Early bird GoodGymers were out in force today, with 9 around the course on the day of Maki's - Chikako's daughter's - last Junior parkrun as her birthday is coming soon. They'll both still be at Acton Juniors in the future, volunteering to help the event that they've enjoyed attending for years.

Most of today's marshals were GoodGymers, with Max, Maria, Steph, Michelle and Sevan helping the children and adults navigate the course and cheering them up and down the hills. Kash experienced the hills herself as the tailwalker, playing a key role in getting a couple of less enthusiastic children to the finish line and Chikako was the VI Guide for the last time (for now).

In the funnel, Ariane dished out the finish tokens and Alan was a late substitute to the timekeeper role. As it turned out, Alan saved the day (in a small way), by recording the finish times of the runners more accurately than the other timekeeper, meaning that all 65 finishers were correctly logged.

School holidays had hit Acton Junior parkrun attendance today as volunteer and runner numbers were down. The children were either on holiday or still in bed. An emergency call to action had gone out for volunteers and the rota had filled with West 4 Harriers and GoodGymers (sometimes both), including Maria who came to her first GoodGym task and used her past experience of working with children to make a positive impact on the runners. Welcome Maria! 🥳👏

With the barebones set of volunteers, all the essential roles were covered. Michelle, Kash and Joanna were marshalling, with Maria and Sevan on finish tokens and barcode scanning respectively. Jon came in disguise, funnel managing in his West 4 Harriers kit and Steph had the sometimes entertaining, sometimes agonising task of tailwalking.

Of the 40 finishers today, as is often the case, the last one needed some motivation to get to cross the line. Their "motivator" parent tried different techniques until their last resort, to say no sweets and that they would fart in the refusenik child's bed🤢. That last threat scared the little girl and she broke into a run all the way to the finish with Steph close behind.

Enthusiasm for taking part in Acton Junior parkrun was a bit low this week as the runners could see that it wasn't summer anymore by looking out of their windows. The rain held off for the parkrun, it was just miserable before and after, making the achievement of the 37 finishers all the more impressive.

Divya almost missed out on completing his 250th good deed - which he only mentioned after the run - with the Run Director searching around for her missing funnel manager. He did make it on time though to keep children in order and heading straight through the funnel to collect their finish tokens from Joanna. Ahead of the start, most GoodGymers were more concerned with a smaller number. The number of sides on the sculpture that Ariane would be marshalling at. The ad-hoc marshal point for the day that Alan discovered was made up of dodecahedrons ("the big metal things") and was actually meant for bouldering.

Around the course, Steph took on the role of tail walker, encouraging the children at the back to keep going to the finish. Kash was barcode scanning and Alan tried to keep time, battling his iPhone screen that was sensitive to raindrops and could randomly record phantom runners. Sevan was also marshalling and spotted one cheeky participant run through a gate late and join his friend at around 1/3rd distance.

If you'd like to join us next month, in any role around the course, sign up here!

One of hottest days of 2025 so far brought into Acton Park 86 young runners who crossed the junior parkrun finish line. It wouldn't be possible without our superb volunteers - and there was an abundance of them! GoodGym alone provided 4 pairs of hands to clap for the children around the course (Steph, Alan and Kash) or hand out the finish tokens (Joanna), one pair of eyes to keep them on time (Harvey) and a pair of legs to make sure no child was left behind (Chikako). The volunteer roster was so busy, that Alan, Kash and a Duke of Edinburgh volunteer were all three deployed to secure the roundabout - the landmark of Acton juniors course!

Join us for the next junior parkrun volunteering task at Pitshanger Park or wait for another monthly Acton juniors gig - keep an eye on the second Sunday of each month!

Easter Sunday and Goodgym had an egg-stra special Easter mission at Acton Junior Parkrun : all ran to the Park to welcome children between 4 to 14 years old. We had loads of Junior Parkrun eggs-pert today : Florian and Alan were on tokens, Chikako was a Guide runner, Jon and Steph Ducat were marshals. What an egg-citing day for the children as eggs were given out at the finish line.We had some fast runners today and some parents were just eggs-hausted trying to keep up with them. There was enough eggs for all the children, some parents and the volunteers : we now need to eggs-ercise off all this chocolate.Happy Easter everyone.

GoodGym Ealing were volunteering at their regular monthly session with Acton Junior parkrun today. Joanna, who was Run Director, was on her best behaviour as Barry, the parkrun Regional Ambassador for North West London, was visiting 🫡

As usual, GoodGymers were present all around the course. With Sevan at marshal point 1, Chikako as the VI Guide and Steph tailwalking and highfiving (should that be an official role?) children at the turnaround points. In the funnel, Chris was dishing out finish tokens while Kash and Louise were scanning the barcodes back in.

At the start, Joanna added an extra twist following the warm up. A high speed version of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to raise the runners heart rates before they set off. It made the warm up way more interactive and might have contributed to some new PBs!

🧒🙎🦵🦶🦵🦶
👀👂👄👃
🧒🙎🦵🦶🦵🦶