This Sunday, me and Rachel decided to do a GoodGym community mission and volunteer as marshals for the Hove Park Junior Parkrun. A wholesome start to the morning — helping the local community, cheering on young runners, and getting a bit of fresh air. What could go wrong?

As I made my way to the park, I started thinking about my own running. You see, I always seem to end up last in my age category at Parkrun (well, they call it age grade, which somehow sounds even worse). And as a 39-year-old staring down the next age bracket, I can’t say I’m particularly excited about it.

Then it hit me: Why volunteer when I could just run the Junior Parkrun and win? It’s a shorter distance, right? Surely, I could take gold!

In my head, I lined up at the start, ready to show those under-14s how it’s done. The whistle blew — and off I went. Run, run, Forrest, run! Parents shouted something (probably words of encouragement, maybe not), but with my headphones in, I didn’t care. I was flying. Some gave me looks — clearly just jealous of my speed.

And as I reached the finish line, I did it. I won! Because age is just a number, and the sky is the limit.

…Did that actually happen? No. Did I end up marshalling as planned? Yes. Was all that just a vivid daydream while clapping and cheering from my post? Absolutely.

Still, it was a brilliant morning — great atmosphere, enthusiastic runners, and plenty of smiles. I’ll definitely be back to marshal again. (Though I’m still slightly amazed they let me.)

Had a great time, clapping and cheering fellow parkrun runers/joggers and walkers. Spotted a couple of Goodgym Brighton women on the course which was lovely. It was very cold for me and I'm sure for everyone else, I'm glad we all made it out!

Our Roy is the parkrun director of the Junior parkrun in Hove Park, and he always welcomes his GoodGym friends willing to volunteer and participate to this event as much as we do like to do this GoodGym community mission to see him (also). Roy has such a great spirit and he’s always active as we all are, now on a mission to finish his master!

We like parkrunning! Yesterday we were in Bevendean Downs and had a community meet up at The Bevy Pub – More Than a Pub! We are super keen to keep supporting them with our volunteering work and breakfast orders 😊 after running their 5K parkrun on the top of the hills up there – where there is a wonderful landscape, really!

And, we like (certainly I do) to volunteer at the Junior parkrun in Hove, despite slightly sleepy on a Sunday morning 😊. Either as a run back marker or as marshals, we always enjoy ourselves by cheering those little heroes running this recreational 2.5K parkrun race, dressed up as spider man, superman or fairy, or still in their pyjamas – but, always smiling!
Nice spotting our Maddalena and superhero active mummy who is on a personal mission to pass her own passions to her little ones!

And, and ... Surprise surprise… Guess who did we meet yesterday?

As our photographer, Rebecca, can confirm it was Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun!

That was an emotional Good weekend, indeed.

We had a great time marshalling at Hove Park Junior Parkrun- for most of us our second Parkrun of the weekend 🙌 We brought our enthusiasm, cheers and high fives to support young runners to do their best! Followed by a well-deserved coffee/picnic ☕️

Its grey, its wet but you get up and out anyway cos we're doing it for the kids (thanks Kylie and Robbie).

This weekend we dropped into Hove Park to help out at Junior Parkrun. Roy was doing his Race Director role and had us set up the finish funnel.

With our station points distributed, we took to our primary role of support the 4-14 year olds complete the 2km course.

There was a general positivity of getting some exercise in early in the day rather than scarily supportive parents screaming their children round the course. It was great to see all the little people enjoy running 😀

Followed by coffee and a chat about sleeping habits.

No pictures were taken on the task so please find some lovely pictures of all the Goodgymers that came this morning!

Goodgymmers Michael, Tabi and David joined Roy at Hove Park junior parkrun on a damp and humid Sunday morning to help with the relaunch of the event after 16 months of enforced absence due to you-know-what.

With over 40 kids running, skipping and walking the course today, we helped ensure the event was well-marshalled and went off without a hitch - thanks and well done guys!