Easter Sunday and Goodgym had an egg-stra special Easter mission at Acton Junior Parkrun : all ran to the Park to welcome children between 4 to 14 years old. We had loads of Junior Parkrun eggs-pert today : Florian and Alan were on tokens, Chikako was a Guide runner, Jon and Steph Ducat were marshals. What an egg-citing day for the children as eggs were given out at the finish line.We had some fast runners today and some parents were just eggs-hausted trying to keep up with them. There was enough eggs for all the children, some parents and the volunteers : we now need to eggs-ercise off all this chocolate.Happy Easter everyone.

GoodGym Ealing were volunteering at their regular monthly session with Acton Junior parkrun today. Joanna, who was Run Director, was on her best behaviour as Barry, the parkrun Regional Ambassador for North West London, was visiting 🫡

As usual, GoodGymers were present all around the course. With Sevan at marshal point 1, Chikako as the VI Guide and Steph tailwalking and highfiving (should that be an official role?) children at the turnaround points. In the funnel, Chris was dishing out finish tokens while Kash and Louise were scanning the barcodes back in.

At the start, Joanna added an extra twist following the warm up. A high speed version of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to raise the runners heart rates before they set off. It made the warm up way more interactive and might have contributed to some new PBs!

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GoodGymers from Ealing, Hounslow and Newham were at Acton Junior parkrun today, where the glorious spring morning brought 66 finishers to the park. The 8 GoodGym volunteers came to the park for some sunbathing, then decided to help out when they saw that Junior parkrun was on. Joanna was the Run Director, Harvey was marshalling, Chikako took the role of the VI guide and tail walking duties were shared by Steph and Louise, who was very excited to wear the be-tailed orange hi-vis. In the funnel, Michelle was handing out finish tokens before Kash and Sevan scanned barcodes.

On the weekend of International Womens' Day, 2 of the top 4 finishers were girls again. A common occurrence at Acton Juniors. What was really encouraging at the finish was that they and their parents were praising and encouraging each other, commenting how the other was pushing them onwards due to how consistently similar their performances were. It was great to see them trying to achieve more themselves and also to help their fellow runner do the same.

Acton Junior parkrun were happy to welcome GoodGymers this morning across different roles to support the 54 finishers. Florian, Michelle and Sevan were marshalling, Alan and Kash barcode scanning and Chris was learning how to be a timekeeper, guided by an experienced traveller from Sheffield.

Chris had a surprise up her sleeve too. She had secretly worked her way up to 50 good deeds. So secretly, in fact, that no one else at parkrun from Ealing or Hounslow was aware of it. Not even Chris, as it turned out. Well done Chris! You can now request a snazzy black GoodGym t-shirt, perfect for evening soirée volunteering 👏🎉.

The runners were having fun too. Some more than others. One boy reported doing the crab walk all around the course 🦀, half of the distance one way, then switching direction to ensure his crabbing muscles had an equal workout. The last runner was enjoying herself too. By the end though, her style was being cramped by her older brother who'd finished a while earlier. He followed her repeating "Run faster. Run faster. Hurry up. Hurry up" until she eventually crossed the line. Charming.

Steph and Sevan were volunteering at Acton Junior parkrun again this morning. It turned out to be a bumper event, with 81 finishers, close to their record attendance and similar to summer numbers.

Two of the first 3 finishers were girls today and there was one runner who loved it so much that they didn't want to stop. Sevan and the other timekeeper guided them into the funnel, but they ran right past it and on for another lap. Their mum shouted at them to come back and eventually, they noticed and turned around, finishing around 30 seconds later.

Steph was tailwalking and had to keep the last runner entertained and motivated to finish the course. He had to be creative, using all of his attributes, including his leopard tail and lion socks to encourage the child to walk, jog or run all the way to the line.

Sunshine on tarmac and cheers that quicken
Bright crisp hi-vis and foam hands as mittens
Neat finish tokens tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite parkrun things

When the mud slides
When the cold clings
When I'm feeling drowned
I simply remember my favorite parkrun things
And then I don't feel so bad

It was pretty wet and miserable at Acton Junior parkrun this morning and bets were being taken on how many children would actually take part. Guesses ranged from 6 to 12. The children proved us wrong though as 20 of them ran the distance. Well done Kash for being the most optimistic!

The volunteers too were troopers, adding some humour into less than ideal conditions. Most were varying degrees of wet. Around the course there were:

• Sevan: Marshalling. Wet feet
• Kash: Barcode scanning. Wet all over
• Alan: Timekeeping. Wet jeans and wet phone, meaning some extra runners were recorded
• Chikako: VI Guide. Wet feet
• Joanna: Marshalling. Not wet in her signature DryRobe 💡