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), albeit a few needed to be guided towards the finish funnel...

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

As we stood feeling somewhat chilly under the big tree this morning waiting for our junior runners to arrive, we all decided that it really wasn't shorts weather - clearly none of us had taken much notice of the forecast, or we'd been fooled by yesterday's day of summer.

Fortunately the cooler air didn't deter the crowds, as we welcomed 67 runners, plus their coaches and fans, to the course and witnessed a super speedy double circuit by our lead runner, who crossed the line in an eye watering 7:49, nearly 30 seconds clear of the second placer.

Of course parkrun isn't a race, so it was great to see so many others smiling as they went round the poles and cones in much less of a hurry, high fiving some of the marshalls along the way and generally enjoying their morning out. 7 First Timers visited us at the Fields today, hopefully we'll see them all again, and 15 PBs were set, which clearly showed a few had warmed up properly. With results uploaded and everything packed away for another week, we sped off to find ourselves a hot coffee and somewhere a little warmer to try and get our circulation going.

It was the day before Star Wars day, so the Force was strong today with the runners at the Fields - although disappointingly no-one arrived dressed as either Darth Vader or a StormTrooper...to be fair it's a (nearly) fifty year old film, which probably ages me more than today's youthful participants...

Run Director Rue was determined to put a little more structure into today's set up - so we had a specific area for the barcode scanners and then, interestingly, he'd laid out cones in a double rectangle "for the warm up" - which proved successful as long as you paid close attention to the instructions.

Grateful for the "volunteer parents" who stepped in at the last minute to don the high viz, and helped by an increasing number of DoE pupils on finish tokens, timekeeping and barcode scanning duties, we were good to go on the dot - Hilary was at her regular Turn 1 spot, and Nick on timekeeping duty.

8 and a little bit minutes later (the Force was strong with this one), our first placer crossed the line, closely followed three seconds later by our regular visitor from Milton Keynes - and soon a steady stream were sprinting down the sunny finishing straight, with this week's tailwalker, Maria who'd come all the way from West London (thank you) and then set off to walk back to Hounslow, crossing the line to complete another successful week of running at the Fields - 12 PBs were set today, just over a quarter of the field. Great work all round.

Same time next week under the Big Tree, where the Force will continue to be strong...

As we stood under the big tree at 0850 this morning, we were wondering where everyone was, especially with the sun in the sky and dry conditions underfoot - what we did have though was a full complement of volunteers (13 today), including 6 GoodGymmers which was great news as we didn't need to go to the crowd to find a few more marshals.

Of course by five to nine the place was buzzing, and after Nick did the run briefing and led the warmup, it was time for the off and the usual mad dash to the first turning point where Hilary was on duty.

As has been the trend, a small breakaway group soon escaped the pack and were clearly determined to fight (figuratively...) to the finish, whilst everyone behind was happy just to be out on a warm Sunday morning. Passing Rob at the playground turn, Harvey at "Sarah's Tree" and Rue at "far away corner" we were soon through Lap 1, and Sooz, as Tail Walker was breaking into a trot to keep up.

A sprint finish saw our top 3 separated by only four seconds, with 1st and 3rd achieving PBs. We even had to break open the box of spare tokens as 60 happy runners crossed the finish line this morning, of which 16 were first timers to London Fields, and 13 were absolute first timers to junior parkrun...their (or their parent's) Sundays will never be the same.

A brilliant day at the Fields thanks to a stellar team of GoodGym faithfuls.

• 2 new half marathon wristbands • 41 incredible parkrunners • Wrapped up in under 30 minutes.

Rue set-up, course check and the usual Hackney Haka warm-up routine.

Hilary delivering as always on the double lap turning point.

Louise and Lucinda brilliantly marshalling and cheering the kids to complete the course safely.

And a full team effort packing everything away.

Well done team GoodGym!

Easter Sunday at the Fields brought themed bunting (thanks Mas), bunny ears, small chocolate eggs, a welcome return to duty by Sarah who could be found under "her tree", and visitors from as far afield as Cardiff and Bristol contributing towards 5 first timers joining us this morning - even the sun made a brief appearance towards the end, and thankfully the ground has dried out so there aren't even muddy puddles to hop over any more.

21 happy (hoppy?) runners, plus a few of their coaches, were at a chilly start line this morning - and thanks to some generous parents who put their hands up to volunteer, we were ready to go just a little after 9 - Nick, as timekeeper counted them down and they were off. Speedy running at the front of the pack saw our first finisher come in 40 seconds ahead of the second placer, and after that there were a few close finishes, but more importantly a lot of happy faces...who'd all definitely earned their Easter Eggs.

Same time next week for more fun at the Fields.