Fair-weather runner?? O dear last night might not have been the best night for you to come along as sunny stockport had its first winter down pour of ice rain just in time for our task!

But that didn't put off the Goodgym Stockport Crew, 15 of us met up at the usual location, starting with a little intro and warm up to get us pumped!

We ran a short distance to our location of the Wellspring homeless Centre Stockport. As I collected the leaflets, I left the crew to do some fitness work, which obviously they all loved?! Who doesn't like squats/star jumps and lunges?

After collecting the flyers from the lovely Dora from wellspring we distributed them out between us, and set off to Reddish to post the flyers.

As we hit Reddish, the rain hit us! It started to ice rain, but we kept on running………………….. we got through a huge amount of flyers, posting into lots of letterboxes to help promote the wellsprings winter “Rucksack” campaign.

The campaign is to promote the rucksack project on Dec 2nd. The Centre is asking people to donate a rucksack including:

1 x rucksack 1 x fleece/jumper 2 x undies 1 x sleeping bag 1 x hat/scarf/gloves 2 x socks 1 x flask 1 x tin beans/soup etc

The run last night was extremely humbling, as some of us were grumbling about the weather and the cold rain, however we got to go home and be warm when our run was finished, the point of this project is that this isn’t the case for many people in the Stockport area, so get involved people, do your bit.

We posted the flyers, but you can do the same by popping down the the Wellspring Centre:

The Wellspring, Harvey street, Stockport, SK1 1DY. 0161 4776344. www.thewellspring.co.uk

The above Rucksack donation shared between a few people really isn’t much, and today especially being halloween got me thinking of how much we spend on daft things like plastic skeletons, how about we all buy one skeleton less and get a item for the rucksack project, and encourage all you friends and family to do the same so we can all make a small difference!

On a lighter note……..Well done all of us for making it to week 10, its gone so fast, and its been so amazing and I'm looking forward to it continuing and getting more good stuff done.

Also welcome to our 4 new runners last night, Jemma, Sally, Stephen and Steven (sounds like a Ednid Blyton title) Thanks for joining us on such a wet evening and pulling your socks up.

A gentle reminder to wrap in more layers as it gets colder, and think about be able to be seen in the dark.

Last thing from me, the social has now been changed to this coming Tues (6th Nov) just a little drink and chat after next weeks run.

Happy running folks, Lisa x

A excellent 11 runners rocked up tonight to run socially over to Cheadle to help out local community group “socially yours” which is a friendship group that has various activities, games and events in both Edgeley and Cheadle.

Once again we met up at our start location of Lifeleisure Grandcentral at 6.30pm. After a quick chat and warm up we set off on a perfect evening run.

Our location was 4.4km away and so we ran slow and steady in the autumn leaves under the moon, a lovely evening for a run and task. Tonights task was our first leaflet drop, we were met in Cheadle village by the lovely Natalie who handed over 5000 leaflets to us (see in photos) between us we seemed to think we would post them all! Thats how confident and hardworking the Stockport crew is, this didn't happen, 5000 leaflets are more than they look1 However we did post a lot of leaflets, we set off in various areas of our coloured coded map, which I personally think looks like an odd snail on its side?? (again, see photographs!)

It was another long run for us, but a great task, so great that next week we are helping out again, just the other side of Cheadle, I'm away and so the wonderful Sam Needham from Goodgym Sheffield will be coming to look after you all, and of course we have the legendary back marker and social master** David Highman **to help out……

Massive shout out to all the runners that completed the Manchester Half marathon on Sunday, your brilliant! Also well done to Paula who completed the Saharan Challenge this week! Wooooo.

Also welcome tonight to Laurence and Matthew, you picked a tough night to join us, hope the pizza tasted good :)

Last thing from me, we/David is organising our next social which will be celebrating our 10th week in Stockport, also David will be celebrating his 52nd task!!! (Go David!) So keep a eye out, we will be chatting all fun stuff and getting some social run ideas in the bag too, starting with a Santa dash, getting a half marathon and a trail run in……

See you in a few weeks guys, until then, keep running!

Lisa x

16 Goodgym runners met at the usual spot of Lifeleisure Grand Central at 6.30pm to set off for the weeks task.

This week were running in a different direction to hot foot it over to Brinnington to Westmorland primary school, to fix up the raised beds and surrounding areas for the spring time, to make the area clean and safe and ready for the children to plant next year, it was wonderful space for the children, with sunflowers, fig trees, frogs and more, we were very proud to help out and set up the area in preparation for next year.

