A good number of goodgymers got together this Tuesday. Our task to help at Nightingale House, a hostel that provides a temporary and welcoming home for homeless families in need support. As you can imagine the back yard and garden get a lot of use from the families, so was in good need of a tidy up and refresh.

Tonight, the running crew were led out by Darren, whilst Michael was busy at physio - see what happens when you don't stretch! Aimme led the walkers at a nice chatty pace, and Andrew was our lone cyclist for the evening.

Even with all the different groups we all still managed to arrive ready for starting at 19:00, even Michael made it from his physio.

To Work!

Gloves out, bags ready and who gets the brush? We got straight to work, sweeping and bagging the leaves - Autumn is on its way. A group made their way over to the play area to pull the weeds, it looked wonderful once completed. There was even time for an archaeological dig....apparently, all over a plastic peg - although I have to admit it did come in useful for weeding in between the slabs.

We managed quite a lot in the 40 minutes we stayed, the yard looked much cleaner, the playground inviting and the weeds were gone from all around the building.

A quick photo and it was time to head back, join us next week for our trip to Samye. Sign up here

Our last goodgym group task of the year, and one of our favourites too. Illness did get to some of the group, so they had to stay home, but the rest still arrived eager and ready to go.

The task to wrap as many presents as possible, the gifts had been donated for the children staying at Nightingale House, who provide emergency, temporary accommodation for homeless families.

So this task was very special indeed. We had a festive run (Santa hats an all) to the back of the building, where we were let into the back gate. We quickly scurried into the out buildings where all of the presents were hidden. No time to waste, we split into teams and got to work.

As this was super special, we decided to stay a little longer to wrap as many presents as possible. The rest would have to be completed by the night workers later on that evening.

A quick goodbye, as thanks from the staff at the house. And now to get ready for Christmas.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!... Especially when 30 GoodGym runners show up to get fit and do good in Cardiff

Only 8 sleeps left until Christmas! Isn't that exciting? At GoodGym Cardiff it still feels like we had a big Christmas present early, winning the Getting Wales Active award!

To start the night we did a warm up and said what our favourite thing about Christmas was. Some people said presents, some said Christmas dinners and others said spending time with family.

We acknowledged achievements / goings on over the past week, which included:

• Community Mission to help erect a tent at the Samye Foundation
• Community Mission to help paint a flat ready for Refugees to move in
• Nathan and Ellen completed a mission to help an older person!
• Hike up Pen Y Fan!
• A social outing to Winter Wonderland ice skating
• On Saturday 36 of us celebrated Christmas at the GoodGym Cardiff Christmas party at The Classroom

First good deeds of the night

The walking group walked around town, spreading Christmas cheer for all to hear. They were handing out Christmas cards to members of the public saying "Merry Christmas". They reported a mixed response and some people thought there was a catch! There was no catch and we just wanted to make people smile :).

Whilst the walking talking group were handing out Christmas Cards in town, the runners, with presents in arms - quite literally -were heading over to Nightingale House to deliver gifts to the residents. Sophie Hastings, a GoodGym runner, had her work kindly donate gifts this year and we got to run them to Nightingale House.

Onto the next good deed of the night

We arrived back to Big Moose about 7.25pm. Now was the time to do another good deed of the night! Matt, a lovely employee of Big Moose, gave us lots of tasks that the charity needed our help with. Tasks we helped with included:

• Baking cookies and biscuits
• Making framed certificates for the attendees of the Big Moose Supertri event
• Putting lush products and framed certificates inside goodie bags
• Sorting and stock counting Big Moose Merchandise
• Giving Big Moose a touch up of paint to keep it looking fabulous!

Matt couldn't believe the speed at which we worked. It was safe to say we were very busy efficient GoodGym elves.

** Post run**

After the evenings events we headed to the Glassworks for a social drink of water, coffee and for some something stronger Ahem Two pint tuesday for some...

