After biblical weather last month we had a warm summer evening for the last Lakeside 5k series held by Havant AC.
A huge welcome to Finnuala who had just recently signed up to Goodgym and this was her 3rd task of the day. Jen headed put for a run around the lake whilst everyone else was arriving or finishing a previous task of cleaning the water near Hilsea Lido. As it was the final race of the series, a good number of runners turned up and Dave, Duncan, Jen, Lucy and Yvonne did a great job handing out remaining numbers and writing out replacements that were washed out last time. Due to the holiday season they were short of some marshalls and once the race was underway we took up various positions to ensure the runners knew where to go for the second lap and to ensure traffic didn't cross the runners path. We had a close couple of vomit alerts where Judy was ready to wash away but thankfully nothing was needed.

A combination of holidays and rainy weather meant a small number of us helped out with the Lakeside 5k race series this evening. It was raining when we arrived and Katie and Jo decided to head out for a run around the lake before the rain got any heavier. It was a wise decision as the rain became heavier once we finished and we took shelter under the canopy with Judy and Maura to hand out race numbers. We had a pile of blanks which came in handy as a lot of runners either forgot their previous race number and Katie did a splendid job writing the numbers and adding smiley faces to them. Despite the weather there was a good turnout of runners this evening and as they headed to the start, we headed to the marshall point near the finish. We cheered and directed everyone in to the finish and also have a large cheer for Tony who was racing this evening and was encouraging a young athlete who was tiring near the finish.

After a couple of weeks of high humid temperatures it was a little cooler this evening for the third Lakeside 5k series race. Angela, Jen & Jo met up early and headed out for a run around the lake whilst Dave headed put for a walk. Vicki met up with us towards the end of the run and we made our way back to our start.

Val joined us after our run and we donned our high viz and took up our usual positions of handing out numbers to those who had pre-registered. We also had a large number of runners who had forgotten their numbers and Jen did a fantastic job writing up replacements. It did get tense as we only had a limited number of blanks and with 10 mins to go we had run out. Thankfully we didn't need to write any more before the race.

Once the race was underway we positioned ourselves near the finish a didn't have to wait long to cheer in the runners when the winner cross the line in approx 15 and a half minutes. Dave kept the tape open to filter the runners into the finish. Jen kept runners in order and was on hand to request assistance from Val when a runner unfortunately vomited as he crossed the line and also further down the funnel. Val did a sterling job and got some water from the local coffee shop to wash it away. Thankfully, that was the only clean up needed for the evening.

The summer sun arrived today and was still shining this evening when we attended Lakeside to help out at the monthly 5k race series. Dave, Jen, Katie and Wilson arrived early and headed out for a lovely run around the lake and were met by Jo who arrived a little later and ran in the opposite direction to meet up.

Once our run was done we donned our high vis and took positions. Laura and Mel were meet and greet ensuring runners knew where to go to register on the evening and collect numbers.

Judy and Wilson had a pile of numbers and had a mini competition to see which pile would be needed. Jen and Katie mastered the Sharpie and wrote numbers on blanks for those runners who had forgotten to bring theirs from the last race. There was some discussion over the way Jen wrote number 4 but it was very professional. Val demonstrated her street seller voice advertising our very limited supply of safety pins.

Once the race was underway Dave had the very important task of holding the funnel tape to make sure runners went through the finish. Jen make sure runners kept moving down the funnel even when it started to bottle neck. Thankfully the warm weather didn’t bring any vomit but Jen did have a close call with one of the top finishers.

It's Spring (apparently) and it's the last Wednesday of the month which means that we are back to Lakeside to assist with marshalling the 5k series.

Jen, Jo & Katie CR arrived early and headed around the lake for our run, Dave was resting up after completing the London Marathon on Sunday. Well done Dave.

Katie L and Yvonne joined us after the run and we wrapped ourselves up warm as the temperature was starting to drop. We distributed the numbers to pre-registered runners as well as directing runners who were registering on the evening. We had an abundance of pens but none of them seemed to work but Jen was the hero and produced her erasable gel pen which worked wonders.

Once the registration was completed we watched the runners on the first lap then headed to filter in runners towards the finish funnel at the end.

We reminised about older TV shows such as Round the Twist, Fraggle Rock and Round the Bend before heading home to warm up.

We'll be back next month and hopefully it'll be slightly warmer.