Tonight Anne, Wayne , Nadia, Claire, Kirsty, Agathe, Luan and Katie took on the first Wednesday night task of 2025 - leafleting around the local area and spreading the word about Goodgym and "Yoga with Jim".

Anne led the group and Wayne made sure no one was left behind. Despite the freezing cold weather and sleet, the group ran over 5km around Woking. We hope that people feel encouraged to join GoodGym.

Will you help either:

• on Saturday when we will take part in Brooklands parkrun then run to St John's The Baptist to help removing leaves from low lying gutters and gullies;

• on Sunday to support Woking junior parkrun and join some of us cheering the young runners along their loop of 2 kms;

• or next Wednesday when we will pick up litter along some of Woking streets?

It was a chilly and rainy evening, but that didn’t stop the fantastic Woking Goodgym members from coming out in full force to wrap up the year with a final mission!

This evening, we were thrilled to welcome Chris, Karen, and Laura for their first time with us. We’re so happy to have you on the team and hope you enjoyed the mission as much as we did!

Tonight's adventure was organised by James, who brought along his Christmas backpack packed with 1,300 leaflets for the Shooting Star Children's Hospice fundraiser.

Shooting Star is collecting and recycling as many Christmas trees as they can this year in exchange for donations, which helps support children with life-limiting conditions and their siblings — what a wonderful cause!

Our determined group of ten set off toward the town centre, running through Woking Park, with Quinn, the dog, wagging his tail even harder in excitement beside us! We decided to extend our session tonight to get as many leaflets delivered as possible.

The GG army arrived at our first stop, and thanks to James and his magical keys, we quickly accessed 7 of Woking's apartment complexes to fill their letterboxes. It was like witnessing the world's most efficient production line!

After we finished there, we agreed to keep the leafleting going on our way back to the leisure centre, targeting both sides of Hillview Road, White Rose Lane, and Ockenden Gardens.

By the time we regrouped at the leisure centre, we were all buzzing with excitement after delivering a whopping 1,240 leaflets in just over an hour!

Karen, Laura, and Nadia took a few leaflets to share in their neighbourhoods, tonight, Anne, Wayne, and Alys had fun taking turns as backmarkers. Kirsty played the role of the unofficial lollipop lady, making sure everyone crossed those busy roads safely and struggled to keep up with the current, "not a runner" Agathe who whizzed through the streets.

Wayne captured some fantastic photos, and Alys Alys them on social media to spread the word about Shooting Star's cause.

James led the way as our fearless run leader tonight, and as a fun twist, Nadia still has some burpees to do in the new year as her penalty for not wearing her red tutu, Anne narrowly missed her penalty by nipping home and picking up hers to wear.

We missed our lovely regulars Katie and Becky this evening, who both are recovering from illness, and we look forward to supporting them back to full fitness in the new year.

On Saturday and Sunday, GG Woking is supporting the Woking District Rotary Club, James has arranged a group social 10k run at Polesdon Lacey on Sunday for members who are not volunteering at Woking Junior's Parkrun.

On Christmas Day, several members are meeting at Homewood Parkrun to build up a calorie deficit ahead of their Christmas lunches. Merry Christmas everyone!

Wayne organised a fantastic venue for GoodGym Woking's Christmas Party 2024: The Sky Bar on the 22nd floor of The Hilton Hotel in Woking. Everyone was looking forward to celebrating 12 months of friendship, fitness, and, most of all, remembering the collective efforts of GoodGym Woking, which have contributed to improving the lives of others in Woking. Unfortunately, Wayne's Euromillions ticket entry was fruitless, but the evening was successful!

Adam, Alys, Anne, Rebecca, Caterina, Julie, Kirsty, Lauren, Nadia & Wayne were settled in their reserved seating area and were thrilled and surprised when Agathe arrived to join the party. As a recent GG joiner, Agathe shared how much she has appreciated the warmth and friendship offered by everyone since the first time she attended GoodGym. We are pleased you chose to join us, Agathe! Kirsty shared that by joining a community whose purpose is to altruistically help others, she discovered an unintended benefit, 'helper's high' or, to phrase it more scientifically, discovering that completing acts of altruism releases endorphins and boosts oxytocin and dopamine levels.

