Last night we returned to Brockhill Care Home in Goldsworth Park to tend to the communal garden.

Adam and James met at WWF and ran along the canal taking the scenic route making the most of while we still have a little light in the evening. It was a gentle run as both have been training hard recently for the upcoming Royal Parks Half Marathon next month.

Katie ran from Knaphill and Holly arrived by car accompanied by her lovely dog, Indie.

On arrival we were greeted by long time resident, Heather. She was happy to see us and very welcoming, directing us to where we could refresh with water, and find tools to work in the garden.

The garden at Brockhill is really lovely and provides lots of different themed areas including a beach with a Punch and Judy as well as lots of seating and flowers and shrubs and a large Koi pond for the residents to enjoy during the day.

We help out here quite often so we all got straight down to work, with James and Adam sweeping up fallen leaves, Holly pruning and dead heading flowering shrubs, while being supervised by Indie. Katie removed weeds that were growing through the path and used a pan to transport the swept leaves into a wheelbarrow for the staff to empty the next day.

After around half an hour, the garden was looking all neat and tidy, and Indie got some play time and plenty of strokes while we were chatting to Heather about the fish which she clearly loves and is fascinated by.

We always really enjoy coming here and it was particularly nice to chat with Heather last night.

Junior Parkrun is short of volunteers for this Sunday, so if anyone fancies helping out there it will be appreciated. Send an email to Becs our lovely volunteer coordinator at wokingjuniors@parkrun.com if you can help.

Next week we don't have a volunteering task so Holly will be leading us in a fitness session which may include circuits and some running.

Hope to see you there!

Adam, Anne, James, Kirsty and Wayne met at the WWF car park and ran/rode along the canal to Brockhill Care Home where Holly joined them.  

The manager at Brockhill Care Home was surprised to see us, but a tray of glasses and a jug of fresh water were waiting on a patio table. Wayne, who cycled from his own home, magically produced enough treats to have a garden party! Thank you, Wayne! I wonder how you guessed it was exactly what we needed after a run in this hot summer weather…  

Enthusiastically we chose the tools from the shed and started with sweeping most of the garden paths -they were covered with dead leaves and weeds. When this was done, we sorted two of the private gardens. One of the ladies expressed her gratitude and gave Holly some recommendations on what to do. The other lady, although thankful, was worried we were taking all her flowers away, but we reassured her promptly. Finally, we helped Holly who had been watering the plants.  

Wayne led the 3K run back to the town centre. Adam and James raced behind the bike while Kirsty and Anne encouraged each other and were delighted to feel a breeze along the canal.  

This Thursday

On Thursday, you might like to join the No Sweat Running group for a little run? They meet at 6:30 in front of Araceli’s. Otherwise, some of us will take part in parkrun on Saturday in Woking Park. Another option is to help at junior parkrun on Sunday at 9:00. You will be very welcome by this week run director: our very own James!  

Next Group Run

We are all looking to see you next Wednesday when we will help at the food bank.   Happy running to everyone!

James, Katie and Anne ran 3 kms to Brockhill Care Centre, ready to help with the residents’ garden. Despite Katie and Anne investigating the back entrance, no one was available to let us in…

The only option left to the willing team was to set the world right and to run to the nearest pub. On our way there who did we meet? Yes, you guessed it: Nick, our area activator who, because of work commitments, has had to support us from behind the scenes. We hope Nick will soon be able to join us for the group runs.

Before running back home, James reminded us of all the missions organised this week: - Thursday: join the team offering the “NHS Couch to 5k” programme with the No Sweat Community in Woking Park - Volunteer for Woking parkrun on Saturday morning - Volunteer for Woking junior parkrun on Sunday morning.

Next Wednesday we will run, walk or cycle along the Basingstoke canal to Brookwood station to paint the containers before planting new flowers.

In the meantime, happy running to you all!

This evening 5 GG Members met at Brockhill Care home to carry out some gardening duties.

Katie and Alys met up and ran from Knaphill, I myself came straight from work, due to fasting just did not have enough energy to run. Adan and James met up at the WWF and ran along the canal with a sprint finish at the end which Adam just getting ahead of James at the finishing line.

Once we were buzzed in we headed into the outdoor garden area and carried out an inspection of what needed to be done. The patio area looked like it needed a good clan with plenty of weeds that needed pulling up. We helped ourselves to the amazing assortment of tools from the shed and got started. Adam with the broom and scraper 🧹, James with the broom Katie and Alys using brute force and pulling weeds up with their hands

James even managed to get his hands in the guttering and remove a blockage of leaves and twigs. 🌿 James also mentioned how the previous task laying bark on the park run route was mentioned by many runners last weekend and how they all noticed the difference over the weekend. 😄

As the patio area started to look take shape and look better James mentioned how he was looking forward to a lovely evening ahed with his new massage gun 😍 He was looking forward to getting them knots out of his legs and shoulders with Take That music playing in the background… 🎶 I’m sure we will hear all about it next week.

I had to leave a little early as it was almost time to open my fast and was looking forward to big meal. The rest of the group were not to far behind, the patio looked great and now all ready for some Summer BBQ’s.

Hope you all have a great evening...

The sky opened on the group of 5 runners who were hit by hale one kilometer before the meeting point: Brockhill care home. Becky, James, Katie and Anne welcomed Moumita to her first (short) mission in Woking.

A handsome young man opened the door to us and promptly apologized for the bad weather! When we looked toward the garden, where our task was to take place, we saw a curtain of water falling down, the ground was an enormous puddle… in other words we could not even attempt to start the task.

Unanimously we thought it wiser to postpone the gardening/painting we were supposed to complete and brave the elements to run back home via the canal.

See you at the allotment next week when we will carry on with planting vegetables and tidying up our plot.

Happy running to you all!

WOKING GG NEWS

• A big well done to Goodgym Member OWEN who completed the Abingdon Marathon in a fantastic time of 3:26:28.
• Goodgym member JAMES was at it again this weekend, this time a cross country 10km for Kelly's Charity at Loosley House, sounds like it was a muddy slippery race.
• A big welcome to PRIYA who joined us for her first GoodGym group run - I hope to see you back soon and I do hope you enjoyed yourself.
• While some members took part competing in races, myself, Nick and Rebecca and not forgetting BODHI!! took to the mountains and went off to Wales and walked 15km up and down Cadair Idris.

GROUP RUN

Last night we started out form WWF as our meeting point we headed to brockhill care home. We have been helping out at Brockhill for over two years and love going back. They always have great tasks for us to complete. This week it was nice to have a task inside and we got busy painting in the toilets. Abbey helped out in the hard to reach areas, showing everyone else how its done! With a nice gentle run back to WWF we were done for another week.

NEXT WEEK - SPOOK FEST MEETING AT WOKING LEISURE CENTER and we off for a spooky task at the allotment! You may get muddy and their will be fire so please make sure you dress accordingly! If you fancy anything toasting over the fire then please bring along some goodies, we will supply marshmallows and maybe some sausages!!