This was the penultimate Group Run of 2019.

A big welcome to Sarah who was doing her 1st GoodGym encounter.

James was visiting us from GoodGym Redbridge, we love a bit of GoodGym tourism.

Congratulations to Michelle who has completed 10 good deeds.

A special task tonight as we were supporting The Feed, who let us use their kitchen, to make mince pies that will be provided at a charity carol concert on Wednesday evening to raise money for Keeping Abreast.

The aim was for us to make at least 150 mince pies.

It was only about 1km each-way and Jasmine led a group of 5 walkers there.

We had a little production line soon set up but as there were so many of us we did another relay session so half of the group was running while the others in the kitchen. We had people greasing the trays, cutting pastry bases, filling the pies, cutting the pastry toppings and then placing them in the oven.

There was also room for a couple of people to put together another work station (Catherine enjoyed the greasy poles), put some new sticky floor grips down and give the place a little bit of a clean up.

I still believe the mince pies here are the some of the best I've ever had (not that I was eating them all... just one that broke up) and there was some creativity in making toppings spelling out G-O-O-D-G-Y-M.

We smashed the target and made about 180 mince pies.

A special thank you to Dave Tuthill who helped make this happen and his company are sponsoring the carol concert on Wednesday.

Katy is leading next week's session when you are making Xmas Crafts at The Clare School.

If I don't see you at the Xmas Meal on Wednesday, I wish you a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

I like meeting at The Forum even more this time of year with all of the Xmas lights and the tunnel of love (light) nearby.

We had 3 new runners this week so a big welcome to Laura, Helen and Jane.

Thank you to Amy for being back runner this week.

Alice was completing her 10th good deed and Sophie her 25th good deed! Well done to both of you.

Katy, Bill and Jasmine walked to the task.

We were visiting the Hamlet Charity's Adult's Centre to play some games with their members. These games included limbo (which I'm pretty poor at!) a bell obstacle course and then we finished up with a game of just dance (which I'm also pretty poor at!).

It was great for their members to have us join them.

There were some pretty good limbo skills in the GG crew, notably Hannah, Elliot and Emily!

Next week we're doing some pruning at Norwich Train Station.

As it was a very short task tonight, we all walked as a group as me and Katy are still recovering from injuries. There would still be time for some running later on though.

We welcomed 3 new GoodGymers this week so a shout out to Marcus, Bryony and Elizabeth!

The main task tonight was to do some cutting back of the overgrown hedges and weeding at The Hamlet Adults Centre. There was also a smaller task opposite at Your Own Place CIC where 3 people were painting, we were sure to do a rendition of Adeles's Hello through out the evening.

Hello from the other side

On arrival, Stephen, Elizabeth H and Bryony went with Rebecca at YOPC to do the painting while the rest of us met Jayne to assemble the team with tools to cut back the overgrown bushes ;-) hedges and do some weeding.

As usual, before the blink of an eye, the team of GoodGymers had organised themselves into the different jobs and the demolition job began. So much so that we ran out of bin bags... twice! Luckily Jayne had a good stock and kept bringing us more out.

You'll have to look at the photos to appreciate the sheer amount of foliage. The place was transformed!

Once the painters had finished they came and joined us to finish off the task.

On the way back we stopped in Chapelfield Gardens for a sprint session before finishing with some stretches at The Forum.

Thank you to Mel for helping with taking photos.

You're probably still wondering what the pun is referring to... could it be related to the giant, albeit intimidating marrow I'm holding during the stretches? Or the size of the space the foliage bags have taken up? Or just the size of the GoodGym Norwich group? You'll never know (but can probably guess) what it refers to.

Next week we're on a much longer run (6km each-way!) as we visit Barley Court Care Home, which will celebrate 10 years of GoodGym!

We had a visitor at the start of the evening tonight as Liz from NUA gave a little talk about a project in Winterton we might be able to get involved in as a Community Mission one weekend. If you have any questions about that please me know.

A slightly different set up tonight as myself and Katy have got to rest injuries so I led the run on my bicycle and Katy led the walking group. Bill and Andy shared back runner duties.

We welcomed Kathryn on her 1st GoodGym experience this evening.

Sarah and Dave Thomson have now completed 25 good deeds, fantastic effort both of you!

Tonight's run/walk (or in my case cycle) was about 1.5km each-way as we visited Silver Road Community Centre to do some weeding that had grown during the summer.

As there was a lot of us I paired everyone up and set a little relay challenge where one person would run while the other does some weeding and then they change over one the runner gets back. It avoided me having to add a fitness session in at the end ;-)

There was a slight shortage on the glove front. I know you've been intrigued as to what the pun refers to... well know you can work it out.

There were a lot of weeds but the 30+ GoodGymers pulled up the whole lot and it looked fantastic afterwards... despite me forgetting to take before and after photos.

There's a social event this Friday. For Darren's birthday there will be drinks at 8pm at The Rumsey Wells.

Next week we're visiting The Hamlet Children's Centre.