Six runners met at St Botolph's church yard by various means.

The weeds had returned in all their glory since our last visit, and Rik and Val gave us our instructions. Clear this lot, ready for grassing. And get rid of the moss on the path. Sounds easy!

We separated out into distanced pairs. Julia and Ros sorted the moss ( no rolling stones here) John and Lucy tackled the weeds at the front. Tough ground to dig! Sue and Gill rooted out the weeds from the rocky area around the old font.

Today's discovery was piddock casts! Every day's a school day, don't clam up about this one.

September Dawns

On a slightly chilly September evening and with no sign of an Indian summer the team convened at Splashpoint for a dose of Monday night GG magic.

It was great to welcome back Natacha back for her second week. It was, possibly, rather a shock to her that after the swimming and social bank holiday gathering on the beach last week we were back to normal this week ( well as normal as it ever gets! ) with some running, a full on physical task followed by more running and a flavour of fitness too.

It was also a lovely surprise to see Roxy back after a full on summer of working Monday nights. We can’t wait for a time when you can come along more regularly. It’s always a pleasure to welcome this lovely, hardworking, lady to the team.

Tonight’s line up also included Sue also very busy with work commitments who was also back for a second time in a row , Mr and Mrs R (aka John and Belinda) Barbara, Lucy and Duncan and just arriving on the wire Gillian and another second timer, Graham. Nick fresh from his commute in London joined us a little later at the task.

With GoodGym teaming up with Team GB to encourage more people to become active more often it was a real privilege to welcome 2 of our national athletes at the task this evening , but more about this later………….

With everyone choosing to run this evening the team unanimously chose the scenic option and set of on the 2.5k seafront route to the task.

Leave no tombstone unturned

We all had a warm welcome from church warden Rick and his wife Val. It’s always a happy glow when we see Sue and Peter, our friends from Heene cemetery who, most generously provided all the tools, gloves and first aid kit this evening.

This evening we were tasked with clearing some more ground and debris that was still covering and disguising the ruins of the century’s old chapel and air raid shelter in the grounds of St Botolph’s church.

The team headed off in all directions to get stuck in with some fairly hefty tasks. Gill and Graham did sterling work clearing the north side of the ruins. Duncan and Peter attacked the ivy and brambles on the top and sides of the air raid shelter.

Roxy, Natacha and John managed an incredible makeover of the font area of the old chapel with John doing considerable heavy digging whilst Lucy and Barbara tucked into some pruning and bramble clearing on the other side of the old chapel

Oarsome support

It was at this point that we were joined by Team GB athletes Katie Gleeson and Afton Fitzhenry.

Katie is a local Worthing athlete (also my daughter) and GB rifle shooter. She had just returned a few hours ago from Rio in Brazil where she had been competing last week.

Afton is a GB sprint canoeist who recently broke the British record whilst competing in Hungary 2 weeks ago.

It was a complete delight to have these come long and lend a hand with the task.

After a quick photo shoot they wasted no time in getting their gloves on and lending a hand with a rather jet lagged Katie doing some pruning whilst Afton piling into the heavy stuff clearing all the massive piles of brambles.

40 minutes later we reluctantly and certainly reluctantly was the word, called halt. Our hosts were all so in awe and delighted with the progress and I received this email from Rik this morning

Hi Julia – a very big thank you for bringing Good Gym to St. Botolph’s once again. The transformation of the remains of the old chapel and the area around the air raid shelter is amazing!

Rick also asked me to pass on that on Saturday September 28th there will be a working breakfast party for volunteers to continue the gardening and clearing work. All welcome!

We waved goodbye to our hosts and our athletes with several promises to return from all concerned!

GoodGym 100’s

The group split into a few groups with some heading straight home and others joining with for some GG fitness drills.

10 x 10 exercises to make up GG 100. We finished with an impromptu core game with one of the team running with a weighted backpack on their shoulder with the rest hovering or planking.

Special mention to Lucy, Roxy, Sue, Natacha, John and Barbara who all stayed for the fitness and fun and to an injured Belinda who stayed to support the spectacle :)

In other news

• Massive good luck to Lucy and Duncan who are doing their ultra run this Saturday of 100km. Keep us posted. We will all be with you every step of the way! Enjoy your holiday next week drinking and eating in Cornwall. You will have certainly deserved lots of treats!

• Congratulations to Barbara who achieved a new parkrun PB last Saturday! Awesome work and so well earned with all the hard work she has put into her running and fitness recently.

• Next week we will be meeting at Worthing Leisure Centre for our quarterly return to The Rowans. Fun and fitness on the track will follow!

Seas the Day

On a blustery evening we were very grateful that the early heavy rain had cleared and sunshine prevailed.

Michelle, Steve, Christina, Paul, Ros, Belinda, John, Duncan and Gill completed tonight’s line up.

After some GG local updates and banter together with a fair amount of gentle nagging from me about the importance of keeping up to date with weekly GG communications , the team set off on the 2k run to St Botolph’s church garden.

With a warm welcome from Sue and Peter together with church wardens Rick and Val the team were briefed with our jobs for the evening

Firstly there was the challenging task of clearing an area around the old chapel garden which shrouded in a wilderness of brambles, ivy, bindweed and thicket. Secondly we were asked to scrape and sweep moss off the concrete paths around the back of the church.

Font’astic task

Without our very own snowflake this week we had to make our own entertainment but truthfully the whole team just got stuck in with fairly hefty intensive work.

Christina, Gill and Michelle started with the moss clearing whilst Barbara and Duncan, both rocking their black t-shirts disappeared around the corner to attack the brambles and weeds.

