On a beautiful sunny morning in West London a fourmidable bunch of Goodgymers made their way to Osterley Park, to help out with Junior Parkrun.

As the warm up got underway and Sevan, Kash and Alan made their way to their positions along the course. Word started to spread that the event might be starting on time today. One of the regular volunteers, mid conversation with Sevan, spotted someone running and thought the run had started early so legged it to their position.

He needn't have worried as when the clock struck 9:00am the warm up completed and with the run director keen to get started several small pairs of feet were still casually making their way round the pond from the car park. Casual strides turned into tiny sprints once they realised the run was about to start.

34 children completed the course. With lots of great running on show. High fives were given, received and declined. Sevan’s palm left hanging by one runner who shouted over their shoulder that they didn't have time for that, no doubt chasing down a PB.

We witnessed the trials and tribulations of 2000km through the eyes of the very smallest participants. Those who joined in with parents and siblings but weren’t quite old enough to be given an official time, and who were mostly interested in climbing on shoulders, into buggies or in the case of one child in a tutu, wandering off to stare at a tree. And why not - you do you!

This being a fun free weekly event noone has to finish if they don't want to and today some opted to sunbathe or leave it to the older runners.

As usual the run was done and dusted by 9:30. We got a quick photo before heading our separate ways; two of us to the cafe and two onto the next mission. No prizes for guessing which of us headed for coffee and cake!

On Wednesday the NHS celebrated it’s 75th birthday, and parkrun’s up and down the country were holding special events to mark the occasion.

The NHS isn’t perfect, but it’s ours, and undoubtedly will have impacted on everyone heres lives at some point - from new babies to broken bones, prescription pick ups to pre and post op care, and everything else inbetween. I’ve worked for the NHS for ten years, and I’m proud to be a part of it. I’m also very proud to be a part of the parkrun and the GoodGym communities - three organisations that are very special indeed. So obviously, when my NHS trust were heading to Osterley parkrun for the big day, it felt fitting that GoodGym come along too - after all, all three are out there helping look after our physical and mental health.

Six wonderful GoodGymmers from all over came along to help out and to run. Divy, Michelle and Harvey were all on the GoodGym barcode scanning take over, and quite frankly it was hard to decide who to pick to scan my finish token! Tilly helped with setting up and packing down, a job with a little extra today (thanks to the blue NHS banners up!), and SJ took the role of tail walker, making sure no one finished last.

Me on the other hand, well I was making my Run Director debut. I don’t like to put myself on a pedestal, but I did a great job. And I was also literally on a pedestal, as I took the mike and made sure everyone knew what today was about, briefing on the course, thanking the volunteers and waiting to see if anyone laughed at my sluice joke. They did, in case you wondered. Phew.

The sea of runners in blue went off, and the morning went swimmingly well, despite the threat of rain overhead. Here’s to the next 75 years of the NHS, plenty more parkruns and good deeds galore in the future.