Woking Junior Park Run

**NEWS

A big well done to James & Kirsty who completed the Brutal Run Spider Hill yesterday. James a veteran of Brutals completed the 10k course in a fantastic time while Kirsty who was doing her 1st Brutal did amazingly well... 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

This morning Wayne & Adam braved the winds of storm Bert to carry out volunteering duties at junior park run.

The park was not in to bad of a shape a course check was carried out apart from the odd branches that were cleared the 2k course looked good.

In total 56 runners braved the winds and all did so well. The fastest time was an amazing 07:37 and there were also 9PB's 😀

Great running by everyone 🏃🏻‍♂️

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Wayne had to drop out of today's Brutal race event, which was scheduled as a training session for Woking Good Gym members. Fortunately, James stepped up as the run leader, allowing Kirsty to participate in her first 5K Brutal event while wearing her Good Gym t-shirt. He also agreed to transport Kirsty and Eva to and from Spider Hill in Aldershot and thoughtfully brought bananas and gels for both of them to consume before and after the race.

Kirsty and Eva were feeling extremely nervous as the event start time approached. Neither of them was sure what to expect, so they naturally assumed the worst possible course lay ahead. James reassured them that they could complete the 5K race distance and advised them to pick up their feet and run with high knees to avoid tripping or falling. This reminded Eva of the nursery rhyme "The Grand Old Duke of York," and they all agreed to sing it whenever a section of the route felt particularly tough. While the girls waited in the warm car, James went to the registration tent to collect everyone's run chips and sign them in.

At 9:45 AM, everyone left the comfort of the warm car and completed some warm-up exercises ahead of the 10 AM event start time. Grateful that the temperature had risen to 9 degrees and pretending not to notice the wind and rain, Kirsty and Eva began the 5K route while James took on the 10K route. Brutal events are known for offering tough off-road running, featuring water, mud, and hills. Spider Hill is a challenging course with many elevations, the highest of which reaches 197 meters! The group sang "The Grand Old Duke of York" during the climbs and descents, because, of course, you can't run down hills without first running up them. There was some debate about whether it was harder to run uphill or downhill. The terrain was tough without trail shoes, which Eva didn’t have, but she managed to stick close to Kirsty during the sharp descents.

In addition to the hills and the mud (there was so much mud), there was a section called Alligator Swamp. This stinky lake had no alligators but featured water that reached waist height. James had gleefully informed the girls that Alligator Swamp had been frozen the day before. They all took a deep breath and waded through it, thinking that ice baths are supposed to be good for you, right?

Forty-three minutes after starting, Kirsty and Eva finished the 5K distance to thunderous applause—or maybe that was just the sound of their teeth chattering! Together, they celebrated their first (and perhaps only?) Brutal event and cheered James to the finish line, which he crossed just 32 minutes later, with a 10K finish time of 1 hour and 14 minutes. All three of them, now very cold and soaking wet, had just enough time for a couple of quick photos before piling back into James' car to compare notes.

Leaflet Drop For Sam Beare Hospice

On this cold freezing night 9 GG members met to deliver leaflets for Sam Beare Hospice.

A big welcome to Viktoriia who we met at the volunteer for Woking event while she was there representing another charity. Viktoriia also happened to be a friend of Agathe 😀

Wayne, Adam, Katie, Alys, Agathe, Kirsty, Nadia, & Rebecca met at Woking leisure center all wrapped up 🥶

It was great seeing Rebecca who walked over to collect some leaflets to deliver, not quite ready to run as of yet after her surgery but not long now 😀.

After a warm up session by Adam which Quinn also got involved in 🐶 we headed out of the park towards Mount Hermon to hit the houses there we split up into two groups one on each side 🏃🏻‍♂️ including the Cul-du-Sacs.

It was so cold even with gloves it was very difficult & Wayne & Adam had shorts on the nutters 😮

Unfortunately we did not manage to do as many roads of we had planned due to the weather, but GG members between them will take leaflets and deliver them locally throughout the week and will also be handing them out on the weekend park runs until they have all gone 😀.

This morning I headed back to the Church of St John’s The Baptist ⛪️ to remove some of the bags of leaves that we had collected on Saturdays task to take them to the garden waste site for disposal 🍃🍂🍁☘️🍀

I managed to get 4 bags into the car and luckily the waste site was not that busy 🚙

The church grounds look so much better 😀

Junior Park Run

On this cold chilly morning 3 GG members got out of their warm beds to carry out various volunteering roles at Junior Park Run 🏃🏻‍♂️

Wayne, Alys, & James were at the park to help, cheer and support the runners around the 2k course.

Wayne & Alys were marshals around the course while James was supporting the runners through the final tunnel 😀

In total this morning 92 young runners braved the cold with the fastest time being a fantastic 07:41 👏 There were also 23 PB's great running by everyone.

All Aboard Club

This morning we were back in Brookwood at the All Aboard Club helping set up a big train track for kids to enjoy. 😀

We welcomed Charlotte who is a Member of Goodgym Richmond. Charlotte has met some of our Woking GG members at the Martian Race a few years ago. Charlotte has recently moved to the area so hopefully we will be seeing more of her 😀 It was also great to see Claire back and what a great task to come back to. Wayne was pretty tired after completing a 10k run this morning but along with Richard (Mr All Aboard) and the group got stuck in. We all took up positions in different areas of the hall and started to lay the tracks. We were also joined by other volunteers doing their DofE which was fantastic.

In no time we had between us all made a very complex looking track with many twists and turns 🚂 which i am sure the kids will love.

Another great morning. Hope to see you all on Wednesday when we will be doing a leaflet drop for Sam Beare Hospice...😀