parkrun (the junior version or otherwise) is most certainly not a race, but occasionally you do have to doff your cap to one of our Sunday morning runners who clearly had more than one weetabix for breakfast this morning. Our first finisher, on a first time visit from his usual course at Leyton, crossed the line in an awe inspiring 6:56, more than a minute clear of his closest "pursuer" - chapeau m'sieur, as they say in bike racing. The maths is easy to work out his per km splits!!

Thanks as ever to our very helpful GoodGym volunteers who arrived at the big tree this morning and made sure everything ran smoothly - Hilary, John and Harvey were deployed as Course Marshals at key spots around the course, whilst Sooz and Nick kept it all largely under control at the start/finish line by barcode scanning, marshalling, encouraging and run directing, and all of our 40 finishers, including 1 absolute first timer, and 2 who received their half-marathon wristbands for each having completed 11 runs, crossed the line smiling (if a little red faced and out of breath), although a few needed to be guided towards the finish funnel...

More of the same under the big tree next week (super speedy times not guaranteed...) - join us if you can!

Sunday started early - VERY early. 7am at Aid Station 4 on the Hackney Half Marathon Route (just by Broadway Market!). There were plenty of bleary eyes, but thankfully the sun was already shining as we arrived ready for the day ahead.

Our first mission: water station setup. And if there’s one thing permanently burnt into our minds now, it’s the maths of the tables - 20 by 8 cups on each layer, 5 layers high, over and over and over again. Tables after tables after tables. Somewhere between the endless cup stacking and chatting away, the morning flew by! The best part was meeting so many brilliant Goodgymers from all over London - and, naturally, we even ended up recruiting new members whilst we were at it!

Then the motorcade arrived and the first runners appeared… From that point on it just never stopped for the next 2–3 hours. Thousands of runners streamed past as we handed out water as fast as humanly possible, cheered people on, tried to decipher names scribbled across bibs, shouted encouragement at every fancy dress costume we spotted, and kept our eyes peeled for our fellow GoodGym runners amongst the crowds. There were even a few famous faces mixed in too. Some runners just wanted a sip, others their bottles filling, others wanted us to throw a cup of water over them!

It was loud, sunny, exhausting, and genuinely brilliant - such a fantastic community vibe. Before we knew it, the runners had passed through, the cups had disappeared, the tables were packed away, and by around 1pm we were wrapped up after an amazing morning.

A huge well done to everyone who ran, volunteered, organised, cheered, stacked cups, handed out water, and kept the energy going all morning long!

Until next year! And who knows — you might even spot some of the people handing out your water this time swapping volunteer bibs for running bibs and taking on the 13.1 miles through the streets of Hackney themselves…

Great to be back at Nightingale Estate for this special session for the launch of our Workout for the Future Campaign. We were joined by Deputy Mayor Mete Coban, who visited to see the impact of GoodGym's work in the local community. And welcome to new runners Gemma and Suzi

It started with Denzel , Dan, Louise, Katie, Robert and Ivo running 2k from Usual Objections, a running shop that provides top quality running clothes. Definitely check them out if you are in the area, you can even see the clothes being made in front of you.

After a catch up and a warm up we ran to Nightingale Estate. Cheered on by the local school kids and a nice sunny run through the Hackney streets and Hackney Downs Park.

We arrived to join our fellow GoodGymers and got introduced to the Nightingale Parklet which is an important green space for local residents on the estate. After a briefing by task owners Nicky and Alice we set off to clear weeds, tidy up the green space and some of us helped a resident clear their front garden of weeds and a metal wired fence which is a bit of an eye sore.

Deputy Mayor Mete Coban joined the team to help with trimming foliage and lifting garden waste. Good job everyone!

We ended the session hearing from residents about why these green spaces matter so much to the estate. It was a great way to kick off our new campaign.

Great job all, see you next time.