burgess and our helpful DoE participant on finish token duty.

21 enthusiastic runners took to the frosty course, including two complete first timers to parkrun (their (or their parents') Sunday mornings will never be the same...), and, in spite of the near freezing conditions, 3 PBs were recorded, which really was some effort. Hopefully everyone has recovered full use of their fingers and toes and gathered their chilly breath, and we're already looking forward to next week, where the forecast is for it to be a few degrees warmer (but definitely not tropical).

Join us if you can under the big tree next Sunday at 0845 for more fun at the Fields.

Today I had the good fortune to visit an amazing resident of Hackney, such a wonderful person and great company too.

There are a great many root balls remaining in her garden some of samplings some of Bramble and other suspects.

I have managed to dig up a number of them today but there are quite a few yet to shift. The sun shone brightly and spread a little warmth.... Awesome!

A small and perfectly formed crowd included new parkrunners and Parkrun tourists from as far as Bournemouth for today’s last junior parkrun of the year.

22 youngsters sped round, aiming for a new course record on this two lap 2km route, and GoodGymmers as usual formed the backbone of the hi-vis heroes helping to keep them on course.

With the milestone wristbands handed out - an ULTRA marathon achieved today! - the young runners were off the flying start.

Sarah at her usual tree and Sooz at the helm as today’s RD.

Not 20 minutes later and all was wrapped up for 2025!

Who’s coming to the first event of 2026?