3 GoodGymmers turned out on a sunny but still slightly chilly morning to support Crewe parkrun. This week was a relaunch of "parkwalk" to highlight to people that parkrun is for all paces, and encouraging walking as a way being healthy. It also involved a fight with parkwalk bunting - that wont see the light of day again!

Karen, Nicola and Nigel carried out a wide range of roles today including course check, course set up, volunteer coordinator, run director, tailwalker, course close down, results processor and communications. A brilliant and much valued effort, all before 10am on a Saturday morning!

It was chilly but the sun was out for a glorious parkrun morning today. We have an amazing amount of volunteers as some people were saving themselves for the Nantwich 10k run that is taking place on Sunday. I was the Run Director (RD) today with Fin Dobson in as shadow RD as he increasing his confidence of speaking to the runners and learning the duties involved. 278 people took part today plus 34 volunteers, great support was given to the runners and everyone was reminded by me that it’s international happiness day on Thursday the 20th of March so I challenged people to be happy all week. There was a lovely buzz around the park, the fact that spring is trying to arrive meant the flowers are starting to bloom and the tree blossom starting to bloom. The cafe terrace was full with people enjoying a well deserved beverage.

As the Run Director (RD) today I got to the park nice and early to make sure the conditions of the course were ok to go ahead. The beauty of getting there at this time is the park is almost empty, the sun was raising, the swans, geese and ducks were in fine voice welcoming the start of the new day. Today was International Women’s day so we made sure we gave a big shout out to all the women attending today, whether this be running, spectating or marshalling. I shared my RD duties with Fin who has completed all the other volunteer roles and this was his first time in this role. Although he is 16, Fin is very mature and carried out the responsibilities without a hitch although he was a little nervous about using the microphone to speak to all those running. Today we had over 360 runners, the conditions were great for running and there were a lot of personal bests. I was very fortunate to be supported by a great team of marshals that made the morning run without a hitch. After we packed up it was time for a well deserved coffee in the cafe and a chat to friends who I’ve been lucky enough to make through Parkrun and Goodgym.

A great turnout at Crewe parkrun by the GoodGym gang!

Karen and Nicola teamed up as timekeepers, Karen also "meeted and greeted" the volunteers and made sure everyone know what to do; Nigel was on course set-up; Mark welcomed first timers with a description of the course and how parkrun works; Marjo was our star baker; and Marjo, Nigel, Emily, Maurice and Kat all did the "gym" bit of GoodGym by completing their favourite 5k of the week.

Well done everyone!

Nicola and Mark flew the flag for GoodGym today at Crewe parkrun, with Nicola at the helm as the warm and welcoming Run Director after completing an early morning course check, and Mark being a super chatty barcode scanner.

Well done both of you - 331 people were able to take part today thanks to your tome and effort!

Kat was out setting the pace this week at parkrun, volunteering to be the 35 minute pacer in Crewe's Queens Park. Definitely the best of both worlds - running while volunteering! Well done Kat, pacing isn't an easy thing to do!

Kat wasn't alone in volunteering this week - Nicola took on two roles, meeting and greeting the volunteers, and meeting and greeting everyone visiting Crewe parkrun for the first time.

i can't think of two people more suited to their volunteer roles this week, well done Kat and Nicola!