Extra session this month at Pitshanger Juniors Parkrun : 4 Goodgymers went to cheer 89 runners today. Sevan was marshal at position 3, Jacquie and Steph Ducat were marshals at position 1 while Kash was on bar code scanning. Today was a special day for several reasons . To start brand new tokens appeared on the table ready to be given out. to the finishers. Today Kelvin was run director, but it was also his birthday : did we get cake you would ask!No we didn't!!But Kelvin brought jelly babies to be given out to all the junior runners at the finish line. All the finishers enjoyed the jelly babies and they were not the only ones. Did this make some of the runners go quicker to be sure they get a jelly baby. Most volunteers also had jelly babies. Kelvin still had some left and would bring them next week. We had 89 finishers today and the new tokens were handed out. Token number 58 disappeared and went missing - not the first time a token gets lost or taken back home, but its not the first time for the number 58 to disappear. Will it come back next week?

One of the regular marshals Malcolm completed his 99th volunteering session today - next one will be the big 100 !!!

Kelvin, today's Run Director, was a bit stressed this morning. There was lots to organise and the person with the key to the equiptment had arrived late 😥. Everything came together in time and the warm up and briefing were given to a big group of parents and children.

The runners set off and a few minutes later, the first runners crossed the line, cheered by Kash and Steph who were marshalling and high fiving. Today's timekeeper took everyone back to the 90's as they shouted

Boomshakalak!

...as the first 2 runners crossed the finish line. They were equally excited by the next 105 too (but no boomshakalak-ing), until Jacquie, who was tailwalking in the traditional orange vest reached the finish line. Jacquie also stood out for other reasons, surprising the other GoodGymers with her presence, in a good way. Sevan was having a rare go at handing out finish tokens and managed to not mess it up.

So 107 finishers wasn't quite a course record. The number of participants at Pitshanger Juniors is consistently high though and they're building a great community which GoodGym is proud to be involved with. If you want to be part of it, sign up here for July.

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.

If you'd like to join in next month, you can sign up here.

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 🧤❄️.