Matt, the Run Director at Gunnersbury parkrun gave GoodGym a big shout out at the pre-run briefing as we had 6 volunteers around the course this morning. We also had 6 familiar faces running the course too.

Before the parkrun started, we celebrated Michelle's amazing achievement of 700 good deeds. She is often found running or cycling all over Hounslow and Ealing boroughs to do good, with special guest appearances in other parts of London too, She was given a "700" rosette, which led one parkrunner to ask if it was Michelle's birthday 😳

Back to the parkrun, Steph and Jon were marshalling, Michelle was handing out finish tokens and Kash, Harvey and Sevan were barcode scanning. While Harvey was running the course, Michelle, Kash and Sevan helped set up the funnel, then waited for the first finishers to appear.

The Run Director was very insistent that all of the barcode scanners need to stand in a line, facing in a specific direction and not, in any circumstance, turn to face the funnel. Matt said that he would guide the runners to us. Kash and Sevan stuck to the instructions, waiting to serve the finishers. Harvey, when he joined them, also automatically took his position in the line facing south 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️

First a dribble, then a flood, finishing with a long tail. In all, Michelle's fast fingers dished out 682 tokens which the barcode scanners needed to process. Most of the runners were pleased with their times or if not, at least happy that they'd managed to finish in the unexpectedly warm weather.

At the end of the task, the group headed to the café in the park to eat Michelle's 700th birthday cake and talk about Lithuanian courting traditions 💑

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...

An important role for GoodGym at today's Ealing Mile - chalking out directions around the course.

Then it rained.

Then it rained some more.

Now, the chalk wasn't washed away, but the need for directions changed to a need for warning of wet pavements and wet feet ahead.

Next, we marshalled around the course.

Then the sun came out.

But it was still wet.

The traditional role of marshals is to point runners in the right direction and offer encouragement. Today, we proferred warnings not to cut the corner too tight so as to avoid the muddy patch as the runners swept round the u-bend.

Then the sun came out.

Then it got quite nice, actually. See you next month, Ealing Mile@