Junior Park Run

Shout Outs

A few shout outs this morning to members of Woking Goodgym 🎉

Firstly congratulations to Adam who this morning carried out his 100th volunteering role at junior park run and as a treat he led the warm up before todays run 🏃‍♂️

Also a big thumbs up 👍🏾 to Kirsty who yesterday did her first Sub 30 5k at Battersea Park Run, the first of many i think 🎉

And finally a big birthday congratulations to Anne who is currently in France 🇫🇷 enjoying a nice break, hopefully we can all celebrate with Anne when she gets back 🎈🍰.

So this morning Wayne, Alys , Adam, & James all carried out various volunteering roles at the cold 🥶 junior park run. It was a great turn out with 123 young runners 🏃‍♂️ running around the 2k course. The fastest time was a fantastic 07:55 with 42 PB's some great running by everyone 😀.

Coming out this morning was quite a shock, with a bitterly cold air. Still, that didn't stop five Goodgymers from braving the weather and supporting the children. Everyone was super clear on their roles and got straight to it. Maybe the team wasn't feeling so awake this morning despite coffee as we didn't move much in the warm up! A countdown from the bandstand and straight to the start where the run soon began. It impresses us every time seeing all children challenge themselves and show true strength of character even at this tender age to go out and beat the elements. Well done children! 🏆 Everybody said their goodbyes and Wayne and Nadia headed onto the train task! Happy Sunday!

Woking Junior Park 🏃‍♂️

On a bitterly cold morning 4 GG members got up early this Sunday to help out at junior park run 😀

Wayne got to the park first and after saying hello to everyone was designated spot number 2, which he had to make safe by putting cones around the frozen ice puddles making sure the young runners were safe while going round the bend 💨. Wayne was a liitle sore after doing his early morning 12k run yesterday 😤.

Adam arrived shortly after with two cups of coffee 🤔 Adam was also sore with tight hamstrings after his long run with James yesterday, Adam was saying how much relaxing in the Sauna helped 🥵

We were getting worried about Nadia as she is always very punctual but with a few minutes to go there she was with her friend Andy, Scrapping the windscreen this morning took a little longer than expected 🤣 . Nadia did homewood park run yesterday and by the sound of it it was a tough muddy run 🏃🏼‍♀️.

So this mornings park run had 74 young runners who took on the 2k course. The fastest time was a brilliant 08:44 and there were also 21 PB's great running by everyone 😀

Hope you all have a great rest of the weekend.

First GoodGym report from me Luan; and first mission marshalling at Jnr parkrun. It was also the first time marshalling with GoodGym for Karen who has been on a similar amount of missions to myself, we are the newbies of GoodGym. We had both arrived at the bandstand early to find John setting up, and were able to chat for a while.

When the other two girls arrived (Nadia and Katie) from GoodGym it turned out to be an all girl group, as you can see from the photo. I think it would have been a bit much if we had burst into song, but we looked the part! Karen and I managed to secure a marshal spot each from the map and a radio. I had brought my own high vis jacket and Karen got one from John which had Jnr Parkrun written on it.

The Woking Jnr Parkrun held an award ceremony at the bandstand, one of the children had run the length of a marathon whilst on the parkrun (Katie whispered that it wasn’t something that was independent to the parkrun group), amazed we all clapped and cheered! There were a number of children who received awards…

Then the start of the run, we all made our way to our positions. All that was left was to cheer. I couldn’t think of anything else but ‘well done’, ‘keep going’, ‘good luck guys’, well done everyone’ and ’almost there’, the parents were really lovely and commented thanks marshal. The children and parents were great runners, some of them were so tiny and young. Luckily it wasn’t raining but there was quite a chill in this winter weather.

The tail end marshals let us know when the last runners had passed our positions and we were to return to the bandstand.

It was a lovely event, I can’t believe how well everyone did to run 2k around the park. So well organised and such great spirit all round!

After waking a bit late! I got up and headed straight to working Junior Parkrun. The weather was a little chilly but much more milder than previous mornings. After having a much needed coffee on run to Woking park I got there to see a big swarm of people around the bandstand.

As I got closer, I could already see the other GoodGymers there ready and waiting. Standing there, ready with their high-vis. Anne, Nadia and Wayne were all looking for to their marshaling roles around the course. It was brilliant to hear how well Nadia did coming a brilliant third woman in the local parkrun at Homewood, progressing soo well towards completing her first 5k in under 25 minutes.

With the great progress she is making, we are all feeling she will reach that target, very well. Wayne was also a hero on his run to Junior Parkrun by happily helping a stranded elderly gent with changing his car tyre. Having seen this man struggle with the tyre change, he quickly jumped in and got it sorted. And this was all done without delaying him to his task. Great work then Wayne.

Slowly the crowd grow as it got closer to the start. The warm up crew where energised and got the youngster jumping around with high knees, gorilla stumps and ankle rolls and were all excited to start the run.

As Anne, Nadia and Wayne left to hear towards their marshal point, I went to the start line to get ready to start timing the children's progress. After a successful start the children sprinted along the grass, all keen to get the best start they can.

The run leader coming through the first lap at a great time of just over 3 minutes 30. A flying first lap for the first runner with a lot of distance for the second place runner. Hearing lots of cheers from around the course, the children running around as best as they can.

The weather was being kind as I was still keeping warm, although I had stopped running unlike the children racing around the course. It didn't take much longer for the first place runner to come steaming through with a brilliant time of 7:21. The next two children came speeding through almost a whole minute later showing how well the first runner did.
With a continuous stream of children dashing through the finish line, it quickly finished with all 93 children finishing.

Six Goodgymers braved the cold crisp weather this morning to volunteer at Woking Junior Parkrun. There was a great turnout in general with many other volunteers and children getting together for this excellent weekly event. Wayne and Nadia were having a chat then quickly joined by Anne, Katie, Adam and Alys.

We had just enough time for a little catch up discussing our cold weather ventures and what our plans were for the day. ☀️

Our volunteers were well spread out today covering many roles like marshalling, timekeeping, and barcode scanning. 🦺⏱️

After joining the expert children doing the warmup demonstration and congratulating some milestone wristbands, we all headed to the start line.

A quick countdown and start and we were well on the way cheering the children as they went along, also encouraged by their parents and guardians. 📣 No sooner had we started we saw the tail walkers coming in to finish. 🏁

Just goes to show how a little goes along way and taking care of health from a young age is a great thing. We have a task coming up this week again braving the elements and we will hopefully find more tasks to organise in the coming weeks.

Well done, everybody. Until next time! 👋🏼