6 lovely humans gathered together on the grounds of St Clement's Church for the first group run of 2020. This is also the place where we go to help with the Secret Garden when the days weren't too short.

We caught up on all the gossip and Christmas chat and headed towards the starting spot for our flyer drop. Today we were spreading the word for the YMCA, and making people aware of all the facilities and courses they run. These are great at the money they make from them, goes right back into supporting the community.

Along with their flyer we also spread the word about GoodGym, hoping that more people get involved with it and along with that, get more active this January to help ease away the January blues.

With three of us on one side of the road and three on the other we flitted in and out of driveways, synchronising and avoiding sharp letter boxes and stubborn latches on gates. With one road complete we snaked back on the parallel road and continued this way until we had run out of leaflets.

With empty hands but with a newfound knowledge of back roads and awareness of all the places we have yet to explore in our own back yard, we said our good byes and got back to our usual Sunday afternoons!

Well done everyone!! This week's run is to the care home to host their monthly quiz! Start studying for it!

It looked like it would never stop raining this Wednesday....drizzle and rain on and off all day...but the weather and I have an agreement...it can do whatever it likes all week but come 5pm or so on a Wednesday and it has to take a chill pill and be supportive of our group run...and this week that agreement had to be respected more than usual as we didn't want our YMCA flyers to get soggy in the rain...

......unless of course you drop them......

8 of us gathered at Flirt, ready to take on puddles, good conversation, letterboxes and flyer dropping techniques. Amber had now qualified to be part of the Task Force and soon put her new role to good use by snapping shots of the gang.

After a quick team talk about what the plan was and where we were headed we set off through the pedestrian area in town and up the gradual climb to Horseshoe Common....the site of our litter pick for next week.

Running through the trees and breathing in all the fresh air we came out the other end and neared out starting point for the drop. We split up into two teams....with no names....we have to pick team names next time guys! Team A consisted of Navigator Fredrika, Marianne, Hannah and the energetically challenged Sarah (due to missing her curfew the night before). Team B was made up of photographer Amber, Caprice, Neil and myself.

We split up and set a meeting up point to see who would make it back first....it was a draw...although we did risk our lives crossing the road to try and get the win....good commitment guys! Only joking we responsibly used the crossing!

In and out of houses we went, meeting back after each block to make sure everyone was still alive, no one had lost any fingers or had close calls with any rabid dogs protecting their owners of junk mail. Loyal creatures!

After a quick catch up with a lovely lady from Nairobi and her cute dog Coco, Team A helped Team B distribute the last couple of flyers left and we headed back the way we came, all down hill and feeling way better about ourselves for spending some time outdoors, talking to friends and doing a good deed!

Thank you to Amber for the photos for the report and Fredrika and Caprice for back marking us today. Caprice managed to join our GoodGym neighbours in Poole the night before on an epically long run, then do a coach run in the morning, join us for another 8km and look fresh as a daisy!

Next week is a very special run. It marks our 3rd Birthday and along with that we are celebrating Grace who is leaving us at the end of the month. Not celebrating that she's leaving obviously, we're celebrating all the time she's been with us of course!!! SIgn up to the group run here. After the run we are heading to Franco Manca for dinner and drinks so get in touch if you'd like to join us as I will be booking a table this Friday. Currently there are 16 of us for Pizza, the more the merrier! Please come along even if you haven't been for a while!

Tonight we set out to finish what we started last week....and I'm delighted to say that it was Mission Complete!

We didn't scare off Sophie from last week as she came back for round two....not even broken arms and soggy weather were enough to put her off!! Love it!

Spencer came along to his first GoodGym experience and came through with flying colours! Welcome Spence, hope to see you next week!

Roshana and Claire were also back after a few weeks off and it was great to have so many lovely faces back together again!

We headed back to where we stopped last week and continued on adjacent roads. We passed out the flyers and the gang split up into 2 teams of 6....Team A: Phil, Marianne, Abi, Sean, Roshana and Claire. Team Amazing: Caprice, Daryl, Fredrika, Spencer, Sophie and myself.

Team A were extra speedy this evening and beat Team Amazing back to the rendevouz spots on more than one occasion.

After stepping in a lot of puddles, smelling a lot of illegal substances, trying to figure out how to get to a property's front door, and if it then even had a letter box or not....we ran out of flyers. So a much more successful night than last week for sure. And no injuries either! Well....a couple of scratches on hands from some sharp letter boxes.

It felt like for the last month or so all our group runs had been shorter ones so this week we decided to go a little longer to make up for it. With the help of Fredrika, liberated from back marking duties, she led us along her old neighbourhoods and back to where we started, on a more scenic route. A total of 8.5km of running at a mellow pace and only one evil hill to deal with right at the end!

We team talked about next week's dinner, had a stretch and said our goodbyes. All heading off in different directions!