The first cocktails arrived, and everyone was very interested in observing the chosen concoctions. Each glass was greeted with choruses of enthusiastic 'ohs and ahs'. Nadia wandered over to one of the huge windows before deciding quickly if it was 'a bit too high'! Alys made everyone laugh with her irrepressible sense of fun and gift for storytelling, while Lauren wanted to know if Wayne would consider stopping at McDonald's on the way home. Like Anne and Alys, Rebecca wore her red tutu to keep the event on brand, which is fitting for a GG Trustee! Adam and Wayne seemed too attached to their woolly hats, wearing them throughout the evening. Other revellers were impressed by their efforts. Caterina enjoyed meeting the GG stalwarts properly for the first time and having time for a good natter; she was rather concerned about whether those with early starts in the morning would manage to get up for work. Welcome to GG Woking, Caterina!

Soon, it was time to go home, and thanks to the designated driver, Wayne, those who were too far from home were driven there by Wayne. And yes, he did stop at McDonald's on the way!

What's ahead for Good Gym Woking between now and the end of 2024? The group's 'Run up to Christmas' distance challenge continues raising money for mental health charities until Christmas Day. Five members are participating in Battersea's Park Run this Saturday. There are volunteering opportunities each Sunday in December at Woking's Junior Park Run, where we help children enjoy running. Also, this Sunday, we will support the All Aboard Club by creating an inclusive play setting for children with additional needs. Later in the month, there will be a GG promotion event and a gardening task at a local church. We will support the Woking Rotary Club's Christmas collections on several dates. A litter-picking session is also scheduled. A 10 km trail run at Polesdon Lacey for some training benefits and also leaflet dropping.

Leaflet Drop For Sam Beare Hospice

On this cold freezing night 9 GG members met to deliver leaflets for Sam Beare Hospice.

A big welcome to Viktoriia who we met at the volunteer for Woking event while she was there representing another charity. Viktoriia also happened to be a friend of Agathe 😀

Wayne, Adam, Katie, Alys, Agathe, Kirsty, Nadia, & Rebecca met at Woking leisure center all wrapped up 🥶

It was great seeing Rebecca who walked over to collect some leaflets to deliver, not quite ready to run as of yet after her surgery but not long now 😀.

After a warm up session by Adam which Quinn also got involved in 🐶 we headed out of the park towards Mount Hermon to hit the houses there we split up into two groups one on each side 🏃🏻‍♂️ including the Cul-du-Sacs.

It was so cold even with gloves it was very difficult & Wayne & Adam had shorts on the nutters 😮

Unfortunately we did not manage to do as many roads of we had planned due to the weather, but GG members between them will take leaflets and deliver them locally throughout the week and will also be handing them out on the weekend park runs until they have all gone 😀.

Winter time approaches, and it is not always possible to find tasks for the team. So this week, we decided to run for the fun of being together in the rain... Adam, Agathe, Alys, Kirsty, Nadia and Anne were joined by Rich, our honorary GoodGymer and photographer extraordinaire!

We had another very special guest: Rocket! Rocket may soon become our GG's mascot, he is so good at running with us. He makes weird noises (sorry, I do not speak dog language) to encourage us to be faster or to keep going up the hills. Thank you Rocket.

Unfortunately, Adam had to stop as his leg was starting to be painful. But instead of running the 7 kms to St John's Village and back, he went to the gym to exercise. We hope your leg gets better soon Adam.

Tonight's route was hilly at different stages, but we managed: it was good practice for Saturday's parkrun in Ottershaw or any other race coming up this month. The rain was appreciated by most of us: it felt cool and refreshing. Not that we want it every time we are out though...

Tomorrow some of us will take part in the event "Working Together For Woking" when we will promote all the benefits GoodGym brings to both the runners and the community. We will report back, no worries!

Will you be joining us on Sunday to support Woking junior parkrun?

In the meantime, happy running to you all.