Only Me

This is week three of our January GoodGym support month for parkrun. Unusually, with Belinda off on a clandestine, top secret mission, I ventured down to parkrun alone assisting in the finish funnel setup. After the funnel was set and chatting all things GoodGym with anyone who was interested I headed off to the start.

Please tell

What! You don't want to hear about my morning?You want me to tell you what Belinda was up to? I can't! It's top secret! Oh, go on then...........

A secret spilled

It started with a pre 5am alarm. A quick check on current travel conditions allowed a half hour snooze to be initiated. Once up and ready Belinda headed out to her car and set off in the direction of

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January Saturdays have become parkrun support days for Worthing GoodGym. Today saw six of us turning out in the cold to support with setup, barcode scanning, number checking and Tail Walking.

Wedded bliss

Of the set up three, two knew they had volunteered, but one who wasn't so sure declared “I guess this is what married life will be like”! Our two GoodGym tailwalkers on the other hand squabbled like they’d been married for years.

Getting Going

On setup we had three GoodGymers. With limited damage to equipment and minimal supervision necessary Sarah and Ryan set up the finish funnel and erected the flag.

What a nit!

Paul had prepared properly for his number checking role wearing a hat he had knitted himself. The hidden talents of our GoodGym friends never ceases to amaze.

Not a time keeper

Slightly less well prepared late arrival Anne was fortunately on barcode scanning, so tardiness was of little concern. In fact Anne may have demonstrated a level of wiseness way above the rest of us. She spent less time out in the cold.

A rather feathery tail

Gulliver, the Worthing parkrun mascot, had offered to tailwalk with the capable, nay outstandingly able, support team of John and Belinda - the latter forced out of her wheelchair so that Gulliver could travel in style.

Running the distance

Ryan and Sarah ran the course, joined by Jay meaning we racked up another 25K towards the January challenge. How's that for a maths puzzle?

Making the finish line

Not the parkrun finish, the finish of this run report! If you’ve made it this far, well done. The important news to share here is that one of the six volunteers celebrated their 300th Good Deed today. Well, not exactly celebrated. More just got on with things as normal. Monday is the right time to celebrate.

As we do every year, GoodGym provided support for the first Worthing parkrun of the 2025. Assistance was provided with set up and take down, with Belinda directing proceedings from her chair.

On a day when the sun and rain were determinedly trying (and sadly failing) to create a rainbow, John and Belinda headed out to support our local Pride parkrun. On the day of Worthing Pride we always try to bring as much colour to the promenade as we can - a fitting precursor, we hope, to the popular parade. With Sue, Paul and John running GoodGym was well represented today.

Starting a busy weekend of volunteering for the Worthing Team - volunteering at parkrun today as a precursor to a long day supporting Runfest tomorrow.

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.