There were an impressive number of finishers at today's Pitshanger Junior parkrun, taking all of the GoodGymers present by surprise, including Gaby who was handing out the finish tokens. In all, 102 crossed the finish line, which is awesome. Gaby was also surprised to see the red t-shirts of the other GoodGymers as she hadn't known that today was GoodGym Ealing's regular session at the parkrun.

Around the course, Kash, Steph, Harvey and Sevan were marshalling. As usual, the majority of children had a great morning, while a few would rather have been in bed and were dragged around the course by their parents. Sevan caught one very young runner who tried to sneak to the finish line after only completing 1 lap, readily admitting that they still had further to run and who did eventually complete the 2km course.

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Today's Pitshanger Junior parkrun had some fairground vibes, with lots of families in the park enjoying themselves, mostly. The runners were working hard to earn tokens that they could trade in after the funnel.

In the funnel, the finishers got to play dogems after one child crossed the line with a dog on a lead, blocking the funnel and raising questions around if they'd run the whole 2km. Sevan managed to record their time and everyone else who crossed the line while the inquest was ongoing. Elsewhere, there were smashes too. Smashing high fives that is, as the runners smacked the outstretched hands of the marshals who included Kash, Jacquie, Harvey and Steph .

There were 86 runners who finished and got some big cheers. One more also got the cheers, then stopped 10 metres short of the line and would not go any further, insisting that they would only go to the nearby playground. No amount of convincing would get them to cross the line.

At Pitshanger Junior parkrun today, Gaby took on a new role handing out finish tokens. She's become really keen to help at an event that's so close to home for her. Today she paired up with an experienced volunteer and they had a good chat while recording each runner's finishing position.

Elsewhere, there were a lot of volunteers present. So many that Steph, Kash and Sevan were assigned to a single marshal post, number 7. They decided that Sevan would clap, while Steph and Kash would take on high-fiving duties. Kash was in her element. Is there a job where giving high fives is the main skill?

All of the children were happy with the vocal support and almost all took Kash or Steph's hand when offered. Some runners even zigzagged across the path to collect power boosts from all 3 GoodGymers. Conversely, some runners were totally freaked out by the outstretched hands, trying to make themselves as small as possible to squeeze through the gap between Kash and Steph. Hopefully they aren't traumatised by the experience.

There was a biting cold wind blowing through Pitshanger Park this morning for Junior parkrun. It blew straight through the volunteers too, who nevertheless put on a cheery and enthusiatic event for all today's runners.

Steph Ducat, Chris McC, Kash, Gaby and Sevan all used their motivational skills to help the 61 finishers around the course. Kash and Gaby as marshals and Chris and Sevan as timekeepers were all cheering and put the power of the high 5 into action. Steph on the other hand had to be more creative as the tail walker, hopping, skipping and running to keep the final child entertained and moving towards completing his 2km.

At the finish, Mohamed was getting to grips with funnel management, keeping children in line. Harvey was barcode scanning and Chris Y was providing everyone with moral support. Chris was also silently mocking everyone else's lack of planning as he rocked his woolly mittens 🧤❄️.

There were a big group of volunteers this morning at Pitshanger Junior parkrun, both from their regular volunteers and 6 GoodGymers who were out of bed bright and early. They included Lucy, who completed her first good deed after joining us for a social run to Acton last weekend. Welcome Lucy! 👏🎉

Today, Lucy joined Harvey on finish tokens, while Run Director David assigned the 4 marshalling GoodGymers to the most challenging part of the course... the muddy part. Kash and Sevan were paired up ahead of a truck-created cavity running along the path, with Mohamed next, warning runners of uneven muddy ground. Steph was last up, telling the children and adults that the rest of the course was relatively hazard free.

In the funnel, there were all sorts of fun goings on with tokens tumbling, double counting of runners who passed through the funnel twice and others who bypassed it completely. It was very eventful by all accounts!

After the fun and games, the GoodGymers went to warm up with a coffee, ahead of their next task of the day at Pear Tree Park.

Misty Sunday morning and last one for 2024. This also means last Pitshanger Junior parkrun for the year. The countdown started for the juniors to run 3-2-1 Go!!!!From the mist, we had 43 runners appearing around the park for the season finale. These figures were outnumbered by one of the Goddgymers : Yes Harvey celebrated in Alan Shearer style with one arm up, little finger out as he has reached a massive 750 good deeds!!!

Today Kash was on barcode scanning, Harvey on finish token support, while Mohamed and Steph Ducat on the course marshalling and cheering the juniors.

At the end the junior runners, parents and volunteers were welcomed by biscuits and sweets : how the finish a year in style!!!

Happy New Year and see you in 2025 for more Junior parkruns!!!