Run director Rue seemingly had almost everything perfectly under control at about 0850 this morning (tokens aside...ahem), and as we discussed between us all where to deploy our helpful volunteer team, including GoodGymmers Hilary, Nick and Kitty (on her GG debut!), around the course, a mass of little people seemed to arrive from all directions and we momentarily when into slight chaos mode as it suddenly felt like we were in the school dining hall and fielding questions from all directions!

However, like all the great masterpieces, once he'd picked up the baton to conduct today's proceedings everything seemingly fell back into place, and any fracture lines were quickly covered over as if it was all intended. One of our newest volunteers, Evie, led today's warmup, which certainly got both participants and onlookers hearts racing...and then it was 3-2-1 go.

38 enthusiastic runners took on the the slightly muddy 2 laps today, including 6 first timers, and our first runner home was crossing the line in a very impressive 8:17, with another 7 posting PBs - excellent work by all concerned, and thank you as always to all of today's volunteers.

See you next week under the big tree for more fun at the Fields.

It might have been a real feel of -7 degrees, but that didn't put off six brave GoodGym-ers who started the year off right by assembling to tackle some planters near Maryland that needed a refresh. The local community has been working hard to brighten up an area around Henniker Point, tackling flytipping and littering by setting up some planters and growing trees, flowers and even edible plants.

Saturday's mission was to remove old soil, weeds and even a dead tree from two of the planters, and add fresh soil in ready for spring planting. Thanks to a great effort by all we quickly tidied them up, ready for us to come back for planting in a few weeks! Shout out to Nick and Sooz for a great effort on a very stubborn tree, and great to see Sher join us for his first mission too - look forward to welcoming you back again soon!

A hardy gang of local goodgymmers from GG Hackney and Newham provided chilled hands and toes today to support the Hackney Marshes parkrun team across a wide range of the volunteer roles. Hilary was on timekeeping duty, Rosa on barcode scanning, Graham as Funnel Manager, Nick on finish tokens and Sooz as tail walker. Between us we did spend a lot of time discussing just how many layers we all had on between us...and what the best techniques were to stop fingers freezing up.

Undeterred by the arctic conditions, 459 runners took to the course with some sparkling times at the front of the field, and our tail walkers crossing the line in just under an hour. A really enjoyable morning of volunteering (we'll certainly be back to do it again), and we then walked (via a welcome coffee) to Maryland for our next spring planter mission - always great when a plan comes together in spite of the chilly conditions!

My plan to get Mr T's Tesco shopping done first was foiled when I got to the Tesco to find the doors locked and a notice saying they'd suffered a serious network issue that meant they had to close the store temporarily - so as not to deprive Mr T of his soup, sardines and chicken slices I quickly set course for the nearby M&S, who, not for the first time saved the day, and then it was a really quick march in the cold up to Lidl for the rest...all's well that ends well.

After regularly shopping for Ms D on a Thursday morning for so many months, for various reasons Friday has become our new day to meet, although as she put it "it's fine, I'll always be in". This week she was well prepared, in spite of having to deal with a last minute laundry machine issue that her kindly neighbour had managed to fix. It had turned cold out, so it was a brisk walk up the Edgware Road and around the aisles, and before long I was back with her treasure for another week for which she was, as always, extremely grateful.