It was a rainy morning, which might have put off some runners but not our intrepid GoodGym gang, we are far too focused on collecting stars for our parkrun loyalty cards to be deterred by weather. Bekah, Sian, Leo and Steph ran while Lucien watched the runners and the ducks and took photos. A big cheer to Leo for his first official parkrun, although certainly not his first park run! The rain was in fact a welcome relief compared to the hot sun of our June parkrun, although by the time we crossed the finish line it was muggy and humid. Unfortunately no one was able to join for our usual post-run breakfast today, but we look forward to the next one!

A balmy mid-week July evening saw three valiant Goodgym runners participate in the Tony Barnes Memorial 5-mile Race, at Sefton Park, south Liverpool.

This run, organized by Mossley Hill Athletics Club, commemorates Tony's contribution to his running club and the wider running community, which remains highly regarded and fondly remembered.

The five (or was it 5 hundred?!) mile route welcomed approximately 200 runners in total, all stretched and set to take to the start line for 7.30pm.

Goodgym was represented by Bekah, Jess and Liam, a mighty trio of athletes, united in their upbeat determination to take on this challenging distance, even under the strong gaze of a golden late-day sun.

Dike, Liam, Dan and Steph clapped, whooped and cheered their support, as the field of runners completed the distance. The course twisted and turned along park paths, circling the large lake, before winding up to the finish, a final 200 metre stretch beyond the second full loop.

Sallyann and Siân added their support, as all three participants rose to the task of this Goodgym mission, crossing the finish line with strong performances each, showing notable swiftness, grit and bounce. Well done to all three, receiving commemorative mugs, certificates and a T-Shirt, for their efforts.

With the runners' pulses easing from their exertions, a Goodgym crowd gathered to further congratulate them and share in a celebratory picnic. Food and drink was spread out and shared, with Miriam and Ellie adding their enthusiasm to the post-race gathering.

Well done to each and every supporter for joining the event, adding their praise and positivity for the Goodgym runners, and all others taking part.

Food-wise, top-notch feast dishes included the (Chinese spice) salt and pepper sausage rolls (available in meat and veggie options) - thanks Bekah; inaugural home-made hummus with baked goods from a local bakery - thanks Siân; and divinely intense chocolate brownie squares of indulgence - thank you Steph's girlfriend 😋.

Distribution of leftovers and slick tidying up ensured our patch of grass at Sefton Park was left as spotless as when we arrived. Each Goodgymer dispersed to respective living quarters across Liverpool, as the sun dipped below the height of the trees.

And so the moonlight served to glow the runners and supporters safely home, tired and satisfied by the evening's warm success... "Da-da da da (Da-da da da) Da-da da da (Da-da da da) Da-da dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy da da da..."

After our good gym park run and fuelled with breakfast, Steph kindly gave me a lift to nearby my mission, it was on her way home but this was not the only part Steph played in my mission!

I arrived and after a fiddling with a safebox for a wee while I got into Ms M house. Ms M although was bed bound in her front room chatted to me about her garden and a green box of tools!

I plodded round to the back garden in search of said green box and did not find it but found a few rusty secateurs and some broken shovels (those I did not murder but there is time for that later!)

I looked at the enormity of the overgrown garden with baby saplings growing from all sorts of places, knowing my gloves would not cut it and called round for back-up…Totally saving me day, super Steph had a couple secateurs saving options that I could borrow.

They allowed me to tackle a little section of the patio to get the saplings or more like mini trees in some cases out and bring up the grass carpet to reveal the patio slabs.

I could see that Ms M loves water features and flamingos as clearing up I could hear some solar panelled whirring probably to move water that had totalled dried up in the heat of the last few weeks. I kept finding broken flamingo heads in the undergrowth (again not my murdering, still time for that!) but there were some complete flamingos still standing and as I looked further into the garden I could see that once Ms M garden would have been amazing with all her features some of them still making it look inviting in the secret overgrown garden kinda way.

I not only jumped at weird solar panel noises but at wonderful carers coming in to take care of Ms M surprising me in the secret garden. I went back into the house to meet them and to show Ms M progress on the garden with a few photos, I think she could see the difference.

It was hot day and before I knew it my time was up and I only tackled, maybe not even a tenth of what was needed. I would love to come back and work through the rest, maybe even get a team of us to renew this secret garden!

So here is my confession… in my zeal to tidy the last of the patio weeds up, I did break the garden brush so still earning my title ‘brush murder’… I have been sooo good lately but have to admit this recent act but in my defence the brush handle was rusting!

Anyway I returned the tools I had not broken to Steph (without her this mission would not have been possible), had to leave a black bag of rubbish in the backyard and a green bin full of saplings, carpet of grass and weed debris!

I ran a few miles home struggling in the heat but thinking what could be discovered the next bit of the secret garden!

4 goodgymmers met on Hope street and ran our way past the cathedral and through china town onto Park road where we met Elaine and two more goodgymmers to continue our war against the weeds.

This week the targets were thistles, nettles and bindweed. And I really think we broke the back of it - by the end of our session you could actually walk through from one side to the other. Huge progress! Well done everyone. Elaine will now be able to focus on maintaining the plants and the site and really making it a beautiful space for all.

On Monday evening GoodGym Liverpool returned to our regular haunt on Park Lane for our urban street clean up.

Congrats to Jess for taking part in her fifth task!!

Most of us got to work removing the throng of thistles, learning top tips such as:

Double gloving is useful when you accidentally bring your rubbish ones You must cut off the thistle flowers and bag them up before their seeds spread Using shears as a method to transport thistles is very effective

Whilst we were tackling the thistles Bekah was doing a boss job litter picking. She also saved a cornucopia of slugs (I did not know this was the collective word for these docile slimy creatures so I've learnt something new).

She rescued them from certain death after finding one half in, half out of a can of lager, she liberated it and then found another 15 inside the can!! So she's relocated them somewhere more suitable so they can enjoy their best life.

We got an incredible amount of work done, as seen in the photo, and here's hoping that we managed to get those wretched seeds into the bags ready to be taken far, far away.

We will be back again next week and I'm so confident we will remove every last one of the thistles ready for Elaine to manage the area to make it beautiful for the people of Liverpool (and for her dog Riley to play in without getting prickled by the offending vegetation).

Well done gang!!

Our monthly Goodgym parkrun breakfast saw a bunch of smiling faces meeting up for our June session. It's a chance for people to meet up at parkrun or at breakfast afterwards or at both.

This month saw Amina, Bekah, Heetu, Jess, Leo, Sian and Steph running parkrun -all looking strong despite the exhausting heat. Lucien saw everyone in through the ever extending finishing tunnel (the number of runners are such that the walk from the finishing line to get to the tokens and scanning is long.... especially after a hot 5k run) . Jo and Sallyann were volunteering on the scanners. After the obligatory photos Amina headed home and the rest of us set off to have breakfast where Liam joined us. That's the beauty of the parkrun and breakfast it really is a chance to fit around your Saturday morning...Come along for whatever and whenever you want.

This month we went to the cafe Minna on Lark Lane for breakfast. Breakfast, which included some amazing colourful matcha drinks, did not disappoint. Over breakfast there was the very important task of applying the stickers to the loyalty cards (although don't forget there is also the mystery categories and who knows when they may just meet a category requirement).

With everyone's cards stickered up we headed off from Lark Lane to carry on our Saturday with that lovely feeling of time spent with a great bunch of people.