Worthing GoodGym kicked off the new year in style by supporting our parkrun friends in putting on the bonus New Years Day parkrun. This is parkrun’s 20th year - I’m sure we’ll be involved in various of their events through 2024.

We started, and we finished

As usual GoodGym provided support from start to finish. John took charge of setup, taking particular care to ensure that the funnel was set in favour of the number checker - he didn’t want the number checker to have to move further than absolutely necessary.

Belinda took the “brief” out of the briefing with an unusually long winded and rambling tale entitled “The history of all what I have done at parkrun”. It was all in a good cause - to celebrate the 100th volunteering of someone instrumental in the setting up of Worthing parkrun. The importance of these early drivers of the events can easily be forgotten as they become established.

Sue’s role was much more than a token gesture. The delivery of those finish tokens plays such an important role, especially on busy days like today when keeping the runners moving through the funnel is so important.

The rest of the GoodGym gang dived in to help with the clear down after running. It was important that we achieved this as efficiently as possible - speed was of the essence to enable the defibrillator provider to stand down. (Big thanks to South Downs Leisure - a great supporter of both GoodGym and parkrun locally).

Sarah began her good deed year in her own particular style - accessory holding whilst Craig completed the “dismantling the flag” task. Ryan and Ricky headed off to gather in the tape that feeds runners towards the finish line - well, that’s what the runners are told. It’s really a short cut prevention method.

More reliable than Accuweather

Ricky seemed particularly delighted to see Sarah! “Why?” He was asked. “Because it’s obvious it won’t rain then…….” And well done on your PB Ricky!

Holding out for a hero

As Run Director Belinda oversaw the processing of the results - some dodging, dropping and ducking created a few challenges. The number checker was declared hero of the day for their immaculately recorded information enabling correct times to be issued.

How many?

With our support a whopping 465 runners achieved their fastest time of the year.