A strong team of 6 GoodGymers came today to support a big group of Pitshanger junior parkrunners and got a shout out from the run director Amanda. The word "GoodGym" caused a nice applause as opposed to silence after the mention of the lost property.

"Quality merchandise!" - David

There were no takers for the two lost hoodies. Maybe the runners prefer to take home other things? Read on!

Harvey was spared the pressure of the timekeeping after running the London Marathon in reverse overnight. He joined the GoodGym cohort of marshals, alongside Afsar, Anuj, Madiha and Sevan.

Kash stayed at the start and helped set up just a little bit wonky funnel, then assumed the barcode scanning role alongside another volunteer, Christina. The two scanners had to handle a whopping 90 barcodes - probably a record number of attendees since the pandemic! They tried to get ahead of time and started sorting the tokens from the very beginning of the scanning process. The brilliant idea fired back at them when a couple of tokens were blown away by a sudden gust of wind. The scanners retrieved the barcodes quickly but at the end they discovered that number three was still missing. It was nowhere to be found in the grass. Maybe someone took it home?

The final round of the annual Hobbayne Quiz was in sight and the GoodGym team's strongest dishwashers were substituted into action to help bring order to the kitchen. Madiha and Afsar joined the team, bringing their ceramic scrubing prowess to join forces with Divya.

There was an ongoing struggle to keep the dirty dishes in check as 90-odd of them flowed into the kitchen and piled up on the counters. The dishwasher was loaded, then Kash initially started hand washing while the others took up the offer of chicken or chickpea curry. Once they were powered back up, the whole team went to soak, scrub and dry normal sized plates and commercial sized cookware. Always the most fun part of the night.

While the scrubbing dream team continued hand washing and reloading the dishwasher, Kash, Penny and Sevan were dispatched on the down low to clear the tables of any rubbish.

Then another clandestine task, to find good homes for portions of leftover chickpea curry, as there wasn't enough for everyone to have seconds. Individual tables were asked and had takeaway containers delivered to them. The foil containers were spotted though by sharp eyed people from other tables, who waved to ask about the possibility of left overs too.

Soon, the results of the quiz were announced and the evening started to wrap up. A final sweep was made for rubbish, with the guests helping to clear their tables. All that was left to do was fold up the tables, stack the chairs and pack away the tuck shop.

The organisers went home happy that everyone had had a great evening and no food had been wasted. The GoodGym team had contributed to both of those achievements, including by taking home their own shiny packages of curry for tomorrow's lunch or dinner.