A Morning of Mixed Emotions at Woking Junior Parkrun

What an unforgettable morning at the Woking junior parkrun! The community gathered at Woking Park for an event filled with incredible milestones, bittersweet farewells, and fantastic volunteer energy. Despite a bit of wind, the storms held off, and the sun shone brightly on everyone involved.

🏆 Celebrating a Legend: Anne 400th Good Deed

A massive congratulations goes out to Queen Anne on achieving her monumental 400th good deed! Anne has been a pillar of the community since the very beginning, all those years ago. It was incredibly special to have Wayne, Adam, Olalekan, and Alys there to celebrate this amazing milestone with her.

🇨🇦 A Bittersweet Farewell to Victoria & Rich

Today also marked a poignant moment as Victoria and Rich Davies served their final junior parkrun as event directors. Next week, they are moving to Canada with their children. Having previously been a core part of the Woking GoodGym team, their presence, leadership, and kindness will be missed deeply by the entire parkrun family. The Canadian parkrun community is incredibly lucky to have them!

🧡 GoodGym Team in Action

The GoodGym contingent stepped up across a variety of vital volunteer roles to keep the runners safe, motivated, and moving:

• Wayne: Stationed at checkpoint 2, offering high-energy cheering and support to the juniors as they navigated the course.

• Adam: High-fiving and shouting words of encouragement from checkpoint 3.

• Anne: Celebrating her milestone at checkpoint 5 by handing out high-fives and spreading joy.

• Olalekan: Serving as one of the official barcode scanners, expertly managing tokens and times.

• Alys: Acting as the tail walker, keeping a watchful eye on the pack to ensure every runner crossed the finish line safely.

In total there were 133 runners who took part with the fastest time an incredible 07:14 with 34 PB's fantastic running by everyone.

At Woking Junior parkrun this morning, a spectacular 197 runners charged across the 2 km course, supported by 35 volunteers, five of whom resembled the outpatient clinic of Woking Community Hospital. Not a single member of the Goodgym contingent actually ran before putting on their high-vis vests. What they lacked in functional limbs, however, they more than made up for in pure enthusiasm.

🏆 The Milestone Man • Wayne (The 300-Deed Legend): The undisputed star of the morning, Wayne hit a monumental milestone by celebrating his 300th good deed! How did he mark this legendary achievement? By hobbling onto the field in the middle of recovering from a knee operation. Wayne proved that you don't need two working joints to be an absolute community hero. 300 deeds down, and not even a surgeon's scalpel could keep him away!

🏥 The Walking Wounded Cheer Squad The rest of the team appeared less like a running club and more like a post-op recovery ward:

• Karen (The Holiday Survivor): Freshly back from her holidays, Karen brought home the ultimate, non-refundable souvenir: an arm completely encased in plaster. While casually waiting for her upcoming surgery, she used her one good arm to point children in the right direction with maximum enthusiasm.

• Adam (The Crutch Cruiser): Deciding that standard walking was far too mainstream, Adam spent the morning ambling gracefully on crutches. Fresh off the back of foot surgery, he proved that you don't need to put your foot down to stand up for your community.

• Luan (The Comeback Kid): Luan, as the only member not actively bound by plaster, stitches, or crutches, is bravely starting again to run; although "starting" was wisely deferred until after her marshaling duties.

• Anne (The Visionary): Anne brought a totally fresh perspective to marshaling. Having just undergone a cataract operation, she was out there spotting corner-cutting juniors with brand-new bionic vision.

Despite the squad having fewer fully functioning legs than a standard camera tripod, the team directed, cheered, and clapped with world-class enthusiasm. Fun was firmly had by all, proving once and for all that you don't actually need to run to make a Goodgym mission an absolute, roaring success!

Warm congratulations again to Wayne for his 300th Goodgym good deed!

Move over, DIY SOS—the Woking Wolves dream team is in town! That clubhouse is coming together so fast it might actually be ready before England wins a penalty shootout. ⚽💨

Here is how the morning’s task went down:

• The Power Couple: Me and a nail gun. A match made in carpentry heaven. 🔫🔨

• The Safety First Move: Ryan scaling the roof like a structural superhero while i decided my knee preferred to stay on solid planet Earth. 🧗‍♂️🦵

• The 2mm Perfectionists: Painstakingly spacing those slats for "expansion." If the wood stretches, you’re covered. If it shrinks, we blame Ryan. 📐🤔

• The Real MVP: Vikki arriving with the ultimate construction fuel—hot tea and biscuits. Absolute legendary status achieved. 🫖🍪

A few more weeks of this and the Wolves will have a headquarters so grand it'll put Premier League VIP lounges to shame. Keep hammering away! 🐺✨

Last night, the GoodGym crew assembled to celebrate Nadia and Andy officially tying the knot 👰🤵🎉.

Huge shout-out to Anne for booking the Grand Taj 🍛🔥. A few people couldn't make it, but honestly? More poppadoms for the rest of us 🤤.

When Wayne and Kirsty rocked up, Nadia, Andy Anne, Luan, and Caterina were already huddled together around what looked suspiciously like the round banishing table from The Traitors 👀🗡️ (more plotting on that in a second).

Before any Faithfuls got voted out, two massive towers of poppadoms landed, complete with a mountain of pickles and chutney to dive into 🫓🧅. Rebecca arrived fresh from the daily grind 💼🏃‍♀️, closely followed by Alys and her husband Dan.

The drinks flowed: beers 🍺, soft drinks 🥤, and one absolute legend who casually ordered an entire bottle of wine just for themselves 🍷👀 (my lips are sealed, but you know who you are).

Between ordering starters and devouring mains, we got the full wedding lowdown 💒💖. Plot twist: it was ALSO Alys and Dan’s 1-year wedding anniversary! 🥳 How has it been a year already?! Time flies when you’re not getting murdered at night ⏳😱.

Naturally, the chat spiralled into Celebrity Traitors 🏰 cloak mode activated! Superfan Dan led the inquest, with everyone passionately defending why they’d be criminal masterminds on the show 🕵️‍♂️🎭. Dan dropped a hot tip that there's now an immersive Traitors experience in town... so yes, consider that fully pencilled in as the next GoodGym team-building exercise (trust nobody) 🤫🔪.

Top-tier food 🍛, hilarious chat 🗣️, and 10/10 vibes all round 👌.

Next stop on the calendar: the Christmas party, with Alys taking the reins! 🎄🎅 Get your party hats ready! 🥳🍻