And just like that, another year of the Lakeside 5km Series has come to an end. Our team this race was small but mighty - despite some organisational mishaps, all runners were on the start line for 7:15.

Well done to everyone who took part, and to all the volunteers. Our complimentary Starbucks beverage was a lovely treat, especially with the cream cakes the team brought along to share! Despite only having sixteen minutes before the first runner crossed the finish line, we were able to conduct an experiment on how best to maintain the integrity of a custard slice.

Our early birds, Jen, Dave and Katie, enjoyed a quick run around the lake as an unofficial course check for the upcoming race. Amazingly, there were NO puddles, which I think is pretty much unheard of for this course!

We were then joined by Judy and a bonus Lucy for registration and marshaling duties. Our list of sign-ups hadn't been updated since June, so we had to defer quite a few runners to the Havant AC team, but did have plenty of work to do with re-writing numbers lost from the previous race. And obviously I'll have to mention the poor quality of the marker pen we were given, the hand written numbers were not up to their usual calibre!

Duncan joined us for pack down at the end of the race, so he just about earned a good deed for his efforts!

It was the first race of the truncated Lakeside 5k series.

We were tasked with a little bit of table lifting and shifting; number allocations; important instructions about emergency contact details; finish funnelling and (most importantly) coffee drinking!

There were a few busy moments of numbers being collected and alphabet skills being tested but everyone who came to run ended up with a number on their vest and at the start line on time.

A beautifully warm summer evening for us, a bit too hot for the runners. Fortunately no need for the bucket at the end!

After biblical weather last month we had a warm summer evening for the last Lakeside 5k series held by Havant AC.
A huge welcome to Finnuala who had just recently signed up to Goodgym and this was her 3rd task of the day. Jen headed put for a run around the lake whilst everyone else was arriving or finishing a previous task of cleaning the water near Hilsea Lido. As it was the final race of the series, a good number of runners turned up and Dave, Duncan, Jen, Lucy and Yvonne did a great job handing out remaining numbers and writing out replacements that were washed out last time. Due to the holiday season they were short of some marshalls and once the race was underway we took up various positions to ensure the runners knew where to go for the second lap and to ensure traffic didn't cross the runners path. We had a close couple of vomit alerts where Judy was ready to wash away but thankfully nothing was needed.

A combination of holidays and rainy weather meant a small number of us helped out with the Lakeside 5k race series this evening. It was raining when we arrived and Katie and Jo decided to head out for a run around the lake before the rain got any heavier. It was a wise decision as the rain became heavier once we finished and we took shelter under the canopy with Judy and Maura to hand out race numbers. We had a pile of blanks which came in handy as a lot of runners either forgot their previous race number and Katie did a splendid job writing the numbers and adding smiley faces to them. Despite the weather there was a good turnout of runners this evening and as they headed to the start, we headed to the marshall point near the finish. We cheered and directed everyone in to the finish and also have a large cheer for Tony who was racing this evening and was encouraging a young athlete who was tiring near the finish.

After a couple of weeks of high humid temperatures it was a little cooler this evening for the third Lakeside 5k series race. Angela, Jen & Jo met up early and headed out for a run around the lake whilst Dave headed put for a walk. Vicki met up with us towards the end of the run and we made our way back to our start.

Val joined us after our run and we donned our high viz and took up our usual positions of handing out numbers to those who had pre-registered. We also had a large number of runners who had forgotten their numbers and Jen did a fantastic job writing up replacements. It did get tense as we only had a limited number of blanks and with 10 mins to go we had run out. Thankfully we didn't need to write any more before the race.

Once the race was underway we positioned ourselves near the finish a didn't have to wait long to cheer in the runners when the winner cross the line in approx 15 and a half minutes. Dave kept the tape open to filter the runners into the finish. Jen kept runners in order and was on hand to request assistance from Val when a runner unfortunately vomited as he crossed the line and also further down the funnel. Val did a sterling job and got some water from the local coffee shop to wash it away. Thankfully, that was the only clean up needed for the evening.