Sunny morning and just over 40 juniors attended parkrun this morning. Goodgymers helped setup before going to their positions for the run. Marshals today were Harvey and [Steph Ducat](/v3/profile/stephane-vessaud. Maria was on tokens with Joanna at the finish funnel. Joanna also on communions. The junior parkrunners started to wear Xmas tops and socks like sone of the marshals. Xmas is coming. There was also a person playing guitar at the bottom of the course.

Maria , Steph Ducat and Harveyarrived early as ran to the park, so helped setup the course, mainly around the roundabout. we out signs up and Harvey did a course check. Alan arrived and joined the crew. While we were waiting for the children, a small girl arrived with her special necklace....a princess necklace which was going to help her with her running. Apparently she would not come without it : so we had a princess on the course.Maria then did the warm up: well done!! Joannaand the others were marshalling around the course which saw roughly 50 finish the course on a sunny chilly morning.

At Acton Junior parkrun this morning, there was a debate over shorts or not as it felt a lot chillier than previous days. There were still a lot of children having fun in their short sleeves who clearly hadn't felt the change in seasons yet and 48 in total finished the 2km run.

Mostly wrapped up warm, 5 GoodGymers were on the volunteer roster to help the event run smoothly. Maria and Sevan were marshalling, Alan timekeeping and Joanna was handing out finish tokens.

Kash was today's tailwalker and had the most exciting role. When the last child dropped out with 500m to go, she sprang into action, transforming from having a cheetah's tail on her tailwalker high-vis into an actual cheetah. She hunted down the next child who was much further around the course, finishing with them to allow the event pack up to begin. "Great running" as the marshals say 🏃.

Nothing can stop Goodgymers on a Sunday morning even injuries to attend a junior parkrun. Despite a bad injury, Alan still made his way to be timekeeper : unstoppable. Chikako was tailwalker with her daughter, Maria was marshal at the top gate, Joanna was handing out tokens to the children and I Steph Ducat was marshal at the bottom gate(had to make sure no one took a shortcut. 53 children completed this Sundays Junior Parkrun including a few new comers.

Early bird GoodGymers were out in force today, with 9 around the course on the day of Maki's - Chikako's daughter's - last Junior parkrun as her birthday is coming soon. They'll both still be at Acton Juniors in the future, volunteering to help the event that they've enjoyed attending for years.

Most of today's marshals were GoodGymers, with Max, Maria, Steph, Michelle and Sevan helping the children and adults navigate the course and cheering them up and down the hills. Kash experienced the hills herself as the tailwalker, playing a key role in getting a couple of less enthusiastic children to the finish line and Chikako was the VI Guide for the last time (for now).

In the funnel, Ariane dished out the finish tokens and Alan was a late substitute to the timekeeper role. As it turned out, Alan saved the day (in a small way), by recording the finish times of the runners more accurately than the other timekeeper, meaning that all 65 finishers were correctly logged.

School holidays had hit Acton Junior parkrun attendance today as volunteer and runner numbers were down. The children were either on holiday or still in bed. An emergency call to action had gone out for volunteers and the rota had filled with West 4 Harriers and GoodGymers (sometimes both), including Maria who came to her first GoodGym task and used her past experience of working with children to make a positive impact on the runners. Welcome Maria! 🥳👏

With the barebones set of volunteers, all the essential roles were covered. Michelle, Kash and Joanna were marshalling, with Maria and Sevan on finish tokens and barcode scanning respectively. Jon came in disguise, funnel managing in his West 4 Harriers kit and Steph had the sometimes entertaining, sometimes agonising task of tailwalking.

Of the 40 finishers today, as is often the case, the last one needed some motivation to get to cross the line. Their "motivator" parent tried different techniques until their last resort, to say no sweets and that they would fart in the refusenik child's bed🤢. That last threat scared the little girl and she broke into a run all the way to the finish with Steph close behind.