Five GoodGymers responded to the last-minute call to recycle their old sports shoes at Acton junior parkrun. Some of us couldn't make it the day before to the very successful shoe recycling initiative by We Run Ealing and GoodGym at Gunnersbury parkrun, so we gave those GoodGymers a chance to drop their shoes while volunteering at Acton juniors anyway.

Harvey made the most of both sessions: taking the lead in organising the Saturday collection at Gunnersbury with Tom and Steph, then bringing his daughter's shoes to Acton junior parkrun on Sunday. Chikako brought a couple of her daughter's sports footwear, and Sevan and Joanna donated their old running shoes. Kash, after a long wait, finally found a way to recycle her worn trainers that were getting a bit too slippery to run to GoodGym missions on pavements covered with wet leaves.

Ten collected pairs of used sports shoes will be packed up into a box early next week and sent to Jog On for reusing or recycling. That's twenty shoes saved from landfill!

Across the country, it was a Bert windy today and Acton Park was no different. Sevan and Mohamed arrived early to find Geoff, today's Run Director, almost finished with the course set up. The funnel poles were in the ground and Mohamed placed the "Caution Runners" signs at the top and bottom gates. Everything else was at risk of blowing away, including the runners and volunteers, so there were no cones to mark the course or lightweight table for the token sorting.

Harvey took advantage of the conditions, deciding to fly down the hill to the start line, where there were a good group of brave runners. 38 of them were blown around the course including Chikako who was the VI guide and Alan, whose tail walker tail was blowing in the wind. They flew past Mohamed and Joanna who were marshalling. They then tumbled over the finish line and into the funnel, where the other GoodGymers were at work. Sevan and Harvey were timekeeping, Divy was handing out finish tokens and Kash in her favourite role scanning barcodes.

There was little to pack up, so results were quickly submitted and then it was onto collecting all of the shoes that were brought for recycling.

An impromptu visit to Acton Junior parkrun by Kash and Sevan found 3 other GoodGymers on the roster. After Sevan's last visit, he enjoyed high fiving the runners so much that he decided to become a Foman too with his own red high five hand.

Joanna took her giant hand to her marshal post and Sevan used his to point children into the funnel as today's funnel manager. Kash and Alan needed to keep their hands regular sized to work the barcode scanners on their phones and Chikako too as to as the VI guide.

52 runners completed today's course and a few more managed to make it through the funnel. Sevan managed to stop most adults from entering the funnel, but one whole family including a double buggy managed to charge straight through 🤦

Who knows how many Fomans will be at GoodGym Ealing's next visit to Acton Junior parkrun. Sign up here to find out!

GoodGymers were up early to help at Acton Junior parkrun this morning. Joanna brought her favourite prop, a giant foam hand to high five the runners and wanted a volunteer to wield it. As Sevan was marshalling, he put his hand up and took it to his marshal post.

🎵 On a gathering storm comes a tall handsome man
In a yellow high vis with a blue right hand

Chikako was the VI Guide for the day and was being cheered by the marshals, while Chris, Sevan and Joanna were doing the cheering to get the runners excited on this chilly morning.

🎵 They're cheering his name through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat is a blue right hand

In the funnel, Alan was timekeeping, with Michelle handing out finish tokens and Kash barcode scanning.

🎵 A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of finish tokens in his blue right hand

Everyone was excited by a possible course record by a visiting runner who ran a speedy 6:33 😲

There was a bumper turnout at Acton Junior parkrun this morning. With children back at school, there were 74 finishers, around double the summer holiday average. There was a real back to school feel at the warm up too, with an excited buzz and chatter from the participants, making it hard for Joanna, the run director to be heard.

Once the announcements were complete and the runners were led through a brilliant warm up session, they set off up the hill with Steph and Harvey tail walking at the back of the field.

Michelle as a timekeeper joined Kash and Sevan, who were barcode scanning, in the funnel. As well as double the number of participants, there was double trouble around in the finish area too. After the overnight rain, there were a couple of slips and a fall as speedy children slowed down to walking pace. A naughty pair also collected their token, then turned around to walk the wrong way up the funnel!

Thankfully, there weren't any injuries to deal with and everyone went home happy 🙂

Sevan was optimistic when he promoted today's task at Acton Junior parkrun as "a hot August date 😎". Looking out of the window this morning, he had either made the weather match the listing or gotten lucky as it was shaping up to be a beautiful day 🤔

Following the morning's social run, led by Harvey, 4 GoodGymers and 2 Run Ealing runners arrived early enough to help set up the course, hanging Caution Runners signs around the park. Soon others arrived and took up their roles, including a run director visiting from Middlesbrough for the weekend who Joanna knew . On hearing from Joanna that Mike (of parkrunner app fame) is a local GoodGym member, he blurted out

"Michael Clayton, he's my God!" - Ian

While Ian's God wasn't present this morning, there was great representation around the course with Harvey, Kash, Steph and Alan cheering the children round the course as marshals. A special shout out to Belinda too, who took on a marshal role as her first good deed 👏! Around the funnel, Michelle, Joanna and Tom were barcode scanning, while Sevan was a timekeeper alongside Ian, the disciple.

Due to the school holidays, the number of runners was low today at 28. No one was reluctant to be there though and every one of them put in an amazing sprint to the line.

If this sounds like fun, come and join us next month. We can't promise good weather, but if we wish hard enough, who knows...

GoodGymers from Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith were at Acton Junior parkrun this morning in numbers, 8 or them, which matched the attendance last time. Participation was down though. The weather was half as good as in June (is it autumn already?!) and there were less than half as many children, with 39 today vs 87 in June.

As usual, GoodGym was helping all over the course with Chikako as the VI Guide and Michelle, Alan, Joanna and Sevan keeping the children safe and motivated in their marshal roles. Around the funnel, Divy was timekeeping, while Kash and Harvey were both attracted to the barcode scanning roles.

Kash and Harvey are both experienced barcode scanners, Kash with Junior parkrun and Harvey more often at adult parkruns. This may explain the difference in their styles with Kash treating the runners as children, having a little trust in them. She took each token from the runners, scanned and carefully placed it in its special container herself. Harvey on the other hand treated the runners as adults, giving them the responsibility to place their tokens in the box at his feet... with mixed results.

While the number of runners was low, there were some good results recorded, with the first girl achieving a PB as she finished in second place overall ⏱️🙌

Come join us next month to motivate the runners. Sign up here

GoodGym were back volunteering at Acton Junior parkrun, which coincided with another beautiful morning. This might've been the reason for the bumper turnout (reader, you can decide yourselves if it was the weather or GoodGym presence).

There were 87 runners in total who completed the course, with the regular volunteers being amazed at how the numbers had increased recently. GoodGymers too had turned out in numbers, with Harvey, Alan and Joanna marshalling, Divy making a late entrance as a barcode scanner, while Sevan took Divy's place as timekeeper and Chikako was today's VI guide.

There were 2 other GoodGymer marshals who stopped a serious crime. There was a cone thief disguised as a Junior parkrunner at today's event. Michelle and Kash foiled their audatious bid to steal cones from the funnel, that would've sent the children behind them straight past the funnel and running off the edge of a cliff like Wile E. Coyote. Well done Michelle and Kash 👏

We'll be back at Acton Junior parkrun next month to cheer the runners and possibly foil more crime.

That's all folks!