James, Karen and Becky took a short pause from eating chocolate eggs to volunteer at Junior parkrun on a crisp easter morning.

With well over 100 juniors it was a busy parkrun. Must be the parents getting the kids out to burn some energy before a day of feasting on sugary treats.

James did a superb job as Run Director and did GoodGym proud, knowing most kids by first name, including lots of kids in the warm up crew and learning from the kids how to use the loud speaker.

Becky accurately did her job as time keeper, maybe for the first time ever, while Karen was a marshal on the course encouraging the kids and keeping them safe.

Certainly an eggcellent time had by all.

St John's Lye Heathland 🌳

This was our 2nd task of the day and once again we would join up with WeAct 🌍 to assist them with expanding the heathland by removing invasive saplings.

Wayne, Karen, & Adam were coming straight from Junior park run. Wayne drove to the Lye as he had to get away earlier than the rest of the team, Karen &Adam ran the 3k to the meeting point.

Anne & Agathe met along the canal at WWF an ran the 2.5k route. We all arrived at pretty much the same time. We met up with Charlie and his team after a brief of what we were going to do we walked to the heathland.

After a 7 mins walk we arrived to a shocking scene. There has been a fire over the last few days as WeAct were at the site at the beginning of the week and it was clear. The grounds were black with Ash and burnt grass heathland. Hayden from WeAct said it could have been started deliberately or was natural as it had been very dry recently.

WeAct had done some prep work already as they had cut and piled up silver birches which were over taking the heathland. We started to process them by cutting them back and making wild hedage fence. Anne, Karen, & Agathe were part of this team. Adam apart from running wanted an arm and shoulder workout 👊 so got stuck into removing some tree stumps Wayne was using his weaving skills to build up the hedge as well as putting in steaks to extend the line of the hedge fence.

While working away conversation started about Karen 3 week trip to Machu Picchu when she flys out on Thursday. Sounds amazing and we are looking forward to seeing photo's and hikes and following Karen on Strava 😊.

Withing an hour the hedge had grown and Adam was looking like the Hulk 🤣.

We have a few outdoor tasks coming up over the next few weeks with WeAct 🌍 which have been listed as part of Goodgym's Working in Nature partnership with WWF.

Woking Junior Park Run

Woking Junior Park Run returned this morning after last weeks Surrey 1/2 Marathon had taken over the park. It was great seeing the faces of the young runners who also took part last Sunday for the Kids Race showing off their medals 🥇

Wayne, Karen, Adam, & Caterina were out on the course as marshals cheering and encouraging the runners around the 2k course. Even though the sky's were gray it was great conditions to run 😊

In total this morning there were 131 runners with the fastest time an amazing 07:00. There were also 62 PB's greatrunning 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!