Paul and Steve were recruited by Peter for some heavy work to dislodge a metal barrier gate from the remains of the old chapel which were being anchored by weeds and brambles. With a bit of a heave-ho the obstruction was dislodged so that further work could take place to clear the area so that people could walk around the remains. Belinda and John worked in perfect harmony pulling up the overgrown weeds and brambles in what appeared as if it might be a rockery.

Imagine our surprise when John discovered the remains of a font under the tangled weeds. It even had a space for a plug at the bottom. It is most likely that this is the original font from the 13th century remains of the chapel on the east side of the church where we were working. So in reality tonights task was like an archaeological dig!

We all decided that alongside the accompanying large stone slabs of rock we could make a feature of this area similar to our project last week at The Rowans. This may encourage the community to come and rediscover a part of the history that has been hidden for years.

With another fond farewell and promise to return very soon we headed off for a steady, wind assisted, run back along the seafront past our GG flowerbed. The front group doubled back so that we all stayed within the vicinity of each other before a parkrun sprint finish and the start of our fitness session.

Holy HIIT

With the GG Worthing fitness challenge well under way we set about 2 rounds of 8 moves with 15 repetitions of each. The moves were Inchworms, Squat jumps, Mountain climbers, Inchworms with press ups, hover to plank, burpees, press up jacks, cross crawl abs.

SUCCESS all depends on the second letter

After the first round of the exercises the team looked hopefully at me for the cue to head to the pub but despite some puppy eyed looks I kept them going another 10 minutes with one more round of each move.

With commitment this challenge WILL make you stronger and fitter so what have you got to loose by giving it a try? Every day would be amazing but in reality 4 times a week would do it.

On the subject of success, special mention to John who has achieved his goal of running without stopping the parkrun 5 k a whole 4 weeks ahead of schedule! Lets all extend massive kudos and congratulations to you John. U did it! Now to work on the next challenge :)

In other news

Many thanks to John for reshaping our letter 'G' in the seafront flowerbed. If any of you have any time to do some dead heading so that it can be restored to its former glory that would be much appreciated ( but only if you have green fingers please!! )

Lucy and Duncan are training hard for their ultra-run on 7th September. Both are doing it for charity (Help the heroes- Lucy and Turning Tides-Duncan ) Wishing you both lots of luck for the tough training regime.

Pauls Birthday celebrations have been postponed until we can celebrate Tamsin’s too. How about a Wednesday meal at the new Caribbean restaurant in Worthing (next to TK Max) 14th, 21st or 28th August? Let me know ASAP.

GG HQ asked Nick to write an article to help promote walking groups. Here it is Thank you NRG :)

Founder of GG Ivo did a great podcast. Have listen

Next week we are meeting at Splashpoint and heading to Turning Tides Byron Road hostel and also Stepping Stones in Manor Road.

Hope to see you all then,

Julia xxx

Run report in progress

50 ways to have your cake and eat it

So one week after Barbara's 50th good deed we all convened for tonights task which was followed by wonderful post run drinks and home made cakes all generously provided by Barbara.

Winding back to the start Paula, Andy ,Gill, Tamsin ,Jay, Belinda , John and of course Barbara set off either walking , jalking or running just over 1 mile to St Botolph's church where we were warmly met by Val , Sue and Peter for a garden tidy up.

Once again the walkers and jalkers comprising of Paula John and Barbara beat the runners to the task wasting no time in getting started . Our task tonight was to clear a large are of overgrown brambles and weeds and stingers. Thankfully Sue and Peter had brought along a wonderful range of tools and gloves to help us with this prickly task.

Gill wasted no time with her 'fine pruning' and was a bit of a daredevil climbing up to secure the elusive trailing ivy ( no holly in sight) Barbara and Andy were on the long shears whilst Paula did some super sweeping with John raking it all in and Jay and Tamsin on frequent wheelbarrow shuttles and tidying.

30 short minutes later we were thanked most profusely and even given a humbling round of applause as we left by Val,Sue and Peter . Its always a delight to work with these lovely people and we look forward to being with you again next week at Heene Cemetery which is one of the group's favourite tasks.

Saints and sprinters

Leaving the church garden as saints we turned into sprinters along the seafront with some lamp post interval training which we haven't done for a while. It was good to put these drills in again especially for those of you wanting to improve your speed and lactic acid thresholds. We picked up Duncan along the way and there really were some super speedy individual efforts by all.

It was great to see the runners doing the first day of the marathon madness 7 in 7 Sussex Trail Event . Its not every day that rhino runs along Worthing seafront ! Massive kudos to you all running up and down Worthing 8 times!

We stopped to admire the progress on our seafront flower bed including the recently added running track that John had made earlier today . With all the watering efforts and recent rain it really is looking prolific. Special thanks to Mr and Mrs R for all their help with the bed.

BB + GG = CC (cup-cakes) 4 all

With threatening skies and drops of rain falling we abandoned the outside celebrations in favour of the upstair balcony at Splashpoint where the bubbly, beer and cider was cracked open and cupcakes laid out. What a selection there was with all flavours and varieties tastes taken care of .

After John's wonderful momento that he had made Barbara last week I added a collage of photo reminders and we all raised a glass to her first epic year with GG . We were also joined by Nick who popped down in support of this special evening ( once he had tracked us down! )

Its a wrap

With us all tucking into the goodies Jay didn't disappoint with 5 empty cake cases carefully folded as a reminder of his love of eating cake!

Special mention to the peanut butter one from me ! My absolute favourite which I don't think helped with my post holiday weigh in this morning!

This Sunday marks the end of the June challenge and you are all invited down for the final run and fun in the sun meeting at Splashpoint starting at 2 pm with the run followed by some games and BYO picnic from around 3 onwards on the green. All family, friends and dates are very welcome ! The more the merrier :)

Enjoy the final 5 days of the challenge and look on the bright side .... June only has 30 days!

Sending lots of GG love

Julia x