Once upon a time, Maidenhead had a book festival called the Big Read...

It was a wonderful event, which inspired the townspeople and their children to fall in love with reading. The festival hub was at The Nicholson Centre, where the Inspiration Theatre welcomed famous writers and illustrators to wow the public with their tales, and the Big Read Stop gave people a space to buy, swap and share books, letting their imaginations run wild. The festivities spilled into Schools, Libraries, the Heritage Centre, Bakedd Artisan Bakery, even a bus, and hundreds of free books were given away as if they grew on trees. In fact, legend has it that there really was a tree bearing literary fruit, right at the heart of The Nicholson Centre.

Before any books were given away, they needed a sticker inside the cover, to tell the recipient about the Big Read and to encourage them to pass the book on so that the joy of reading would spread through the land forevermore... but the volume of books and the trickiness of cutting up the stickers without making it impossible to peel the back off them, made this a laborious task, especially if you didn't have long nails.

Around the same time as the Big Read began, The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead was also supporting the launch of another brilliant community initiative, GoodGym - a group of runners brought together by their shared dream to get fit and to do good - and when their Trainer Amy got talking to the Big Read's Chairman Stephan, they hatched a novel plan: on a cold and damp Wednesday night, while the townspeople were at home watching Netflix, the GoodGym gang would storm the deserted Nicholson Centre and get the stickering done.

On the chosen night in MiddleMarch the GoodGym group gathered, for only the second time in this area, welcomed new faces Prue, Richard, and Rachael, and admired Sani and Rich's brand new red GoodGym T-shirts. The warm-up involved a variation on musical chairs, where we learned that Nick has run in the London Olympic Stadium, and Amy grappled with the Curious Incidents of the extra cones in the Night-time.

The GoodGym start location was very close to the task, so the run was a meet and retreat session run in pairs around the imaginary Town Track - a 600m loop of St Ives Road, the High Street, York Road and the new bit of towpath opposite the library. The session was devised to suit runners of all abilities, and gave everyone the chance to incorporate some faster and slower intervals at their own pace. Amy waited with Great Expectations at the start of the loop and for a few moments All was Quiet on the Western Front. Then there was much waving and cheering as runners started appearing from both sides, passing with a high-five and disappearing again On The Road. Lord of the Rings with the most circuits was Richard, and special kudos goes to Sophie and Nick, who climbed The Thirty-Nine(ish) Steps while waiting for the group to come back together.

The group then ran together to the task, and after a quick briefing, an introduction to Stephan's colleague Sarah Street, and some marveling at innovative stools, the great cutting, peeling, sticking and book-sorting began.

Whilst hands were busy, the magic of the Big Read began to work on the group, and conversations turned to books. Memories were sparked, laughs were had, and book titles inspired some silly photos.

In a side plot, Laura and Allora headed to the Ping Pong Parlour to tackle the books left in swaps by the townspeople. They also enjoyed a history lesson from a copy of The Sainsbury Book of Children's Party Cooking that was older than they are.

There sadly wasn't time for ping pong in the end, but there was still a happy ending. In just half an hour, over 15 boxes and 2 book-cases full of books had been stickered and sorted into boxes for children and grown-ups. Stephan was delighted with the result, and invited everyone to come back by day to enjoy the buzz of the festival with their families and friends. (And yes Dear Reader, you're right, although this tale is written in the past tense for dramatic effect, the festival continues until the 8th of March, so you haven't missed out! Find out more here.)

In the post-task fitness session, our heroes and heroines wrote a saga of their own. Mountains were climbed, Jacks were jumped and lunges were lunged. The group then headed back to base, and they all lived happily ever after.

If this story has left you hungry for more, then look no further than our next adventure, an intrepid trip into The Heart of Darkness to saw up firewood for the Braywick Nature Centre to use with school groups. It will be dark and muddy and head-torches are essential - its going to be saw much fun!!

Also hope to see some of you at a special Parkrun this Saturday to celebrate International Women's Day. Why not bring your sister, your daughter, your mum, your granny or your wife and make it a family affair?

At this evening's launch event for GoodGym Windsor and Maidenhead 44 runners ran 5km to help the Maidenhead Community Allotment.

