*White Rose Lane Nature Reserve 🍁 *

This morning we were out in nature again assisting WeAct 🌎 at white rose lane nature reserve amongst the big Oak Trees 😄

Wayne & Anne finished volunteering at junior park run and met up with Luan at the leisure centre. From here we ran 2k to the nature reserve 🏃🏼‍♂️

The meeting place was by the bridge going over the Hoe Stream. Here we met up with Chris and the rest of the WeAct 🌎 team. It was great seeing Chris again, Luan did fantastically well running the 2k.

From the bridge we walked over to the other side of the stream where Charlie showed us what we had to do. The main job was ro remove the Himalayan Balsam which grows up to 14ft in very quick time.We also had to removed Laurel and create dead hedges.

We split up into 2 groups armed with all sorts of tools we got stuck in. Wayne & Chris started cutting the big Laural logs into smaller sections while Anne & Luan gathered the Laurel and started to build the dead hedge it was a beautiful morning to be out in the reserve ☀️.

While removing the Himalayan Balsam Anne came across a pile of old shoes under the laurels (No Matching Pairs 🤣)

Luan was loving her time out this morning and found it some interesting facts. The laurel that was cleared today wasn't native to the reserve 🌳 it was brought over in the Victorian age because it was fashionable to have green hedge leaves and branches cover the forest floor, but actually it smothers other plants and trees and shades everything so it cannot grow, hence the reason why it needs to be managed.

Half was through a well deserved cuppa was had and in no time we had done so much this area of the reserve was looking great.

We have many more out door tasks coming up please check the listings , Happy Mothers Day to all you amazing mums. 💐

On a beautiful Sunday morning, waking a bit more tired then normal having lost an hour sleep, Junior Parkrun was ready to start. On heading to Woking park, lots of children were quickly heading to the park excited to be there for their Sunday morning exercise through the park.

I arrived and Goodgymers Wayne and Anne were there already and waiting. Wayne was taking the role of marshal by the park entrance and Anne was in charge of handing the tokens to the children as they passed the finish line.

As Rich, the run director was announcing the accolades accomplished by some of the runners, one stood out for this event. Ethan, a regular runner and someone that volunteers often had reached an amazing milestone in junior parkrun history, not only had he volunteered for parkrun a great number of times; this event was his 250 junior parkrun having started from the first junior parkrun in 2017. What an amazing achievement.

After we all applauded that great achievement, wishing all the mothers a happy mother's day. And once the warm up was finished and everyone headed to the start line. James quickly made his way there as his role was time keeper. The run started and everyone made it safely too the first marshal before circling around the cricket pitch. The sun was shining brightly by this point and the wind eased off, although still a bit chilly!

It wasn't long before the first lap was completed and the children running were fully spread around the course. My role was to ensure only children went through the finish line!

The first child crossed the line in under 8 minutes, a really impressive time. There was a little gap before more children came streaming through the finish line. In total 96 children completed the 2 lap course and so the cleanup started. And well done to Wayne and Anne as they headed to their next task. 👏🏾💪🏾

Six GoodGymers, Agathe, Katie, Nadia, Rebecca, Wayne and Anne met at the Leisure Center last night. It was still light and mild, but some of us were cautious and wore an extra layer of clothing and a torch. These were useful during and after the run as it became dark and chilly! But bonus points for the optimistic runners who made us believe that spring was really with us!

Well done Wayne who had already run about 10 kms with some hill training just before meeting us at the Leisure Centre. It was great that Rebecca, despite her heavy schedule, managed to run with us. Katie has resumed her regular training with the aim of completing the upcoming Martian Race.

We started the session with a warm up and a group photo. Nadia and Anne guided the group to the planned 5 kms route as they had already done it with another running group. We all ran at a comfortable pace allowing us to chat and catch up with news.

Agathe impressed us all by completing the session without walking at all. Agathe cycles everywhere, but running is new to her.

We hope to see you at junior parkrun this coming Sunday. Or you might prefer helping out WEAct making Woking a healthier, greener place for us all? We will remove brambles and thinning out holly shrubs? See the diary for more details.

Happy running to you all.