We had a quick briefing and little mobilisation workout before setting off, the nights task was 4.3km away, so one of our longer runs and so we kept the warm up brief. We set off through the sunny streets of stockport, it was lovely and light as we set off, but the sun was quickly setting, so heres another gentle reminder to say that the evenings are getting darker earlier so its a really really good idea to bring along a head/chest torch and also remember to wear some reflective gear to keep safe and seen!

As the sun set we arrived at the school where we were greeted by “Red” the caretaker who explained that we were to clear and sort the raised beds and surrounding areas. All equipment was set out and well organised ready for us to get to it.

There were 3 main beds and so the team were split into 3 teams of 5 and set to compete with each other, the teams named themselves: potatoes, the hoes and the turn it overs! Very inventive!

The idea was to be competitive and see who could finish their bed first, but if im honest it wasn’t very fair as some were more dense than others, the beds that is, not the Goodgymers!!

We were super close to completing a task when a big frog jumped out at us, and then in the same area we found a little frog and so we decided to leave a small section untouched for them.

After the task was complete we downed tools and got to run back down the hill which was a great relief.

Back at Grandcentral we had a cool down and de-brief.

This week I would like to welcome Clare and Kate, who did fab on the first Goodgym run, it was great to have you join us. Also good luck to all the runners taking part in this Sundays Manchester half marathon! Dont forget your medals for a group photo next week. Lots of mentions to say well done too! As a few people are in hot climates or have been and kept up running, either on jolly holidays or as part as a charity event, well done folks.

Also well done to people who got a place in next years London marathon, I got my usual “not wanted” email for the 8th year……nevermind!

Look out for our 10 wk social event in 3 weeks time, its also Davids 50th task anniversary so a wonderful to celebrate and also arrange a few runs for fun.

Till next week folks, where we are leaflet dropping in Cheadle, keep running,

Lisa x

Blue da de dah da de dah da…….you know the song right?

Anyway the crew of 15 runners last night were not feeling blue, however after our task of painting the school fences at Pownall green primary school we looked it!

15 runners set off from our usual spot of Life leisure grandcentral at 6.30pm.

Last night saw our longest run to date since we launched a few weeks back so it was a challenge all round, and well done to those of you that didn’t think you could manage it, you did!!! Hurrrrahhh 10km in total.

Our warm up consisted of a slow paced run up the A6 looking odd with some high knees, butt kicks and some mobilisation moves, we don’t mind looking daft though, we even got a car honk and holler which is always a bonus.

Now more of us are getting our Good gym T-Shirts more people are seeing what we are up to in the community which is great.

Last nights task was to run the 5km to Pownall green primary school where we were greeted by the lovely Sophie and her children to dish out the blue paint, paint brushes and gloves.

As time was ticking we got straight onto the task of painting the worn and peeling green fences with a pop of colour, making them a lovely shiny vibrant blue for the children to enjoy, as well as looking great, the fences will be protected in time for the autumn.

As the sun was setting and we were beginning to loose light we had a bit of a challenge to get the fence done as quickly and efficiently as possible, we had a great little system on the go and so as a team we managed to get the whole side of the fence section complete before clearing our brushes away and putting the lid on the paint.

After the task we had the next challenge of running back to the start location, so that was another 5km. I must admit we looked like 15 surfs on our return, not only did we have paint on our hands, hair, head and legs but we also had massive grins as we completed another great task, well done team Stockport! Once again you totally rocked.

Once back at Lifeleisure we did a small stretch off and cool down and chatted through next weeks task, which is very very close to start location, its within 1km and so there will be lots of fitness and run challenges next week to make up for the distance, but don’t panic, here at Goodgym were all about variety and adaptations so there will be something for all fitness levels, bit that doesn’t mean you wont work hard…….you will.

News of the week:

The wallet we found last week has been reunited with its owner, who was extremely grateful to get it back, however was confused as he had lost it at the airport a while back.

We now have a Stockport Goodgym WhatsApp group that I have set up, if you want to be added email me at lisa.h@Goodgym.org We also have a Strava group started by the lovely David, thanks dude, so again feel free to join.

As mentioned next weeks task is really close, but please try and bring head torches and high vis/reflective tops so we can keep safe and be seen, the nights are getting darker and its just something we need to be aware off.

Have a fabulous week guys,

Happy running,

Lisa x x