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.

A chilly autumnal Sunday morning brought another fantastic edition of Woking juniors parkrun, where the enthusiasm was high, and the local GoodGym crew turned out in style to lend a helping hand!

Four fantastic Good Gym volunteers: Adam, Karen, Olalekan and Steve, donned the iconic bright yellow hi-vis vests to help keep the two-lap 2km course safe, cheery, and running like clockwork for the energetic crowd of young runners.

In other news only two of the volunteers were in plaster!

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!

Woking Junior Park Run

This morning Wayne Anne, James Nadia & Olalekan got up early to carry out various volunteering roles at the junior parkrun, proving that heroes don't always wear capes—sometimes they just wear bright neon vests and look slightly sleepy! 🦸‍♂️🏃‍♂️

The early morning mist couldn't dampen the high spirits (or the excessive high-fiving) at today's junior parkrun! Five heroic volunteers dragged themselves out of bed to swap sleeping in for spreading joy, and the results were legendary.

Wayne​ was feeling less pain in his knee after surgery, sporting a little spring in his step that made him look like a rogue Tigger on the course. He was out there as a marshal, cheering and encouraging the young runners with the intensity of a football manager whose job depends on this match! 📣🦵

Anne​ was in full, operatic voice 🗣️, offering words of encouragement that could be heard three subdivisions away, and James 🐕 took on the role of tail walker, which is a polite way of saying he spent his morning successfully herding a flock of energetic children to the finish line without losing anyone 🏁.

Olalekan ⏱️ played the most stressful role of all: official timekeeper. With fingers poised like a Western gunslinger, Ola clocked those impressive speeds without missing a single beat 🤠🔫.

Nadia 👧🎒 brought her niece along for her debut parkrun—earning her VIP cheers from the GoodGym marshals—and then stayed behind to achieve legendary cleanup status. She hunted down every last cone, masterfully folded the high-vis bibs, and safely rounded up all the walkie-talkies. 📻 Cones, capes, and cleanup—she did it all!

It was a brilliant morning of community spirit, and plenty of high-fives, and perfectly clocked personal bests! 🎉🙌

With another sunny Sunday upon us, it was time for Junior parkrun at Woking park!

Wayne, Anne and myself were representing GoodGym Woking today - with Wayne and Anne marshalling whilst I scanned barcodes.

The conkers were in full force today - dropping off trees left and right and having to be kicked away off the course! They brought lots of fun too; kids were collecting and playing games with big kids (a.k.a their parents!)

The crowd mounted up as the briefing took place, with 197 finishers crossing the finish line today.

There was also an incredible amount of volunteers today - 31 hi-vis heroes were on hand to help!

You can find us there every Sunday and volunteers are always welcome, so we hope to see you sometime soon.

Woking Junior Park Run

Congratulations to Kirsty on completing her 100th GoodGym task! 🎉

Despite facing running setbacks over the last 12 months, her commitment and dedication have brought her back to both running and volunteering. Your official milestone T-shirt with wings is flying its way to you, Kirsty—just try not to actually airborne-launch during your next sprint! 🦅❤️

Kirsty met Wayne at the leisure centre for a gentle 4k run, finishing at the bandstand before volunteering duties began.🏃🏼‍♂️🏃‍♀️

Volunteer Attendance & Catch-Ups It was an excellent turnout of GoodGym members this morning, providing a great opportunity to catch up:

Rich: Regular volunteer present at the event.

Adam: Arrived shortly after the pre-run

Olalekan: Returned to volunteer after some time away.

Alys: Emerged from the vortex of work and married life. Verdict: Still alive, still awesome.

Anne: Arrived a few minutes later, wearing designer sunglasses.

The junior parkrun saw fantastic participation and strong performances across the board:

Total Runners: 179 participants took part this morning.

Fastest Time: An impressive 07:47.

*Personal Bests: *42 runners achieved a new PB.

Thank you to all the volunteers and runners who made this milestone morning a success 😄