For the second week in a row, GoodGym Ealing were volunteering at Acton Junior parkrun. Today was bright, sunny and chilly compared to the mist of last week when Steph was here.

Unusually, all 5 of the volunteers this week had chosen to marshal. It was Breda's first time here and everyone was too busy chatting to explain the course to her, except to point to the "crazy shapes" dodecahedrons that would be her marshal point, leaving her a bit unprepared.

It was another bumper number of finishers. Not as many as last week. 96 is a lot for Acton Juniors recently though and those numbers have gone up a lot since we've been volunteering there.

There were lots of happy children today and one enjoyed themself so much that 2km wasn't enough. They wanted to head back to the roundabout and go around the course again. They were really having fun, which was great to see.

Foggy Sunday morning at Acton Junior Park run and I was checking the course with a litter picker which came in handy as loads of rubbish to be moved in the bins as on the path of the course. Once done, I went to check where I was going to Marshal. I was on the roundabout this week.

Despite a Foggy morning, the children did not disappoint as 114 crossed the finish line and some of them in a speedy time. First girl finished under 8 minutes : she was fast and flew like and Eagle...Ealing Eagle of course!!

Well done to all especially on a chilly and foggy morning.

The 400th Acton junior parkrun (big celebration, woohoo!) brought 94 little finishers and some GoodGym legends as well!

Maria and Steph looked fresh and energetic, not indicating at all they'd just walked an overnight marathon, The Shine Walk! Congratulations both! If completing the race in 6h 19min itself wasn't enough of a feat (it was!), then how about reporting to junior parkrun duty in the morning to help set up the course? Some of you may call it craziness, we call it dedication!

Maria, with a shiny diamond still left in her hair from the race's glittery outfit, directed children into the funnel, and Steph gave the first timers a warm welcome and briefing, and then marshaled near the funnel.

Alan and Kash were the gatekeepers - marshaling at the South and North gates. Kash dealt with an emergency shoelace fix for a boy whose mum apparently hadn't heard of double knots.

It was quite a gap between the supersonic two leading girls and the tail walker, so the marshals enjoyed more time in the gentle autumn sunshine until the brand new fluffy fox tail has passed them. What a fantastic morning was it, finished with a chat over coffee!

The children at Junior parkruns are all characters in their own right. After the start of the of the new school term, there were a lot of new faces. Some fast, some slower, all with their unique personalities.

The volunteers brought their personalities to the parkrun too, with run director Geoff bringing his Wonky Bear, made from reused parkrun t-shirts, others being more casual than usual and Maria stepping forward to lead the first timers' briefing and today's warm up with Kash supporting.

Maria triple-roled today, also barcode scanning alongside Sevan. Divy funnel managed a well behaved group of runners ahead of Joanna who dished out today's finish tokens. Chris and Steph were marshals and Kash was last to the finish, tail walking again.

Today's final runner was quite stop-start. Their mum tried to motivate them around the course and for a while the prize of getting some jelly babies worked and then mum upped the offer to cake. There was also free motivation all around in the universal Junior parkrun power up of high fives 🖐️. Rather than meeting hand with hand, our Junior chose to rush the outstretched paws with a headbutt and had lots of fun doing it.

Alan cycled and Steph Ducat ran to Acton Junior parkrun where both were marshalling this Sunday. As I was early I had the pleasure to put together the table. We had a few speedy children this morning and the girls beat the boys to the finish line. 1st and 2nd position for the girls. well done to all runners and walkers.

A last minute change of plans meant that Kash, Maria and Sevan found themselves at Acton Junior parkrun for the second week in a row. Kash and Sevan had found spots on the roster as marshals and Maria took the usually chilled out role of funnel manager.

Today there was some minor trouble in the funnel as the 39 finishers passed through. Two parents disrupted Maria's morning as they joined their children in crossing the finish line. Two runners too caused problems after a sprint finish, leaving Maria to work out who crossed the line first. That was only one of the photo finishes today with 3 pairs of runners crossing the line within a second of each other. What a close, competitive, friendly group of children.