Today's Acton Junior parkrun was full of changes as usual. Before the start, there were lots of swaps being discussed, with a few of the GoodGymers wishing that that could take someone else's role. Harvey could have done without the pressure of time keeping and Maria, who was tail walking, wasn't in the mood for grumpy or crying children today.

Kash and Sevan were pretty content marshalling, along with Hassan who was up bright and early for his first good deed. Hassan had joined for a social run earlier in the year and was back today to help the Junior parkrun run smoothly. Welcome to GoodGym! 👏🥳. Finally, Joanna was cool as a cucumber, time keeping alongside Harvey, trying to ease the pressure.

The main drama was a Greener Ealing van that decided to invade the course and was moved on by the Run Director just in time for the runners to get going. The driver said that they were in the park every Sunday morning, so they should already have known to stay out of the way. Even Maria had a quiet time today as all of the children were happy to be running around the course, from the front of the field to the back.

A lot of the chat before Acton Junior parkrun this morning was around the Winter Olympics. Who's seen the opening ceremony? Who'd been firing themselves down an ice flume on a tea tray at 120kmph? Who had the most impressive or least practical outfits at the opening ceremony? Had the GoodGym team been in training for today's parkrun?

"Timekeepers, are you ready?" - Run Director
"Yes, my thumbs are ready."
"They've been in training."
"They're at peak performance, ready to record times!" - Sevan

The rest of the team were ready too, with gold standard marshalling by Maria, Harvey, Chris and Steph. Lightening fast barcode scanning by Joanna... and dependably slow tail walking by Kash.

There weren't any 120kmph performances today and thankfully no ice either, so the 61 finishers made it safely around the track. The first finisher recorded a more sedate, yet still impressive 14.52kmph (or 8:15).

Acton Junior parkrun this morning coincided with Harvey's task to donate old running shoes to Jog On. It resulted in a great haul of well worn trainers which will be saved from landfill. A lot of the runners must've been wearing speedy new shoes then, with the first runner finishing in a PB of 7:41 on the hilly course.

Unusually, no GoodGymers were volunteering in the funnel. A marshal shortage meant that Harvey, Joanna, Tom, Steph, Maria, Kash and Sevan were dotted around the marshal point on the course.

"Is there a marathon on today?" - Park goer

There was no marathon. Instead, a 2km run completed by 53 brilliant children.

Acton Junior parkrun's roster was overflowing with volunteers today. So much so that there were 5 (yup, five!) tail walkers who included Kash. She was disappointed that today's Run Director, Joanna, didn't assign her the orange tail walker hi-vis with the leopard's tail. Maybe next time...

Most of the ice around the course had melted by the time the runners got going, so the black ice warning cones, placed during the course check, were redundant. They looked like they were randomly placed for the children to slalom through and dance around. They left marshals Steph and Sevan a bit confused too.

There were more confused people on the course too as 3 adult men showed up after the start and asked if they were late for the start of today's parkrun. They may have been young at heart, but Sevan explained that today's event was for children only and they should head to Gunnersbury Park next Saturday. Not counting the 3 men, 45 other young hearts enjoyed today's free, organised parkrun, whizzing past Harvey who recorded their times and Alan who dished out finish tokens to the happy finishers.

Cold but sunny Sunday morning with the sun on the horizon in a frosty park, but this did not stop the 29 children to turn up and run with parents. Volunteers were present with gloves, hats, extra layers and warm coats to keep warm. Some icy patches near the roundabout, but that was it on the course. The ground was hard and the pond was frozen. Alan, Michelle and Steph Ducat were marshals today. Michelle had a new position we did not know about - the one near the logs on the path going up to the top of the park. Joanna was at the finish line giving tokens. Everybody survived the cold and went back safely to their next occupations.

Sunny morning and just over 40 juniors attended parkrun this morning. Goodgymers helped setup before going to their positions for the run. Marshals today were Harvey and [Steph Ducat](/v3/profile/stephane-vessaud. Maria was on tokens with Joanna at the finish funnel. Joanna also on communions. The junior parkrunners started to wear Xmas tops and socks like sone of the marshals. Xmas is coming. There was also a person playing guitar at the bottom of the course.

Maria , Steph Ducat and Harveyarrived early as ran to the park, so helped setup the course, mainly around the roundabout. we out signs up and Harvey did a course check. Alan arrived and joined the crew. While we were waiting for the children, a small girl arrived with her special necklace....a princess necklace which was going to help her with her running. Apparently she would not come without it : so we had a princess on the course.Maria then did the warm up: well done!! Joannaand the others were marshalling around the course which saw roughly 50 finish the course on a sunny chilly morning.

At Acton Junior parkrun this morning, there was a debate over shorts or not as it felt a lot chillier than previous days. There were still a lot of children having fun in their short sleeves who clearly hadn't felt the change in seasons yet and 48 in total finished the 2km run.

Mostly wrapped up warm, 5 GoodGymers were on the volunteer roster to help the event run smoothly. Maria and Sevan were marshalling, Alan timekeeping and Joanna was handing out finish tokens.

Kash was today's tailwalker and had the most exciting role. When the last child dropped out with 500m to go, she sprang into action, transforming from having a cheetah's tail on her tailwalker high-vis into an actual cheetah. She hunted down the next child who was much further around the course, finishing with them to allow the event pack up to begin. "Great running" as the marshals say 🏃.