Well done tonight. It was our final group run of the year and boy did we go out with a bang! Nightingale House were so grateful for the gifts... we were more than 3 kings bringing gold frankincense and myrrh that's for sure! Big Moose were immensely thankful for our help (Matt was in disbelief with how much we got done and how quickly we did it). The members of the public who have received cards wishing them a Merry Christmas, well who knows, we may have brightened someones Christmas... we may even be the only person wishing them a Merry Christmas - we may never know.

Happy New Year everyone - You are the best x

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Tweet off Leaderboard 2020

There was a special opportunity for one runner to get ahead on the 2020 tweet off leaderboard. The competition was fierce. Can Lucy retain the tweet off crown? Only time we will tell. The winner tonight however was Marie! A huge well done. The scores are as follows:

• MOH - 1

Christmas is often a really difficult time for families who are homeless, so tonight's task was a very sensitive and emotive one. It was a task that we hope brought aspects of joy to the lives of families during a very challenging time

This evening 38 runners showed up to Big Moose to join in this evening's GoodGym run. Yes, 38!!! 38 is the most runners we have EVER had on a GoodGym Cardiff run. There were 3 new runners tonight too- A huge welcome to Sarah, Abby and Lucy! It was absolutely fantastic having you run with us. Jayne brought along Abby to GoodGym that means she earned herself a red lace #LifesGoals! Jayne will now have one faster leg when she runs until she brings another friend and claims another red lace.

The evening started with Ben leading a warm up. He then gathered everyone together to do the usual introduction and acknowledge any achievements over the past week. They included:

• GoodGym Cardiff and The Vale (That's us!) winning the BBC Sport Wales, Getting Wales Active Award
• Ben (GoodGym Trainer) running the 3 Day Ultra Trail Marathon in Ibiza; running over 105km over 3 days
• Lucy Marsh reaching 200 good deeds - Woo!!!
• A wonderful Community Mission at Herbert Thompson directed by Ms Guy

Runner of GoodGym Cardiff and Global News room journalist, Peter Gillibrand turned up in his star costume this evening. If you didn't know by now, Pete is attempting to break a Guinness World Record by running the 2020 London Marathon dressed as a star - Well done Pete you looked fab!

Arriving at Nightingale House

We've run to Nightingale House twice before yet we always managed to forget which building it is - Running up and down the street gives us a bit of extra exercise though, something that we shouldn't be averse to as GoodGym is about getting fit after all.

The staff at Nightingale House welcomed us in with the warmest of welcomes. They were very shocked to hear that 38 runners had turned up, a jump from the 20 that were signed up a couple of days ago.

Our tasks this evening were to decorate the communal areas with Christmas themed decorations and wrap presents, in secret, in the building at the rear of the garden. Some of the runners also gave the garden some TLC by picking up leaves and doing some weeding.

What an incredible task

Everyone found a role and got stuck in. At least 3 Christmas trees were put up. One of the children had James playing with an inflatable Santa for most of the time. Imogen was also being chased with tinsel by some of the children. There was a baby who was dressed in a VERY cool Christmas outfit, who was amazed by the Christmas tree and kept gazing at it in amazement.

In the back building aka. Santa's workshop, runners were speedily wrapping presents. After wrapping one present they would quickly be on to the next. Every bit of space was made use of for the task. Chloe and Sue spent 30 minutes in the toilet wrapping presents.

Thank you so much for your help

The staff and the residents at Nightingale House were extremely grateful, and we were grateful that they allowed us to celebrate some of Christmas with them. Everyone wished each other a Merry Christmas and then we disappeared into the night.

Dave led the run back to Cardiff City Centre, although he quickly ran back to Nightingale House as he had forgotten his bag (Some more unexpected exercise!).

A task that will definitely make a difference. Well done all!

Next week's GoodGym run is on Wednesday - Make sure you come along!

Next Tuesday we have the BBC Sports Awards so the group run will take place on Wednesday. The plan is to help Samye Foundation. I will also be looking for an additional Christmassy themed task. I would love to see you next week - I will bring the award to show you too. Click here to sign up to next week's run.