Considering it had been hailing just a few hours previously, this was a fantastic turnout, and a sign of the grit and commitment we now know to expect from the good people of Windsor and Maidenhead. There was much chatter and anticipation as the group gathered in the foyer of the Town Hall. It was great to see 32 new faces, as well as a group of superstar GoodGym tourists from Slough and Ealing, and GoodGym gurus Liv, Rebecca and Rich from head office.

New Trainer Amy welcomed everyone, including special guest Councillor Karen Davies, Ward Councillor for Clewer East, and introduced Helen Preedy, the Sports Development Manager for the borough.

Since seeing a GoodGym advertisment a few years ago on the London Underground, Helen and her colleague Mark have worked hard to bring the GoodGym dream to Windsor and Maidenhead, and to realise the potential it has to bring people together from different parts of the community and to boost both mental and physical health...

...helping both Maidenhead and (Maiden)body as one wannabe pun-queen put it.

Amy then shared the plan for the evening, the walkers headed off down the high-street and the runners headed to the outdoor amphi-theatre for a quick warm-up. This Maidenhead gem is lit like a real theatre, even on a chilly night in February, lending a dramatic atmosphere to a few leg swings and high knees. The criss-cross had a few of us going cross-eyed and some may still be wondering what Wendy calls that hip limbering move.

Then the runners were off too - chatting as they looped over the smart new foot-bridge, and down the High Street to catch up with the walkers. After the under-pass towards High Town Road the group spread out a bit more as they tackled Castle Hill. Special mentions go to front-runner Frances whose local knowledge kept everyone heading in the right direction, and to Adrian who won the best dressed award in his smart coat - proving that you don't need fancy lycra to be a runner!

No mucking around

At the task we were warmly welcomed by volunteers from the Maidenhead Community Allotment and the Men in Sheds, who had already begun preparations for our visit - not least of all collecting 53 bags of horse manure! After a briefing from the Chairman of the Men in Sheds and a group photo - everyone grabbed a tool and quickly set to work. Within minutes four raised beds and a long border were dug over and being enriched with mulch enthusiasm and shouts of 'I'm pooing over here!' from Emily. Meanwhile another group were getting diggy with it in the sensory area, removing turf to increase the area for planting.

The vision for the allotment is that it can benefit the community in more ways than one: the raised beds are used for growing veg, which is donated to Foodshare, the Boyn Grove Resource and Community Centre's Bridge That Gap Cafe next door, and also used by local residents and the allotment volunteers; the sensory area is used by the neighbouring Clara Court Care Home, which specialises in dementia care. Their residents will be planting and enjoying flowers in this area in the coming months; and the Men in Sheds offer a space for 'shedders' to benefit from regular social interaction and enjoy new and improved practical skills.

We do give a fig

After a quick strategy planning meeting behind the shed, the fig tree relocation team sprung into action. Nick set to work loosening the pot from its old home and others took turns digging a new hole, which will be more accessible for watering. Unphased by hitting concrete, they powered on until the hole was deep enough for the pot. Amy enquired as to whether anyone was getting cold...Fig goodness sake Amy, this is an even better workout than the run up the hill!

The walkers departed as the rest of the team swept up and tidied away the tools, and then the mulchers did a bit of running on the spot while the fig tree was tucked into its new bed. Manure hands really do make light work and we were really impressed by how much we had achieved as we set off back along the Bath Road and down the hill. We congregated in Kidwells Park for our fitness session, the CONES OF DOOM. This speed circuits session had everyone running around in circles, squatting, hopping, mountain climbing and even dancing for 5 minutes before we once more filled the High Street on our way back to the Town Hall.

Coming up...

If you enjoyed this evening's launch then you will be pleased to know we have our next group run starting at the same time in the same place next week, and every week after that! Next week we have an indoor task, stickering and sorting boxes of donated books for the Big Read book festival. We were lucky enough this evening to have the Chairman of the Big Read, Stephan joining us on our run. We hope lots of you will sign up here to help Stephan next week.

On today's run we also introduced Rich, who helps coordinate coach runs and missions to help isolated older people. These activities are another great way you can get involved with GoodGym and combine your fitness fix with helping in your community. Click on the links or ask Amy at your next group run for more info.