Maidenhead parkrun #277 meets GoodGym Community Mission #535...and a deer!

After GoodGym sessions we always write a run report, and one of the jobs on the parkrun volunteer roster that we were invited to sign up for was Run Report Writer. So we decided to roll the GoodGym and parkrun reports into one, et voila! Thanks to GoodGym member Kelley Sharpe for the wonderful photos above. There are also many more great shots posted on the Maidenhead parkrun Facebook page by Colin Webb.

A big thank you to Run Director Ed Dimmock and all the other volunteers on the roster for welcoming 15+ GoodGymers to help out at Maidenhead parkrun this week. Congratulations also to Ed on his 50th turn as Run Director, an impressive recent milestone that he's kept very quiet.

Now for the numbers bit...

There were 296 runners today, including 12 first timers and 21 tourists. Congratulations to those runners celebrating milestones today: Andy Broadbent, Mark Halton and Louise Rawlings all achieved 50 parkruns and Sally Gaines and Sarah Simms each reached the big 100. Sarah also helped out as a barcode scanner today - her 25th time as a volunteer.

Adam and Lara Bennett from Maidenhead Athletic Club were the first man and lady to finish with times of 18.19 and 21.11 respectively. GoodGym's very own Juli Wood achieved the highest age grade with a score of 76.94% - go Juli! 29 runners (10% of the field) achieved a PB today.

And a few other things that made today's parkrun deer to our hearts...

• Marshal Matt Snelling had to deal with a deer crossing the path. Matt reported that he was stag-gered to see the animal. Was this a first for Maidenhead? We have no i-deer!

• We had cake, and lots of it! Thank you to Juli, Georgeta, Tessa, Claire, Tara, and Ruth, who all contributed to GoodGym's cake and sweets table. Everything was deer-licious and beautifully presented with GoodGym flags, colours and the logo written in fawn-dant icing! Oh deer, I doe apologise, we have a bit of a pun tradition at GoodGYm...

• Today was the first outing for our beautiful GoodGym flag, which Sheila whipped up earlier in the week. Thanks to Georgeta for taking it home after the event for some finishing touches.

• We were also delighted to have our mascot doll Goodie joining us today, and she loved hanging around the cake table and meeting lots of new faces (and hopefully future GoodGymers!) Goodie was crocheted by the very talented Claire Hobson. We wonder if she'll be running the Reading half along with Claire tomorrow?

• Our tail walkers today had two real tails! Extra kudos to one of them, Sophie Lack's dog Leah, for sporting a black GoodGym t-shirt. By all accounts today's tail walking crew had quite the adventure, racing to catch up with the field after the person they were initially back-marking opted for just one lap.

All the feedback from GoodGymers this morning was that they had a blast. Dean summed it up when he reported: 'Absolutely loved today, a real party atmosphere, I nearly lost my voice!' He was right, we had all the ingredients for a great party: exceptional hosts, friends old and new, loads of cake, dancing with DJ Rumble at Lynn's Lookout, and unlike last weekend there was no rein-deer!

If you're reading this as a parkrunner who is new to GoodGym, then you might be wondering who we are. GoodGym is a charity whose members combine getting fit with volunteering in our local community. We run, walk and cycle to help out charities and community projects with tasks like weeding, painting and sorting donations.

Check out our GoodGym Windsor and Maidenhead home page to see what we've been up to recently and to browse our upcoming events. We love to welcome new participants and it is easy to get involved. You just need to be over 18, and you can get started by registering on our website. There is no minimum time commitment, fitness level or specialist equipment needed to take part.

If you have any questions about GoodGym or know of a charity of community project that needs our help, please get in touch with amylovell@goodgym.org.