Most of us met early to be assigned our roles although one turned up in the Saint Nick of time. 🎅😂

Once we were in post some of us took "Elfies" 🧝 for the report.

Not sure if Santa's Reindeer got caught short but there was some 💩 on the course which required extra vigilant marshaling to help runners avoid messy accidents. Apart from that the track was relatively hazard free and we got 240 runners safely round.

We then made our way to the cafe for a little natter and a snack including a slice of Colin the Red Nosed Caterpillar cake.

Merry Christmas GGR 🌲🥳

The Goodgym team return again to the wonderful Epping Forest Ultra, hosted by grassroots race directors Camino Ultra London (check out the rest of their events here: https://www.caminoultra.com/). And we thankfully brought some glorious Autumnal sunshine with us!

Lorna, Caroline, James and Sharon lent a helping hand with Camino race director Darren and Tricia early in the morning, setting up an aid station at Butler's Retreat Lodge (Chingford) before the 50km and 25km runners come by. A simple, fool proof layout of a marquee, tables full of water, electrolytes and loads of snacks for hungry runners coming by!

Former aid station volunteers Simon and Dan ran the 25km race this year, starting at Epping Cricket Club, and passing Butler's Retreat at about mile 7 into the race. It was wonderful to be on the other side of the snack table, and to see so many Goodgym supporters willing every runner to their personal goals. Definitely recommended for anyone on the fence about trying out at 25km or 50km distance run.

Thank you so much to all of the amazing volunteers lending their efforts to creating a fantastic day out!

Keep an eye out for more aid station fun in 2025 (Lea Valley 25km and 50km coming in March).

Well, I was challenged to use the term Tea Bagging in the title - consider it done.

Its always worth putting out a call for help with the midweek shelf filling at Frenford Food Bank as you never know who might have a random day off. Joining regulars Ed and Linda were todays "randoms" Kathryn and Sharon, very helpful they were too. We soon got all the supermarket order and Scouts donations out on the shelves. There was even time to spare to do the little odd jobs of relabeling shelves and decanting big boxes of teabags into smaller portions. All rubbish quickly cleared and spare crates tidied away outside and we were done.

Nice 😊