Tonight was a special evening for several reasons with the main one being it was our 1st Birthday Group Run.

It was also our record turnout at GoodGym Norwich with 36 runners... and this time I was present for the record turnout.

We had 4 new runners in Neil, Kate, Lucy & Katie so a big shout out to you.

5 of our runners were hitting milestones tonight - joining the '10 good deed club' were Stephen, Jen & Graham and joining the '25 good deed club' were Michelle & Helen. Fantastic effort and I'm looking forward to more milestones being achieved in the future.

We also did a round of applause for those who did races at the weekend that I know included Jen, Hayley, Brad & Graham.

Tonight's task was to help re-energise a sensory garden at The Clare School, which is a specialist ‘physical and sensory’ complex needs school. It's about 3km away so I nice little jog there and back on a very warm and sunny evening. Our runner Hayley works there and is great to see how passionate she is about it (and how excited she was for us to arrive).

I also announced during the warm up that we had the 1km trial tonight ahead of the #GGOlympics2018 taking place in London this weekend.

Calum and Katy led headed the run tomorrow now that they are both qualified Run Leaders, which meant I could be back runner this week.

On arrival Hayley and Jen were awaiting us with some glamorous music (I won't mention my dancing) and a couple of the teachers had provided with a wonderful selection of cakes and goodies... this is becoming a habit I could get used to ;-)

After a briefing of what the tasks were, I took half of the group to do their 1km Time Trial in Eaton Park and then once we returned the rest of those who wanted to do it came over to Eaton Park for their turn.

By the time the 2nd group returned from the 1km Time Trial, some of the group decided that it was Basketball and Netball time... with the photo of Calum's dunk one of my favourites of the year so far... along with the group photo we had taken at the end with some incredible poses and facial expressions from everyone.

It was time to gnaw on the treats that were provided for us and then a sluggish 3km jog back to The Forum.

After some stretched it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Catherine D, our most deeded GoodGym-er.

...and being our birthday we had to head to the pub for some food and a beverage.

Tonight was probably my favourite GoodGym experience so far, to see how the group has grown, developed and bonded over the last year, as well as all the amazing good deeds they've dedicated their time to makes me feel very privileged and proud to be a part of so THANK YOU to everyone who has been part of the journey so far. I'm looking forward to partying with some of you on Sunday.

Next week we have another awesome run when we Clean the GoGoHares in partnership with Co-operatives Fortnight 2018.

That’s right, our leader, our captain, the sultan, the grand pupa Steven Hitch abandoned us to go sun himself – and on our 50th run too! Thankfully the gracious and glorious Paul Evans stood in for Steve. Paul Evans, winner of the 1991 Lisbon Half Marathon, the 1996 Chicago Marathon and 10k finalist in the 1992 Olympics – we’re looking into making this swap slightly more permanent

Our intrepid runners gathered excitedly on the steps of The Forum. Eagerly awaiting Paul’s arrival. What would he be like? Would he bring his medals? Could he run on water? And how were we going to work his AND Steve’s name into a pun worthy of a Goodgym run report title?! (We smashed the last one, thanks Hayley and Liz)

Paul soon arrived and settled everyone into a warm up. After some stretches with an Olympian, a half-cut punk and 32 Goodgym runners we were ready to call this a weird joke and go home. Instead Paul handed off the responsibility of leading the run to Sarah and Calum, very sneaky Mr Olympian. There was immediate concern. Calum has often led Goodgymers astray in past runs – and not even in a humorous way, in a “Where is Calum and his 5 runners?” way. Still we all had faith in Paul’s decision, and no-one else wanted to set the pace for the night.

After multiple ‘almost wrong turns’, a dozen ‘not that way Calum’s’ and a few ‘Grab him before he runs to Ipswich’ the runners arrived at the base of Gas Hill. Now, the runners have faced this specific challenge many a time in the past. They were familiar with the deceptively devilish slope. But in their prolonged absence from the eye-watering incline of Gas Hill this once surmountable task had developed into nothing less than a behemoth. It was a colossus of gradients, the master of calf bursting, one hell of a mole hill. They set off.

ALL MADE THE PEAK!! They celebrated with high fives and “whooping”. Some whispered they heard Paul even say “That’s quite the hill” but that’s just rumour and hearsay. Soon our sweaty travellers arrived at their set task. De-weeding Marion Road Day Centre’s garden. Ploughing into the challenge our runners pulled, tugged and trimmed to their hearts content.

