4 Goodgymers brushed off those 2023 cobwebs bright and early to go leaping forth into 2024 with their first good deed of the year - helping at Coventry Parkrun.

By 8.10 pre event set-up was well underway with the race director giving clear directions to our motley crew of bleary-eyed helpers. Thankfully most of the set-up was based around the start/finish line with cones, red tape and signs being the main tasks at hand. Many hands made light work though and despite a few attempts at correctly putting out the cones and tape lining the start area, everything was in place ready for the hoards to arrive.

We were then joined by other Goodgym faces by way of Laura P, Lil and the rather interestingly attired Becky of previous Warwick and Leamington fame fashioning her latest marathon outfit for practise.

It was lovely to catch up with everyone after the holidays and enjoy a trot/wade around the park too. We were even blessed with a brief appearance of sunshine, a very rare occurrence of late. Fingers crossed James's feet weren't too muddy after also helping with barcode scanning on a very soggy patch of grass...

On a beautiful sunny morning, 1 GoodGymmer popped over to Coventry parkrun at War Memorial Park to support their local parkrun and run 5km.

This morning Vic’s role was the First Timer’s Welcome and after a little bit of training from the Run Director, she was ready to go! Vic’s role was to provide essential information to people completely new to parkrun and those visiting the course from across the country (ranging from Portsmouth to Swansea to Sheffield).

Vic was then able to join the other 477 parkrunners for a very enjoyable 5km parkrun in the sunshine! It was great to combine being able to give back to the local parkrun as well as enjoy a run this morning.

2 Goodgymers braved the cold to volunteer at Coventry Parkrun this morning. After concerns it might be called off due to ice, we arrived at the Memorial Park to find that the gritters had been out in force. Other than a couple of icy patches that were managed with marshals and cones, the course was good to go!

Beautiful views across the icy park kept our minds off the cold whilst we waited for the first runner to cross the line and then barcodes were scanned for lots of happy Parkrunners.

Looking forward to Junior Parkrun next week!

Well done to all the other Coventry Goodgymers who were parkrun tourists today - Allan and Vic at Leamington Spa and Laura at Highbury Fields.