Wet Wet Wet - mud is all around

We couldn't feel our fingers, we couldn't feel our toes....! Shout out to Dharmesh and Phil for the pun title this week!

16 GoodGymers from across London took over all the volunteering roles at Hackney Marshes parkrun with a smile this weekend. Hackney Marshes is a favourite parkrun course for many GoodGymers as the flat course along the canalside is fast, beautiful and very friendly. So GoodGym were keen to give something back and help out parkrun for the takeover.

Eva arrived extra early to help run director Megan get everything set up, laying out cones, marking out the finish funnel and putting out the signs. Then more and more volunteers arrived to get stuck in.

Liz, Mireille, Sooz and Hilary headed out to their various marshalling spots around the course. Sooz had hand-picked her spot to give the speediest getaway afterwards to watch the second half of the rugby final!

The runners arrived and everyone was looking pretty chirpy about being up and about early on a soggy Saturday morning. Megan gave the runners briefing with a great shout out to GoodGym, and then they were off!

With 261 people running in the rain this week the marshals had their work cut our for them cheering everyone on keeping the runners motivated! Steve was pacing 27 minutes so he took off with the crowd, which also included visiting GoodGymers Rita from Haringey and Vicki from Barnet who came among to run the course and say hello! As tail walker, Carol walked round at the end, chatting to those who wanted to take a slower pace.

Back at the finish line, Clair and Rob were timekeeping, Phil was handing out finish tokens, Bea was keeping everyone in order in the funnel and Eva was checking the timing and tokens were in perfect sync.

Marshal John was on hand to send everyone over to the Marshes Centres, where Danny, Steve and Frankie were ready to scan all the barcodes and get everyone into the system. They had the best jobs as they were inside and out of the rain! Dharmesh then pounced on them to recruit them for future volunteering slots as the volunteer roster was looking a bit slim in the coming weeks.

Once the runners had all finished, the group helped to pack things up and went for a tea with the parkrun team while the results were processed. Everything was in order, nice work team!