GoodGym Ealing's first group run to the Polygon, linked to St Mary's church, took each of the runners back to their childhood. Waiting outside, they wondered what they'd find inside and thought about memories from when they were little.

"[The toys] will probably be sticky" - Freya

They were welcomed by task owner Wei Hei, who introduced them to the jobs for this evening. There were tiny chairs to clean, there were small kitchen toys to be washed and there were big puzzles to be solved. Each big kid chose the task that they would enjoy the most.

Harvey and Freya took the tiny chairs outside into the sun to scrub them down and let them dry. They were careful to not use too little, nor too much detergent as they were warned. Too much would lead to an explosion of bubbles that couldn't be rinsed away, but the pair got it just right.

Conor and Jo went into the adult sized kitchen to wash the play kitchen equipment, cleaning plates, toasters and slices of pizza. By the time they were done, the plastic food was ready to be chewed on again by the children.

The final group was bigger. Maria and Chris, who made achieving his 💯th good deed look like child's play, were preparing play bags to give out during church services. They were filled with fun toys that were also quiet toys, which would keep children entertained while the adults were busy. Each bag contained a toy, a puzzle, a book and a jigsaw. Next to them, Kash and Sevan were sorting through a jumble of toys that had already been played with, getting them ready for Maria and Chris to pack, ready for another child to enjoy.

The team blitzed through all of the tasks, having a lot of fun along the way. They left Wei Hei very grateful for what they'd achieved.

"You've done more that I could have imagined."
"Thank you!" - Wei Hei

As they did such a great job, a return visit may be on the cards when the plastic pizza slices feel a bit sticky again. 🍕

As we stood under the big tree at 0850 this morning, we were wondering where everyone was, especially with the sun in the sky and dry conditions underfoot - what we did have though was a full complement of volunteers (13 today), including 6 GoodGymmers which was great news as we didn't need to go to the crowd to find a few more marshals.

Of course by five to nine the place was buzzing, and after Nick did the run briefing and led the warmup, it was time for the off and the usual mad dash to the first turning point where Hilary was on duty.

As has been the trend, a small breakaway group soon escaped the pack and were clearly determined to fight (figuratively...) to the finish, whilst everyone behind was happy just to be out on a warm Sunday morning. Passing Rob at the playground turn, Harvey at "Sarah's Tree" and Rue at "far away corner" we were soon through Lap 1, and Sooz, as Tail Walker was breaking into a trot to keep up.

A sprint finish saw our top 3 separated by only four seconds, with 1st and 3rd achieving PBs. We even had to break open the box of spare tokens as 60 happy runners crossed the finish line this morning, of which 16 were first timers to London Fields, and 13 were absolute first timers to junior parkrun...their (or their parent's) Sundays will never be the same.