Thank you Caprice for back marking this evening! Daryl is now on 196 good deeds, Caprice on 181!! The race is on for the magical 200!!!

Well done everyone!! Next week it's games at the Care Home and food at the Stable after. Send me an e-mail if you'd like to join us for that!

To celebrate GoodGym's 10th Birthday we were doing a flyer drop for the YMCA as well as spreading the word about the wonderful things we do on Wednesday evenings.

10 of us gathered for the 10th year celebrations. Wet set off through the Gardens in search of some of the art that is on display at the underpass. Some stunning artwork that has been organised by our very on Andrea, part of the Arts by the Sea festival that is taking place of the weekend of the 27th to 29th in Bournemouth. Lots and lots to see and do, so make sure you check it all out here. We will also be running a community mission/starter session on the 29th. Sign up here for that.

We welcomed back Nicola and Kristina, as well as Sean, who never misses the opportunity and synchronicity of a flyer drop....or was it the food and drinks after?

Our route took us up Leven Avenue which is lined by tall and beautiful trees on both sides and hugely expensive houses on one side.....enough to distract you from the steep climb to the top of the road.

We gathered at the top and pretended like it hadn't cost us half a lung to run up the hill, had a quick chat and set off again along another tree lined street that would lead us to our starting point...and to more very expensive houses.

The gang split up into 2 teams of 5 and with flyers in hand went on parallel roads spreading the word about our goodness. Very often we would enter a driveway only to realise that is was the exit to a house where someone else had already entered via the other side....these houses were immense....one day we'll be old enough to be able to afford one....or be high society enough to know someone to who lives in one!

We flitted in and out of houses and never ending driveways and soon found ourselves back at the Gardens and the only thing that was left was to head back to Flirt and gather our things and start dreaming of the first beer and what we would order for food!

We said goodbye to some and Sean, Abi, Andrea, Caprice, KC, Neil and I headed to the Dancing Moose for some well earned food and drink. Read through the lovely GoodGym book that goes to show the amazing impact that GoodGym has had on people, and realising that we are part of something very special. I am extremely grateful for the wonderful people GoodGym has brought into my life. You guys are amazing. Can't wait to run and hang with you next week!

Special shout out to those of you training for the races coming up! Amber on top of her training, has also decided to give up smoking, so please give her a huge cheer and make sure she feels your support....and pressure to keep at it! It's not easy Amber, but well worth it, and you definitely are!

See you next week!

This evening saw the gang get together with the aim of spreading the word about great things on offer in our community!# We had one flyer for the training on offer at the YMCA and their facilities, another flyer for the Repair Cafe. Transition Bournemouth and Bournemouth Council want to encourage local people to consider repairing damaged items, even if they are unsure how, by ‘asking the expert’ at a Repair Café and learning new skills for next time as the item is fixed. Then on the other side of that we were promoting the excellent Give or Take Day. Give or Take Days are like jumble sales, but everything’s free. It doesn’t cost anything to donate your unwanted items. You can take home anything you want – for free. Sounds pretty sweet to us! And the other flyer was a GoodGym flyer trying to find us more missions in Bournemouth.

Once the gang had gathered and we had welcomed back Andrew we set off at a very mellow pace through the pedestrian district, through the Square and gradually up towards Holdenhurst Road with the aim of reaching Windham Road and our starting spot.

With the flyers nicely sorted we handed out individual packs and split up into two group to cover both sides of the road. In no time we had done most of it and it was time to cross the rail track, safely of course, and onto Churchill Gardens. There were a couple team swaps at some points and Caprice even managed to get lucky flyering her own house!

We regrouped and checked our times and how many leaflets we had left and headed back a different route. By the end of it I reckon Fredrika had gotten familiar with a whole new part of Bournemouth!

Thank you to Caprice for being a great Backmarker as always!

Well done everyone, that's a lot of flyers we dropped off for lots of different causes. We even heard from Abi, who we flyer dropped for three weeks ago, that her event was a great success and that instead of the 300 or so people she was expecting around 900 turned up instead and that a lot of them mentioned they had seen the flyers! Brilliant!

Next week we are heading to the Foodbank to help sort through donations. One of our favourite tasks! Sign up here

Sign up or be SQUARE!

Tonight saw us combine a flyer drop for the YMCA and LeAF Studio school. Promoting the YMCA facilities and services and the school are doing a musical in July and and are looking to promote their show.

We had the lovely Sean and Laura come and hang out with us again, we were starting to miss them and they must have sensed it!

Daryl managed to sort out the flyers so that we wouldn't double up and were ready for our synchronised running.

After almost 8km the gang had managed to deliver round 700 flyers and made it back to base with 5 minutes to spare!

9 of us headed to the pub after to have some drinks and a bite to eat and hang out! Always lovely to hang out with amazing people!!

See you all next week!!