Linda was feeling her age and a bit under the weather, regretting setting up a mission to celebrate her 200th parkrun when she had only done 199 so couldn't opt out today 😩.

Fortunately Valentines had more than enough volunteers leaving Peter and James free to offer their moral support trotting round with Linda at a much slower pace than they are used to. Ed and Sharon had been given Marshaling spots so were shouting support from their posts. Jaquie stayed behind after her run to encourage Linda over the finish line and take photos/video to prove the run got done (she also provided a commemorative "200" badge), Katherine double backed after her run to add to the support posse.

Not all were official volunteer roles but technically everyone was supporting a vulnerable older person 🤪 which is what goodgym is all about. 🤗

We then went on to "The Spoons" for a celebratory cuppa and a mini Wiggles The Caterpillar.

Husband and Wife Ed and Linda arrived at Frenford Food Bank, shortly followed by partners Natalie and Peter with Kathryn and her Mum (one day we will get her Mum to officially sign up to GG) making three GG family pairing connections.

Happy to see Simone made a welcome comeback for her second session here and sending a huge GG welcome message to Addie who completed her first GG mission today with style...I hope you found the shortcut out Addie and that we can look forward to seeing you again😁

Not sure if there were many more family connections but there was at least one Sister-in-law pairing in the other group of volunteers. Regardless of kinship the combined teams worked together like one big happy family. With so many of us working well together we got 60 packages prepared in record time. It ended up that what scheduled as a tea break ended up as a cuppa and chat which finished the session.

Peter...was there really any need to photograph Linda blowing her nose? ...every family has got one naughty character and you are definitely ours 🙄😂

Time flies.... another 6 weeks passed, so it was time to pop down to the babybank again.

The lovely Ambra joined us at our Wantead base for her first Goodgym experience - give her a cheer!

As always, Adam had bags of donated clothing waiting to be sorted sorted we arrived, with Elegia & Natalie joining us shortly after, having made their own ways there. We got stuck in sorting through it all, chatting along the way and ofcourse checking out some of the more unusual / cuter finds.

One of these days I will get round to taking a proper set of pictures, including a glimpse of the rest of the process, honestly, but for this one poster girls Ambra & Elegia will have to do 😁

• This Thursday 5/3, Foodbank at Frenfords
• Next group run 16/3
• Next babybank session currently 20/4, but might be brought forward since there is lots to do
• Most Saturdays - Valentines Parkrun (Linda's 200th on 14th!)

AJ got on her bike, in recording breaking warm weather, to We Don’t Waste to assist with partner agencies pick up. There was also a whole pallet box (aka a ‘Gaylord’) weighing in at 1,284lbs (584kg) which consisted solely of ‘BeBo’s Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal’ energy bars which all had to be transferred to smaller containers for distribution - that was a lot of energy bars!

In the absence of our own rose (Linda had to pull out) we ended up finding our own!

The weather turned cold and miserable pretty quickly once the sun went down, so just the 2 regulars remained.

This time we went the other way round to Redbridge roundabout. grass had gotten too wet and slippery to climb the slopes to continue clearing the hidden stash of beer bottles, but we still ended up filling 6 bags, a paint bucket and adding more car parts to the existing piles.

Next round, 2 March - Babybank!

Valentines day fell on a Saturday... so a few extra numbers were to be expected at Valentines Parkrun. Not sure anyone could have predicted this volume though...

After a surprise surge last year, with numbers doubling the usual attendance, the main crew planned well to be able to cope with things this year. So well organised, no need for more people to sign up for volunteering, including Goodgym crew.

Ofcourse Ed is the exception to that, since he is very much part of the core parkrun volunteers - he took up his usual position marshaling the main car park. Linda joined Ed to give him a hand while I joined another regular, Liz, at the 2nd car park.

James, Julia & Jenny braved the crowds and ran, while Sharon took her time walking round and taking selfies with people (you might recognise a famous face in some pics...)

A few of the pictures give a hint of how busy it was, even early on - the queue to pose with the parkrun sign was significant at 8.30... not sure I'd want to know the toilet queues at any point! Guess the main indicator how extremely busy it became was when there was a 1/4 mile queue for the tokens and thus finish line... just about everyone was happily chatting & socialising making their way to the end though

So.... in case you were wondering, number... Normal attendance at Valentines is about 350-450, today at event #715 the finishers seem to total.... 2331

Huge admiration and compliments to the Parkrun crew for sorting it all out