It’s been a while since I blogged about parkrun – the last few weeks have been really busy and I haven’t had much time to write – but I’ve been enjoying my Saturday morning volunteering. I was originally doing it because running parkrun didn’t fit into my marathon training plan: that plan went kaput a couple of months ago, when Geth and I decided to defer our Manchester Marathon places to next year (which eventually turned out for the best as he’s since had a complicated TLDR injury that has put him out of the running game for now), but I’ve continued volunteering anyway. I’m planning to keep doing it till the end of April and then switch to alternate weeks running and volunteering, as it’s been something I’ve really enjoyed.
The last few weeks I’ve continued doing finish area roles, variously finish tokens, barcode scanning, timekeeping and funnel managing. I like all of these as it’s nice to be at the end when people finish. I always find the roles a bit nervewracking the first time but it’s fine once I get into it, and it’s been so much more interesting than just marshalling all the time.
It’s been a cold few weeks for standing out for an hour (especially when doing the phone roles!) but it is gradually getting warmer now.
The 100th event on 25th March was a highlight – there were some Benchies (folks from my social run group) in attendance and there was cake afterwards. Event 101 this last weekend was interesting too as I was funnel managing for the first time – lots of running back and forth (possibly even more than I did on my short run earlier that morning!).
A bit of marshalling this coming weekend for the first time since January.