Running on a wet Monday night appears to be regular thing now... could someone please send some better weather otherwise I'll be writing Santa a letter early this year.

Ben was taking part in his 1st GoodGym experience this evening so a big welcome!

Jonathan was taking part in his 10th good deed and Brad (aka our poster boy) his 50th good deed!*

Another long run this week as we had an 11km round trip to Aslake Community Growers in Sprowston. Mike greeted us with an array of tasks including, planting lettuce, potting up strawberry pots, digging and then some more challenging tasks of putting together some trellises for those with woodwork skills! It gave a nice variety to most of the general gardening tasks that we do. I even witnessed Elliott using a drill.

With it being a long task, we only had 30 minutes there but with over 30 of us a lot got done in a short time and we helped out this great group who supply their produce to the local community.

Just a short report this week and next Monday we're visiting Violet Elvin Court for some games and leaf clearing.

Well that was by far the wettest GoodGym run we've had to date in Norwich, what a fun evening dodging puddles for 8.5km haha.

No new runners this week, I sure wouldn't have gone to my 1st session in that weather but we still had an epic turn out of 31 GoodSwymers willing to swim/run 8.5km to do an outdoor task of a litter pick at West Earlham Woods... are we mad?! I'd say just legendary and dedicated.

Bill volunteered as back runner and Hayley as photographer with Mel chipping in too. Not a great evening for trying to take photos but they got some gems.

Noel and the Friends of West Earlham Woods greeted us with litter pickers, bin bags and gloves and we grouped into at least 4's with a head torch in each group so we could actually see where we were going.

As usual, there was plenty of litter to collect and considering the conditions we did a fantastic job.

The rain kept getting heavier as the evening went on but a bit of moisture didn't harm anyone and then we set off for the long journey back.

Let's hope for less rain next week when we sort beer donations for Break.

After last week's mammoth 6km each -way run, this week was a much more subtle 1km each-way run.

We had 3 new runners so a big welcome to Ellie, Laura and Scott. Also a big welcome to Rachel who has moved to Norwich after being part of GoodGym Islington.

Catherine was back runner while Robert & Elizabeth walked.

Motivation this week was created by me bringing a Colin the Caterpillar cake to have afterwards, which was leftover from my son's birthday on Sunday. drool alert

This week I incorporated the fitness session into the warm-up. We jogged to Chapelfield Gardens then did a little partner workout, which consisted of squats, push-ups, sit-ups and a wheelbarrow race... don't all thank me at once.

We then continued on to Suffolk Square (after dropping Stephen, Bryony & Kate at Your Own Place CIC to finish the painting) where Pam and some volunteers from the LTC Green Spaces met us with loads of tools, which impressed Elizabeth.

They have lovely equipment

Half of the group were tasked with turning over shallow soil in one flower bed while the other half weeded and cleared out a larger garden bed.

It was great to see some locals joining in with their children, some of which were collecting baby snails to rescue them.

The rain started coming down but didn't prevent us from working hard and getting the job done.

At the end, one of the children were feeding us up with biscuits - much needed fuel for what was up ahead ;-)

Once we'd finished we headed back to Chapelfield Gardens for a quick sprint session before returning to The Forum to demolish Colin.

Next week it's a litter pick at West Earlham Woods.

This run marked GoodGym's 10th birthday and for GoodGym Norwich, we've been around for nearly 1/4 of that time.

We like to do things a bit differently in Norwich at times so tonight we set a new record distance of over 12.5km!

This didn't stop many as we still had a turn out of over 20 GoodGymers who knew this would be a lovely task.

David C was celebrating his 10th good deed - it's all about the 10's this week.

Catherine and Leanne were back runners.

Here in Norwich we've developed a good reputation for visiting care homes to build friendships with the elderly. This is why we were invited for our first visit to Barley Court in New Costessey as the staff wanted the residents to experience more contact with the local community. They may not quite have expected the amount of us that showed up!

We set off on the 40+ minute journey, which wasn't necessarily the flattest of routes with a few uphills thrown in. To keep people occupied I suggested everyone shared their favourite GoodGym moments with each other.

On arrival, the residents were then arriving in the communal area, so we spread ourselves out across different tables and discussions began with residents. I'd kindly been sent a couple of copies of the new GoodGym book, so these were shared with the residents.

I don't normally come down for social events but I wanted to for this as it sounded great and it is great! - Barley Court resident

The residents were having a fantastic time chatting away, especially the lovely gentleman who got to be between Katie and Katy.

These tasks are always difficult when I have to call them to a halt so we can head home, but we did have a good 40 minutes with the residents and I know this made a big difference to them.

We finished up with a big group photo with the new Goodgym flag at the helm.

... it was then time for the 6km+ journey back to the Forum! Everyone who was going the whole way back made it back even after tackling Grapes Hill at the end! Well done everyone :-)

Next week it's a much shorter run as we do some gardening at Suffolk Square.