It was an early start for the GoodGym volunteers at the Colchester Zoo Stampede 10km event. We met at the zoo at 7am, greeted by the lovely and infectiously enthusiastic Jatila from RunThrough. As the runners arrived we directed them to the event village and joined in a bit of the pre-race warm up! The mood was high and the sun was starting to peek out as the runners made their way to their starting waves. We were spread along the length of the queue of runners, making sure they were well-behaved and sticking to social distancing rules as they approached the start. We caused a few nervous laughs by telling the racers that we we would be setting the tigers after them in a few minutes!

By the time we had got everyone to the start in their waves, the first, fast runners were nearly back. We handed out sanitizer, water, flapjack and other snacks, medals and t-shirts. A massive downpour of rain meant some of us got soaked (sorry Katherine, Phil, Ben and Nick!) while the rest of us managed to stay nice and dry under our gazebos. Two hours passed very quickly while we handed out all of the goodies to the very impressive runners. We helped clear up (with the help of a few left over treats) and then some of us took advantage of free entry to the zoo. A very lively and fun morning, we felt as tired as some of the runners by the end! An excellently organised event by RunThrough. It was great being at a running event again and helping out from the other side. Thanks everyone and thanks Jatila, we hope to see you next year!