Absence makes the heart grow fonder

At least that is what the Worthing parkrun team anticipated. Having been “paused” for 6 weeks, a large turnout was expected. With local parkruns having struggled during that time to fill their volunteer roster, the call went out. If there’s going to be a shortage of volunteers in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? GoodGym!

The call was answered

Four GoodGymers, with no fear of the forecast weather, stepped up to the task. Belinda, as she likes to do, directed proceedings. Ricky, threw himself thoroughly into the task. Set up, marshalling, and clear down, as well as a few kilometres of running Ricky showed more energy than the predicted storm could muster. John set up the speaker system to ensure there was no excuse for the briefing being missed. No excuse for the pesky rule breakers this week. Paul meanwhile kept a close watch on proceedings. Well, not so much a watch, more the volunteer app, recording accurate finish times for the participants.

Sometimes it’s good to be quiet

Fortunately the expected deluge didn’t happen. In fact neither expected deluge! The storm delayed its arrival long enough for us to be safely finished, something which was also helped by the unusually low numbers.

Does anyone listen to the briefing?

It seems they do. And we have evidence. After all the usual celebratory and health and safety items were covered Belinda made a significant announcement. A potential course for a second Worthing parkrun has been identified! The call is out for any volunteers who would like to help move this forward from possible to real. Go on, you know you want to - or you know someone who does. Please share!

Today, three GoodGymers played crucial roles: Belinda as Run Director, John on set-up and Paul keeping time.

Here in Worthing, we always look forward to our GoodGym parkrun volunteering sessions! We aim to organise one each month to support the parkrun community and proudly promote GoodGym. Given the expected parkrun cancellations in the first half of the year, we are determined to maintain this important GoodGym connection.

They can definitely hear—even if they aren’t all actually listening

With the new (ish) speakers (thank you to our friends at South Downs Leisure), there was no excuse for anyone saying they couldn’t hear the briefing. It wasn’t just Belinda enjoying the sound of her own voice today; everyone could! And that was important. Besides the usual health and safety checks, there was important information to share about the imminent parkrun cancellations due to promenade works.

The applause clause

As well as the safety information being clear, the milestone shout-outs were also heard. We love celebrating individual achievements and milestones at a parkrun. Today, we celebrated our very own superstar Paul as he was cheered on his fiftieth time volunteering. Check out the photos for the unofficial merchandise awarded to mark the occasion.

And they’re off

And don’t forget, so will Worthing parkrun be intermittently over the next few months. Keep an eye on the upcoming volunteer sessions so you can join us in promoting GoodGym while supporting what is surely the biggest, regular, mass participation fitness event on the south coast.

I was issuing finish tokens at today's parkrun and Paul was number checking. It was the first time I had done that role at a 5K and with a double funnel as well. However with three of us it went very smoothly.

On the final day of the January Challenge five Worthing GoodGymers headed for the local parkrun arena.

Mud, not so glorious mud

Gill and John got stuck into helping with setting up the finish area. Literally stuck in as they squelched around in the somewhat well soaked grass. The green finish funnel would be turned brown before long!

On the turn

Meanwhile Belinda strode off towards the turnaround point, cones in hand greeting, and being greeted by parkrunners heading for the start. On reaching the turnaround point and setting up the cones Belinda must have thought a course record would be set (more on that later). Actually, it was a non parkrunning group, using the parkrun course and setting of just before parkrun. If you enjoy a puzzle, try and ponder why they choose there and then to run, when they know they will encounter around 700 runners on their way back. Answers to this puzzle would be most welcome and appreciated. Don’t think too hard though. We don’t want to be responsible for any exploding brains. Messy!

Hearing aid

As part of their set up role John and Gill got the new speakers into position. They worked a treat. When will the runners understand that the purpose of the speakers isn’t so that we can speak over their chatter, but so that everyone can hear the briefing. Another eternal (or infernal) puzzle.

Holding the line

Stéphane and Barbara risked life and limb, taking their place on the flimsy tape that separates our 628 runners and walkers from the general public, ensuring everyone has a safe route through.

And finally

On the final turn today was Barbara. She directed runners towards the finish line, and also, most ably, responded to a member of the public expressing concern about our right to be there. I won’t share Barbara’s answer (both because it’s probably a bit provocative, but also I wasn’t listening carefully enough!), but it did transpire that the individual the member of the public complained about was not doing parkrun. Back again to the puzzle referred to above. Any answers yet?

A checkered experience

Stéphane moved on to the role of Number Checker. A crucial role, the checker sheet being the key data that helps to resolve any timing anomalies. If there are any timing queries this week, they might just get sent Stéphane’s way.

Recorded for posterity

It was great to have GoodGym supporting what turned out to be a record breaking run. First finisher crossed the line in 14 minutes, 13 seconds. Amazing! On the other hand, he can’t really have taken much in of our beautiful coastal scenery. If you do come to take part in Worthing parkrun I recommend taking the time to enjoy……

This morning John and Belinda headed to Splashpoint Leisure Centre where they picked up a PA system that Southdowns Leisure had purchased for Worthing parkrun. SDL have always worked closely with both GoodGym and parkrun, having been instrumental in bringing both to Worthing.

Testing. Testing. One, two three….

The job was to unpack the equipment and set it up, ensuring it works, before getting it in to the new locker that SDL have also provided for parkrun.

Of course we were going to read the manual……

…….except there wasn’t one. Still, a quick look at the rear of the active speaker told us what went where and gave a good idea of the speaker capabilities. A search online, and a stirring into life of the printer ensured a suitable document was available for future reference.

How much?

With the speakers charging we were able to reflect on the potential difference the speakers might make. Regular parkrunners, particularly those that follow a range of parkruns on social media, will know that briefings have been a “hot topic” recently. We can’t hear and we don’t need to hear (heard it all before) are the contrasting cries. "It’s other people making the noise", is the regular defence. No thought that they could actually ask them to be quiet. Recently parkruns have reported issues with unmanaged dogs creating a hazard, and hazards on the course resulting in injury.

Safety first

Worthing is an ever popular parkrun course. Safety of participants and members of the public is paramount. Thanks to these SDL purchased speakers no one will be able to say “I didn’t know”. A difference? A huge difference!

After a challenging morning last week it was great to have GoodGym back out supporting a rather less stressful parkrun.

We covered the event from start to finish, and in between with Belinda as Run Director, John on turnaround, Paul funnel managing, and Gill on finish tokens.