It was chilly but the sun was out for a glorious parkrun morning today. We have an amazing amount of volunteers as some people were saving themselves for the Nantwich 10k run that is taking place on Sunday. I was the Run Director (RD) today with Fin Dobson in as shadow RD as he increasing his confidence of speaking to the runners and learning the duties involved. 278 people took part today plus 34 volunteers, great support was given to the runners and everyone was reminded by me that it’s international happiness day on Thursday the 20th of March so I challenged people to be happy all week. There was a lovely buzz around the park, the fact that spring is trying to arrive meant the flowers are starting to bloom and the tree blossom starting to bloom. The cafe terrace was full with people enjoying a well deserved beverage.

That had to be a record litter-picking haul this week! Five super GoodGymmers spent a chilly Wednesday evening covering a very small area but making an enormous impact - ten huge bags of rubbish collected in 80 minutes! Takeaway wrappers and cups definitely topped the list, followed by bottles and hairnets from a local food factory. The award for strangest item found goes to Mark, we're all still puzzled by the large jar's contents - possibly pickled foods, although it bore a strong resemblance to brains!

Well done to Maurice, Marjo, Mark, Nigel and Karen - a very rewarding evening's work where we could really see the results. An enjoyable evening too in lovely company, and its fair to say that Marjo really enjoyed the evening and will be back!

As the Run Director (RD) today I got to the park nice and early to make sure the conditions of the course were ok to go ahead. The beauty of getting there at this time is the park is almost empty, the sun was raising, the swans, geese and ducks were in fine voice welcoming the start of the new day. Today was International Women’s day so we made sure we gave a big shout out to all the women attending today, whether this be running, spectating or marshalling. I shared my RD duties with Fin who has completed all the other volunteer roles and this was his first time in this role. Although he is 16, Fin is very mature and carried out the responsibilities without a hitch although he was a little nervous about using the microphone to speak to all those running. Today we had over 360 runners, the conditions were great for running and there were a lot of personal bests. I was very fortunate to be supported by a great team of marshals that made the morning run without a hitch. After we packed up it was time for a well deserved coffee in the cafe and a chat to friends who I’ve been lucky enough to make through Parkrun and Goodgym.

A great turnout at Crewe parkrun by the GoodGym gang!

Karen and Nicola teamed up as timekeepers, Karen also "meeted and greeted" the volunteers and made sure everyone know what to do; Nigel was on course set-up; Mark welcomed first timers with a description of the course and how parkrun works; Marjo was our star baker; and Marjo, Nigel, Emily, Maurice and Kat all did the "gym" bit of GoodGym by completing their favourite 5k of the week.

Well done everyone!

After 2 weeks enforced break due to Jack Frost, it was great to be back in the park again. Mark was Run Director today, and led a great event for 359 partucipants and an incredible 40 volunteers! Mark really took it in his stride when he found the pacer bibs had gone missing, but the show must go on - and there were lots of happy people grateful for the pacers today. Reports of PBs were incoming!

Mark was tasked with getting photos - he's such a shy retiring type we were surprised to get lots of selfies of him with the other volunteers! Not! Lol. His main task was to get a pic of camera-shy Nicola carrying out the first timers welcome - pleased Mark did get a pic for us! Marjo completed one of the most popular but longest tasks at parkrun today - the lovely token-sorting task, accompanied by coffee, after completing her parkrun. Well done Marjo!

Well done Mark, Nicola and Marjo - you made a lot of people happy today.

What a way to start 2025! 323 parkrunners and 30 volunteers - including 7 GoodGymmers - all leapt out of bed to join this special parkrun. This week the 7 Goodgymmers carried out the following roles: event set up, volunteer coordinator, first timers welcome, timekeeper, barcode scanner, number checker, course close down, token sorting, and the all important roles - participants! Why else are we all here?! Another lovely morning with lovely people, well done everyone.