The task wasn’t without its mishaps. One young man was sitting, enwrapped in his task. He and his gardening fork are united in uprooting the befouling weeds before them. The rise and fall of his tool is rhythmic. Sweat and focus cover his face. Until, tragedy. The Fork has broken. The middle tooth lost in the wilderness of the garden. Oh for fork-sake. Despite this set back the team make the garden beautiful. And by a happy accident they end up collecting an extra runner from somewhere.* Wonder of wonders they’ve hit 33 and broken their record for highest attendance in Goodgym Norwich history!

The task completed, and Day centre staff elated, our runners head back to The Forum. A sprint session finished off the night’s 3.5km run. Some say a more punctual run has never been had. Others, that Sarah and Calum’s leadership was simultaneously inspirational and uplifting. Still all you need know is everyone arrived back safely. Stretched. Thanked Paul for his kind service to the cause and then ate some brownies supplied by Jasmine. Alas! Here our tale does end. Before I leave you to wait another week to hear of our next exciting exploits I shall leave you with this. You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes, you can run your life in any direction you choose. Until next time folks!

(*Actually it was Emily who joined us at the task!)

To put things into perspective, we had 32 GoodGymers tonight running just over 11.5km, that equates to over 370km in total and 16 hours of volunteering time... very fitting for National Volunteering Week. It was also our joint highest turnout and longest ever Group Run.

We had 3 new runners in Emily, Brad and Lisa - what a run to start on so a massive welcome and well done to you!

Some milestones this week - Rosie A on completing 10 GoodGym deeds and Alex, Samantha and Sarah E on each completing 25 GoodGym deeds.

Also a big Happy Birthday to Robert, he'd produced some millionaire's shortbread as motivation to run back to at the end, along with Calum's brownies.

Tonights task was to visit The Grow Organisation at Bowthorpe to dig up and flatten out an overgrown patch that will then be set up as an area used by Veterans to work, rest and play. There were also some other weeding bits and bobs to do.

As we had such a large group and a long way to go, I lead the session, Catherine was going to be in the middle and Bill as back runner.

The topic for the run out was 'favourite type of brownie' with no pun intended for those who have visited Amsterdam haha. Probably not best prep for a long run out but luckily we got a biscuit on arrival to control the hunger.

Alex and her team were ready and waiting for us with their tools ands gloves. After a well earned 5 minute recovery break and drink (plus the biscuit) the army of red t-shirts go stuck in. As task owner Alex quoted:

They're like a swarm of locust that come through and tear all the rubbish up

After 30 minutes we headed off for the long journey back where aforementioned cakes were awaiting us.

A good stretch was then needed.

A mention to Jasmine for pushing herself and completing her longest ever run! Also Darren for this week's pun.

It was when time for an extremely tasty cake and a duly trip to the pub, you all did good.

Next week I shall be in Tenerife so you have a guest in double Olympian Paul Evans leading the session, which will in fact be our 50th at GoodGym Norwich!

We were only 1 short of a record turnout at GoodGym Norwich so thank you to everyone for turning out this evening... over 15 hours of volunteering time was given to Norwich Farmshare.

Announcements this week were to Elizabeth for taking part in her 25th GoodGym good deed. Elizabeth and Darren did the Wroxham 5km series on Wednesday evening. Robert B did the Chase the Train on Sunday and Sam finished top female at her Parkrun.

Calum completed his Leadership in Running Fitness course at the weekend so is nearly ready to assist me with sessions. Katy has hers in June.

3 new runners were taking part in their 1st GoodGym encounter so welcome Tammy, Annie and Naomi :-)

It was a lovely warm evening and we took a scenic route through Marriott's Way and Sloughbottom Park. The sight of all the red GoodGym t-shirts in the sunlight was a phenomenal spectacle as we embarked on our 2-mile outward journey.

Some of the GoodGym-ers had the task of sieving through compost and the others were forking (and yes I mean forking!) over an allotment area while some were collecting up the stuff that had been forked (not another innuendo I promise haha).

A thank you from me to Jazmine and Daisy for teaching me what a Boomerang is... when they asked if I could Boomerang them sieving I couldn't work out how a sieve could be used as a Boomerang, innocently not knowing it is some kind of video used on social media! Everyday's a school day.

After 30 minutes of hard work we then headed back to The Forum before several of us went off to the pub to unwind.

Credit for the pun this week actually goes to the task owner!

Next week it's bank holiday and we're visiting our good friends at Marlpit Community Garden.