After a challenging morning last week it was great to have GoodGym back out supporting a rather less stressful parkrun.

We covered the event from start to finish, and in between with Belinda as Run Director, John on turnaround, Paul funnel managing, and Gill on finish tokens.

Tide-ying Up at Turning Tides 🌊🌱

This week GoodGym Worthing headed out to support Turning Tides at one of their local homeless hostels, lending a hand with a much-needed winter tidy-up.

Six of us – Mr and Mrs R (aka John and Belinda), Paul, El, and Stephane – tackled the paved front garden, turning our attention to the borders that had seen better days. Armed with secateurs, brooms and our invaluable GoodGym working lights, we set about cutting back, sweeping up and generally bringing some order back to the space.

As always, the tools were working almost as hard as we were chatting, with plenty of lively parkrun discussion keeping spirits high as the task progressed . By the end of the session the borders were neater , the skip loaded , and the entrance much more welcoming for residents and staff alike.

A great job done by everyone – teamwork, good conversation and a positive difference made. 💪🌟

El earned herself a double good deed by taking some empty chocolate boxes to our local Greene King pub to support the post Christmas macmillan cancer recycling project. Whilst delivering them she even got a run in too 😇👏

It's a streak!
Keeping Worthing GoodGym's January parkrun streak going saw four Worthing stalwarts heading to beach house grounds to volunteer.

Not streaking! Nothing to see here.
Nerves already on edge because of the potential high numbers and the likelihood of an increasingly slippery finish funnel Belinda went hunting for an essential volunteer. Where was her timekeeper? Paul certainly wasn't streaking along. He casually appeared with his usual broad smile, unaware that he was surrounded not by misty drizzle (or mizzle to the locals) but by the steam that a moment ago had been pouring from Belinda's ears. The RD role was going to be fun today.

It was a set up
John as usual lent a hand with creating the finish funnel. Definitely essential, and due to play a central role as the morning went on. As has become the norm, it was a double. John prefers the simplicity of being single, whilst seeing the value of two, had we created enough extra length? Did we have enough capacity? Is the funnel, heaven forbid, too short? The RD role was going to be fun today.

Hitting the wall? Not on our watch
When Daisy volunteers to marshal she often manages to get a position where she can tuck herself away behind a bin, protected from the elements. Not today though! Today she managed to secure a position with a whole wall to shelter behind if needed. It wasn’t needed. The weather held, and with Daisy directing runners towards the final sprint, no one was hitting that wall today. Daisy clapped over 750 participants on their way. On their way to……….. The RD role was going to be fun today.

The RD role was going to be fun today
In the main the runners cheered by Daisy around that corner found themselves passing Paul, clicking them in as their feet passed the finish. In a week when parkrun had secured some novice volunteers (hooray) inexperience at the double funnel told its own story. A brief period of chaos led to a queue for the finish. It provided a great opportunity for runners to chat with Paul (always a delight!) as they slowly passed by him and his tightly held phone. But as for their times? The RD role was going to be fun today.

Cueing up for a strike
So, who was that RD who got all the fun. None other than the well respected GoodGymer, Belinda. She undid the chaos of the funnel, and unpicked the potential chaos of results processing. Amazing. Potential crisis averted, but cue the emails! Is there a GoodGym badge recognising being calm under pressure? Acknowledging the ability to respond positively to those “I love Worthing parkrun, but….” emails? If there is, it’s most definitely been earned today.

Oh, who is Nel, you may well ask. That’s a story for another time………