The tents of the caravan park framed the pathway of the parkrun, and the early fog had dissipated to reveal blue skies.

Locals mixed with visitors galore including from Melbourne, Sydney, Blue Mountains, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Central Coast and New Zealand. There were 33 people doing their first run at Gloucester and a further 10 or so who had not yet registered for parkrun (registration is free at www.parkrun.com.au/register.). A couple of people even signed up on the day.

Eleven of the newcomers were doing their very first parkrun - Harry Monk, Chris Unicomb, Renae Unicomb, Isabella Wheaton, Kiera Hall, Taryn Cardow, Jo Stead, Rhonda Farrell, Erin Saunders, Chlo Wilson and Sarah Sullivan.

Hayley Taylor was celebrating her 200th parkrun (and her first time at Gloucester) while Isabelle Shepherd was doing her 10th parkrun - a milestone for junior parkrunners. Moray Skilling from Melbourne was doing his 469th run, a big build up to his first run at Gloucester.

Local Thomas Coombe was the first male finisher in 19.38, just pipping Phil Dixon from the Blue Mountains in 19.40 on his first run at Gloucester.

The first female finisher was Sophie Pentelow in 24.18, also on her first run at Gloucester.

An amazing 25 runners/walkers clocked in personal bests. There were fruit ice blocks ready for all those who finished.

The tailwalker was visitor Andrew Gardner who had asked at the start if we needed a hand to do something. He cheerfully donned the fluoro yellow jacket which signals the person at the back of the pack who guides people home.

He waited patiently while local John Rosenbaum stopped to have a chat over the fence with a passerby - just metres from the finish.

John's daughter was also waiting, remarking 'yes, that's my dad'.

It was a day for jumping in and helping.

Cath Chisholm was visiting timekeeper, providing a very experienced hand to work with first time volunteer Tracy Wilson who was wondering why she had chosen to hand out finish tokens at the busiest parkrun of the year so far. Alison Lyon was busy scanning, with Garry Lyford jumping in to be a second scanner when he finished his run after seeing that Alison needed a hand.

Visitor Oliver Hansen from Cronulla was taking photographs after also completing his run, capturing the movement and colour of the morning.

See you next week at 8am on Saturday (every Saturday of the year) at Gloucester District Park. You can walk, run or volunteer.