On a much brighter but wetter morning than we had experienced at parkrun yesterday, 4 GGers gathered to help support the annual Victory 5 mile race at Lakeside.

Aoife and Lorna were stationed inside in the warm and dry (not bitter at all!). And tasked with handing out the race numbers as the runners arrived. With plenty of safety pins on hand for all those who had forgot!

Richard and I, after fuelling with a free coffee!, headed out to our marshal point to set up camp ready for the race to begin. Fortunately, the rain mostly stayed away until the final couple of runners headed past.

The last ever Victory 5 race after 80 years!

We helped with registration and marshal points around the tax office.

The front of the field was unbelievably fast!

Everyone was wearing a number and went the right way so that means we did our jobs well!!

Tonight was the fifth and final Lakeside 5k Road race series, hosted by City of Portsmouth. Katie, India, Wilson and Jo met up early and walked around the lake realising how humid it was. Once back at base we met up with Aoife who had run up to meet us.

We positioned ourselves central to the shops this evening, and India distributed the numbers whilst we answered any questions on the night. Thanks to Paul who took a group photo for us this evening, even though he left a lovely selfie on Katie's phone.

A combination of the warm weather and this being the final 5k of the series definitely brought in a lot more runners than previous. Some difficult decisions had to be made with regards to what drink to order, Wilson definitely won that with the colourful Passion fruit frappe and Aoife had a very large tea. Least she would be hydrated for her run home :-)

Backup number recorder Vicki wasn't able to be with us tonight so someone needed to step into her shoes and Wilson did that. Although Wilson did pull Jo's leg about how to fill in the sheet and was wanting to complete it like a bingo card.

Tonight’s finishing funnel did get very hectic when a rush of runners came in and changed their order but thankfully due to two sets of results recorders, results were recorded succesfully.

The last Wednesday of the month brought us back to Lakeside to help out with the marshaling of their 5k race. This was the 4/5 of the series. Jen, Katie and Jo met early and headed out for a 1.4 mile run around the lake. Once finished and suitably warm we met up with Judy, Val and Vicki.

Like clockwork, we donned our Goodgym High Viz, collected the race numbers and headed to our alloted positions ready for the runners arriving.

Judy, Jen, Katie and Val handed out the numbers to those who had not yet competed in the race series. Instructions were also given to those who had misplaced their numbers to head inside to the 'table of shame' and retrieve a replacement. Vicki and Jo greeted runners who were arriving and directing them to number collection or race entry. Once the race was underway, Judy and Val managed the finishing funnel to ensure runners kept in order when they crossed the line. Katie was primary number checker and Jo & Vicki were backup nuber checkers.

Another great race this evening albeit fewer runners than the last one. We're back there on 24th Aug for the final race of the series. Fancy joining us? Sign up here

A warm sunny Wednesday brought us back to Lakeside to help City of Portsmouth AC with the 3rd of their 5k races.

Jen, Katie, India and Rachel met up early and headed out for a run around the lake. Once back we all met up and donned our Goodgym Hi Viz. As this is the 3rd race of the year that we've assisted with, we're all used to the tasks and jobs that need to be done.

Vicki and Jo stayed near the main shopping area and assisted anyone who needed to know their number, registering on the evening, or general enquiries.

Aoife, Mel, India, Rachel, Laura, Jen and Katie were distributing the numbers to the runners who were registered. Jen went over and above the duty of watching some of the bags for the runners and ended up carrying both of these, one on her back and the other on her front. Luggage retrieval and collection was certainly more efficient in comparison to some airports.

Once the race was underway, we formed marshal positions, funnel management and number checkers.

It was also the last Group Run (for now) for Rachel as she will be jetting to the other side of the world next week to live in Australia. Good luck Rachel, we will all miss you.

We will be back at Lakeside next month for race 4. Sign up here

We had a great day in the sunshine helping out at the City of Portsmouth AC fun day to celebrate 90 years of the club.

Club chairman, Ann, had done loads of planning and organising and also roped in all her family to help out! We helped turn the plans into action.

Lots of jobs, lifting, shifting, hanging Union Jacks and bunting, marshalling the mass participation events (herding cats), organising the small fun events (water balloons, howlers and balloon long jump).

We even managed to score a couple of prizes in the raffle although we were slightly disappointed to miss out on the Epsom Salts!

Everyone had a great time and I'm sure there are lots of tired people (not least the helpers and parents!).

Congrats to CoPAC on the 90th anniversary!