5 intrepid Goodgymers braved 0° (not the bar this time!) to volunteer at parkrun, unfortunately the conditions proved too hazardous for the Run director, so the event was cancelled. Undaunted we moved up our planned post-parkrun-plog (any points for alliteration?) and scoured the park for plunder! Several parkrunners also joined in and we were cheered on by others who with a GoodGym-like determination decided as they were at Eastville they might as well run anyway! Anyone who had previously been involved in planting bulbs at Eastville will be pleased to see they are starting to appear

It was supposed to be gloomy and a bit chilly but the sun shone on the righteous (and all the other GoodGymmers) on Saturday morning at Eastville Park. Nearly everyone was there, physically, by 8.20, two party-goers arrived shortly after to make a full team of parkrun volunteers. And the hangovers were clearing by the start time of 9am.

400 people ran, walked, jogged or wheeled past our marshal and finish funnel teams with much high-viz cheering. Our youngest parkrunner was just 6 days old.

We all watched in amazement as the first runner left the rest of the field for dust, completing the 5K in under 16 minutes. Sadly for him, he’d left his barcode at home. Maybe as penance he ran the route again taking just 17 minutes. Wow.

When it came to packing up we were super tidy, ready for next week. Even the pop-up fitted neatly into its little bag to the amazement of a few!

Avid parkrunners all know that Saturday is the best day of the week as it's parkrun day. But Sunday is the close 'run'ner up second best day of the week as it's junior parkrun day.

4 Goodgym runners gave up their Sunday morning lie-in and joined the Hi-Viz heroes at Eastville Junior parkrun, taking on marshalling and time-keeping roles to ensure the junior parkrun event was able to take proceed safely.

We were rewarded by a multitude of hi-fives, low-fives, and even a few enthusiastic hi-tens from the 45 junior parkrunners as they ran, jogged or walked around the 2KM course.

Sadly the author was unable to volunteer today due to on-call rotas. On the plus side this meant a chance to actually run in the event and I have to say the quality of volunteers was truly exceptional today.

No surprise there of course, GG Bristol had taken on many of the volunteer roles today in support of our run director Mel . So we had a marvellous multitude of marshals - with Laura and Zdeni both taking part in their very first parkrun - a most excellent team of time keepers in Fi and Abi (lovely to see you back Abi - hope the exam results turn out well :)) and Richard B as a brilliant bar code scanner.

Special mention to Andy who still made it today after waking up this morning to find no pedals on his bike. But the volunteer spotlight today shines most brightly on Julie who was tail runner and completed her 50th parkrun in the process. Congratulations Julie - and thanks for the flapjack!

It might have been early, it might have been gloomy but that just gave GoodGym Bristol the best opportunity to bring some brightness to the parkrunning folks of Eastville, Bristol.

After a quick briefing and a run around the long lap to check out the marshal points, guided by Darren, the marshals grabbed their arrows, signage, lanyards and the all-important hi viz whilst the finish funnel team strolled along to ensure it was looooong enough. With between 250 and 600 runners expected we can never be quite sure how many people will try to squeeze themselves into the funnel at once!

119 First Timers in the 413 runners today, and so many compliments for the loveliest marshals and other volunteers people had ever known. It was a bit of a rush at times, but you were all brilliant :-) The run report is here.

Debs was the star of the show, it being her 100th parkrun , or her awesome cake-baking skills. I forget which ;-)

Kait brought her camera and surprised herself with her action shots having found the 'sports' setting :-)

Packing up always seems to take ages but with four GoodGymmers on the case, we finally managed to force the pop-up parkrun sign into the tiny bag. Please tell me there were no photos or video of this...

Then it was off to the crocus-planting mountain-side, being joined by those who thought 9 am was a little too early and off to process results, sort tokens and get the rest of the post-parkrun gubbins completed. With a latte and a bacon bloomer.

I hope this will be the first of many GoodGym Bristol excursions to Eastville parkrun - and the start of some Eastville parkrunners coming to GoodGym Bristol!