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Tweet Tweet

Gosh that was quick! Megan has claimed another point on the tweet off leaderboard! Well done! ALL points count and there are less and less opportunities to move up the leaderboard as each week goes by.

• LM 13
• MO 9
• EW 5
• MJ 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

19 runners showed up to the last GoodGym Cardiff run of the year before we take a break for Christmas.

Don’t worry, we will be back on the 8th January 2018 (If not before) and we will have lots of fun in store for January!

After an incredible 2018 it was only fitting to end the year with an incredible task! This evening the plan was to head to Nightingale House. However, as most runners know, running before warming up is not always the best idea, so that’s what we had to do first! The warm up this evening consisted of running lengths, and when Ben shook his bells (Ben quite literally had bells that he shook) runners would either do high knees, lunges or butt kicks for the duration of the bell ringing – It was worth the lunge!

Everyone then made their way into a circle for the headcount. We welcomed 3 runners who had not run with GoodGym Cardiff before; A HUGE welcome to Amie, Katie and Christopher! We loved your company and it would be awesome to run with you again :) It was seriously a Christmas treat having you come along. A MASSIVE well done to Adam who reached the 50 Good Deed Milestone – Woopeee! He couldn’t believe it himself!

Favourite Christmas movies?!? – Part of the headcount included everyone announcing their favourite Christmas movie. Aimee reminded everyone they needed to say it loudly, by saying “the best way to spread Christmas cheer is by saying it loud so we can all hear.” Here are some of the movies that were worth of a mention:

• Elf
• The Holiday
• Miracle on 34th Street
• Home alone

Did I miss any? If so, comment below!

Run to the task

Our run to the task was approximately 1 mile. On the way there we stopped to play a fitness game of Rock, Paper, Scissors and also do a Christmas game which involved us all being hardworking elves that had to run sprints as fast as we could to ensure we were in time to help Santa at the workshop. The final sprint consisted of shouting “Santa we’re coming” as loud as we could to make sure Santa knew too!

Welcome to Nightingale House

After the 1 mile run we had arrived. We were greeted with a warm reception by the staff at Nightingale House. Their face lit up when they saw us and our face lit up when we saw theirs! They told us all about the wonderful work they do at Nightingale House to support and provide temporary housing to individuals and families who are faced with difficult life circumstances, people who would otherwise be homeless – We really admire the work you do!

After hearing about how Nightingale serves to help people through the hardest of times, it was safe to say we couldn’t wait to get stuck into this task!

Even though there were 19 of us -which meant 38 hands - which sounds like a lot, there were lots of presents that needed wrapping and so we had to get straight to it.

Has anyone got a spare pair of scissors?, pass the pen please, more Sellotape.

It was safe to say that what was going on at Nightingale House would have looked exactly like what Santa’s workshop would look like, with elves hustling and bustling to make Christmas special for families throughout the world. The task also comprised of a special treat, a Christmas sing-a-long! First on the playlist was ‘East 17 – Stay Another Day’ which Darren joined in with; he made sure everyone knew that this is favourite Christmas song. Then ‘Fairytale of New York – The Pogues’ was played.

After approximately 35 minutes of present wrapping time was up! We managed to wrap LOTS and LOTS of presents and there were now bags stacked up in the hallway full of presents that will bring wonderful smiles to the people who receive them.

Upon leaving, one of the residents said, “thank you for coming along and wrapping our presents” – it was clear they were onto us! So, with a sprinkle of pixie dust, a merry Christmas wish, a smile and a wave, we said our goodbyes. And, before you could say “Santa Claus is coming to town” we were out of there!

** Thank you GoodGym – You are amazing!**

The staff at Nightingale House thanked us for our support. We thank them for giving us a wonderful reason to run.

On our run back we imagined the faces of the children opening the presents we had wrapped. These thoughts kept us with a feeling of warmth on a cold evening.

Everyone deserves a warm Christmas and we wish you a very Merry Christmas too!