On a freezing damp Tuesday evening 14 intrepid Goodgymers braved the elements to help clean the soggy streets of Hanover. After an enthusiastic warm up led by Helena (too cold to stay still), we ran down to the Alms Houses at the foot of Elm Grove and met with Councillor David Gibson for a spot of competitive clean up.

Armed with plastic bags and litter pickers, 4 of the group took on the jungle like gardens in front of the Alms Houses, the rest of the group split into teams of two and raced up the streets of Hanover to see who could fill their bags with the most rubbish and recycling in 20 mins, with the strict instruction that raiding kerb recycling boxes was cheating and would result in instant disqualification…as if we would!

We soon returned with bags bulging with detritus (including a couple of unopened bottles of beer!) and disposed of it in the recycling bins, it was pretty much neck and neck across the teams in terms of how much collected, about 15 bags in all. Everyone's a rubbish winner.

Task complete we headed over to the playground to get some fitness done. However as Tara started to brief us on the exercises we were joined by some rather inebriated chaps who despite Tara’s very diplomatic discouragement were inclined to be a drunken nuisance.

Not to be discouraged we headed to Victoria Gardens and got to work on squats, toe taps, lunges and sprints. Everyone worked hard and managed to stay upright despite the muddy conditions and we headed back to base happy, sweaty and breathless.

Back at YHA a squall of rain passed and the moon rose over Kemp Town as we did our final stretches. We grabbed our bags, said our good byes and headed off into the night, glad to know we’d done our bit to clean the not-so-mean streets of Brighton.

We began tonight’s session by welcoming a new runner (hi Alice!), as well as a number of second timers and veteran GoodGym-ers alike. If this evening was any indicator of the year to come, we can look forward to having many hands on deck for our community tasks of 2019! After Michael gave tonight’s intro talk and we congratulated Martin for a spectacular PB at Saturday’s GoodGym Parkrun, all 18 of us did a quick warmup around the fountain and headed three kilometres back to the prom to once again wage battle against pebbles.

Wielding brushes, shovels and buckets, we swept, scooped, hauled and dumped those cheeky pebbles back onto the beach where they belong, and managed to make some pretty decent p-rock-ress (pardon the pun). Walkers, runners, cyclists, and general revellers of Hove prom can now enjoy an additional 20 or so meters of smooth pavement! With winter still in full swing however, we can probably expect some rough seas ahead yet, and fresh deluges of pebbles upon the prom. But no matter, for we are always up to the task and enjoy the challenge!

Because that wasn’t tough enough, Tara and Michael facilitated some tabata sessions for us in the grass (luckily no dog poo) involving planks, jump squats, press-ups and everybody’s favourite, burpees. Feeling slightly Swedish, we then did some fartlek running back to base, using the lampposts along the prom to mark our intervals between sprints and recovery running. A good stretch and goodnights all around will take us to next week. Thanks for the ‘fantastic sweeps’ and hope to see you all then!

On the coldest night of the winter so far and with sleet in the air 19 of us braved the arctic conditions and set off on our task. We welcomed 3 new willing volunteers James, Peter and Sophia who joined us all in congratulating Tara, Michael,Roy and Paul in all achieving PBs at the Brighton 10k. Quite a feat and we all basked in their reflective glory.

The evening was not a typical one...we started our run as normal along the seafront after some warming up but it was followed by a lengthy fitness session before the actual task. Three separate sessions took place and it's fair to say Tara put us through our paces. Under leaden skies with the i360 towering over us we carried out a mixture of tricep dips,boats,one legged squats amongst others interspersed with lots of quick sprints...or in my case fast jogging.

After being suitably tested we then ran up to the Brighton Community Kitchen on Queens Rd where we met Jo and her colleague Helen. We were told about the great things that they do...community cookery courses for the health and wellbeing of others and how they are funded and then proceeded to clean as though our lives depended on it and were rewarded...oh and how we were rewarded...with delish carrot and lentil soup,crusty rolls and a cheeky little vino to follow. A really pleasant way to end the task.

A tipsy jog back was followed by our monthly social at The Black Lion where it was ascertained that I was ancient and that it could be all round to Nipun's for our Christmas get together. A rather splendid night was had by all.

And here's what Jo messaged....

Thanks for last night what a lovely crew you are !

Here is a discount code for you all GOODGYM618 which is valid until the end of March 2019 for any course https://bhfood.org.uk/events/. The new programme is coming out 29th Nov. Perfect for xmas presents!