A Morning of Mixed Emotions at Woking Junior Parkrun

What an unforgettable morning at the Woking junior parkrun! The community gathered at Woking Park for an event filled with incredible milestones, bittersweet farewells, and fantastic volunteer energy. Despite a bit of wind, the storms held off, and the sun shone brightly on everyone involved.

🏆 Celebrating a Legend: Anne 400th Good Deed

A massive congratulations goes out to Queen Anne on achieving her monumental 400th good deed! Anne has been a pillar of the community since the very beginning, all those years ago. It was incredibly special to have Wayne, Adam, Olalekan, and Alys there to celebrate this amazing milestone with her.

🇨🇦 A Bittersweet Farewell to Victoria & Rich

Today also marked a poignant moment as Victoria and Rich Davies served their final junior parkrun as event directors. Next week, they are moving to Canada with their children. Having previously been a core part of the Woking GoodGym team, their presence, leadership, and kindness will be missed deeply by the entire parkrun family. The Canadian parkrun community is incredibly lucky to have them!

🧡 GoodGym Team in Action

The GoodGym contingent stepped up across a variety of vital volunteer roles to keep the runners safe, motivated, and moving:

• Wayne: Stationed at checkpoint 2, offering high-energy cheering and support to the juniors as they navigated the course.

• Adam: High-fiving and shouting words of encouragement from checkpoint 3.

• Anne: Celebrating her milestone at checkpoint 5 by handing out high-fives and spreading joy.

• Olalekan: Serving as one of the official barcode scanners, expertly managing tokens and times.

• Alys: Acting as the tail walker, keeping a watchful eye on the pack to ensure every runner crossed the finish line safely.

In total there were 133 runners who took part with the fastest time an incredible 07:14 with 34 PB's fantastic running by everyone.

A chilly autumnal Sunday morning brought another fantastic edition of Woking juniors parkrun, where the enthusiasm was high, and the local GoodGym crew turned out in style to lend a helping hand!

Four fantastic Good Gym volunteers: Adam, Karen, Olalekan and Steve, donned the iconic bright yellow hi-vis vests to help keep the two-lap 2km course safe, cheery, and running like clockwork for the energetic crowd of young runners.

In other news only two of the volunteers were in plaster!

Woking Junior Park Run

This morning Wayne Anne, James Nadia & Olalekan got up early to carry out various volunteering roles at the junior parkrun, proving that heroes don't always wear capes—sometimes they just wear bright neon vests and look slightly sleepy! 🦸‍♂️🏃‍♂️

The early morning mist couldn't dampen the high spirits (or the excessive high-fiving) at today's junior parkrun! Five heroic volunteers dragged themselves out of bed to swap sleeping in for spreading joy, and the results were legendary.

Wayne​ was feeling less pain in his knee after surgery, sporting a little spring in his step that made him look like a rogue Tigger on the course. He was out there as a marshal, cheering and encouraging the young runners with the intensity of a football manager whose job depends on this match! 📣🦵

Anne​ was in full, operatic voice 🗣️, offering words of encouragement that could be heard three subdivisions away, and James 🐕 took on the role of tail walker, which is a polite way of saying he spent his morning successfully herding a flock of energetic children to the finish line without losing anyone 🏁.

Olalekan ⏱️ played the most stressful role of all: official timekeeper. With fingers poised like a Western gunslinger, Ola clocked those impressive speeds without missing a single beat 🤠🔫.

Nadia 👧🎒 brought her niece along for her debut parkrun—earning her VIP cheers from the GoodGym marshals—and then stayed behind to achieve legendary cleanup status. She hunted down every last cone, masterfully folded the high-vis bibs, and safely rounded up all the walkie-talkies. 📻 Cones, capes, and cleanup—she did it all!

It was a brilliant morning of community spirit, and plenty of high-fives, and perfectly clocked personal bests! 🎉🙌

Woking Junior Park Run

Congratulations to Kirsty on completing her 100th GoodGym task! 🎉

Despite facing running setbacks over the last 12 months, her commitment and dedication have brought her back to both running and volunteering. Your official milestone T-shirt with wings is flying its way to you, Kirsty—just try not to actually airborne-launch during your next sprint! 🦅❤️

Kirsty met Wayne at the leisure centre for a gentle 4k run, finishing at the bandstand before volunteering duties began.🏃🏼‍♂️🏃‍♀️

Volunteer Attendance & Catch-Ups It was an excellent turnout of GoodGym members this morning, providing a great opportunity to catch up:

Rich: Regular volunteer present at the event.

Adam: Arrived shortly after the pre-run

Olalekan: Returned to volunteer after some time away.

Alys: Emerged from the vortex of work and married life. Verdict: Still alive, still awesome.

Anne: Arrived a few minutes later, wearing designer sunglasses.

The junior parkrun saw fantastic participation and strong performances across the board:

Total Runners: 179 participants took part this morning.

Fastest Time: An impressive 07:47.

*Personal Bests: *42 runners achieved a new PB.

Thank you to all the volunteers and runners who made this milestone morning a success 😄

It was lovely to see Anne back volunteering at GoodGym junior parkrun this morning.

The three GoodGymers — Olalekan Anne and Karen — carried out their usual duties at what was a very well-attended session, despite the school summer holidays. The cloud cover made for ideal running conditions and, judging by the pace, it certainly seemed like a fast one!

Well done to all the children who took part, and to the carers who were either running alongside them or cheering them on from the sidelines.

It is such a privilege to support and encourage the next generation of runners. 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️👏