On a hot, sunny morning*, I made my way to Bexley parkrun meeting point, but it became clear that my knees were not going to carry me 5k.

Next best thing - offer my services as a volunteer! My offer being duly accepted, I was posted to “Joe’s Corner “.

For those of you familiar with Bexley parkrun, Joe is known for being a stalwart of the event. He’s also famous for providing Jelly Babies as participants near the finishing line.

So imagine the disappointment as runners exited the woods and awaiting them was a marshal devoid of all sugary pick-me-ups!

My role was best described by one of the runners, “You’re doing a good job, but where are the Jelly Babies?”.

It's back to Run Director duties next Saturday for me, but lesson learned for future marshaling occasions!

*The photo is an old one, on a rather colder, wetter day!

Today’s Bexley parkrun was #666 but there was more good than evil, as the sun shone for a change over Danson Park. As Run Director I’m pleased to report another successful parkrun and trust all runners, walkers and volunteers had an enjoyable meeting.

Every week parkrun relies on volunteers to make it happen. There's always a wonderful community spirit and you don't need to be a runner to get involved. If you're wondering what all the hype is about, sign up to give it a go and see for yourself!

An opportunity arose to add to my various volunteer roles at Bexley parkrun, by donning the pale blue hi-viz vest as a parkwalker. My knees have been playing up so a 5k walk around Danson Park was just the ticket.

parkwalking has for some time been promoted by parkrun HQ, so it was nice to join up with some other walkers, one recovering from an achilles injury and two ladies, relatively new to parkrun, who were enjoying their Saturday morning stroll 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️.

The walk completed, I made my way to Chestnuts to join other volunteers for a coffee ☕️.

In a couple of weeks we are helping the Community Hospice collect donations alongside Bexley Rotary Club's much loved Santa Sleigh. Our task this evening was delivering leaflets to houses along the route so they knew when Santa will be visiting their street.

It was an earlier-than-usual start as we were heading for our Xmas meal straight after the task.

We set off briskly, admiring the Christmas lights and decorations as we weaved our way in and out of driveways. On route we arrived at the Xmas House ablaze with lights and it's own Santa sleigh 🛷 🎅🏻 on the roof! What a spectacle!

After photos we carried on with the leaflets, racing around the roads to cover as much ground as possible. Unfortunately Manish had an encounter with an excited pup 🐶 and needed to get some medical advice. We wish him well and hope to see him soon.

Leaflets delivered, it was on to our Xmas social where there was lots of merriment and celebrations. We have had an excellent year at GoodGym Bexley and as we reflected over the achievements we all raised our glasses 🍷. Sarah is very near to completing her 500 good deeds - wow what an awesome achievement! Massive well done to her!

Johnny won the GG quiz and Lisa came second! Well done to them! We even got our dancing on Tik Tok!

We can't wait for the next party night!

Manish and myself were part of the high-viz team volunteering at Bexley parkrun this morning. Manish is one of our new members and was making his parkrun debut as a barcode scanner. A very foggy morning awaited us, but did not dampen our morning. Two GG members were running in the event, Sue Lee and Lisa Baxter; congratulations to Lisa who was running her 250th pr event.