It was a scorcher at Milton Country parkrun this morning with the shelter of the trees very welcome.

Two of us joined the 26 strong volunteer team and both took on post-event roles so that we could run too. Scott arrived on foot from central Cambridge with parkrun making part of a 10 miler - extra impressive in the heat 🙌

I was on post-event close down, doing an extra lap of he course to sweep up signs and cones. It was lovely to enjoy a lighter jog around the beautiful grounds and have a good chat with the tail walker. I came back to find Scott making easy work of organising tokens with the parkrun's bespoke (fancy) 3D printed token sorting boxes. I got busy packing the kit into the storage bin with some very helpful guidance from the run director to make sure it was all organised correctly.

Before heading off, we stopped at the Phoenix pop-up cafe for some delicious post-run refreshments and discussed some training ideas.

Congratulations to all 416 finishers 🎉

Meanwhile, up in Scotland, Caroline was continuing to work her way through the alphabet, collecting an 'O' at Oriam parkrun. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This week's task saw the return of our monthly Cambridge City Foodbank donation run on behalf of Greens Organise 🥫☕️🧃🍼🍫

Joining us for the first time was Alex (welcome! 🙌), meeting regulars Catherine and Kate for a social run from Parkside Pools. I joined them at Stir, having already run that morning and using the time instead for a much-needed bike clean! We jogged to the collection point, and after a (too) brief interaction with a coned dog, bag tetris commenced... 🟩🟨🟦🟥🟪🟧

Between us, we managed to pack nearly all of the items, only leaving behind half a crate. With our bags full and our spirits high, we set off 2 km walk to the foodbank. The time flew by and the conversation flowed, discussing the benefits of strength training and enjoying the novelty of the evening's weighted exercise 🏋‍♀️

After the usual friendly greeting from the team there, we unpacked all the items into crates for redistribution - but not before weighing our bags! Between the four of us, we'd carried an impressive 53 kg of donations! The unofficial prize for Heaviest Bag went to... 🥁 ... Catherine, with a whopping 17 kg in hers 💪

Enjoying an evening stroll and discussing the benefits of social missions/visits, they dropped me back at Stir and continued their run back to the pool. Thank you for another fabulous mission!

P.S. Anyone else's legs feeling the effects of our unconventional weight training today? 😅