After a couple of months of cancellations due to the RIDICULOUS amounts of rain we've had this winter, we finally made it to the new Oxfordshire parkrun!

Kilkenny Lane County parkrun takes place in a gorgeous park, complete with a fabulous adventure playground, beautiful hedgerows and a decent amount of mud! We also enjoyed the (quite sassy) horse sculptures.

After a thorough briefing we completed our 2 laps, posed for the all important sign photo (because otherwise DID IT HAPPEN?!?) and set off for coffee, breakfasts and an awesome pancake stack!

Oh we DO love parkrun!

A balmy spring (yay!) evening saw us back at Rose Hill Junior Youth Club, picking up our help with their preparations for new planters, to make the site just that little bit brighter.

Standing on the ground we'd previously cleared of shrubs, Meg ran us all through what was needed - part filling the newly delivered planters with small pieces of wood and topping up with compost from a GIGANTIC compost sack - a great arm and abs workout.

With so many of us, we even managed to form a splinter group to pick up some of the litter both on- site and in the surrounding streets - featuring chat about what makes a good litter picker (good grippy prongs) and multiple fun running and cycling escapades.

Looking forward to seeing the planters in all their glory!

Welcome to the group, Elsa!

A small, but perfectly formed, crew of GoodGymers returned to OXSRAD to paint the treatment room, turning it from a minty hue to something that DEFINITELY wasn't magnolia (but closely resembled it). We've never been more grateful for an indoor task, with sleet and sideways rain outside. We painted away until the paint ran out, leaving a relatively small task for the staff to finish once they have more paint.

Our ratio of paint on walls vs paint on people is definitely improving as time goes on - it's never too late to learn new tricks!

This week took us back to OXRAD for a very welcome winter indoor task. Our mission was to continue the centre’s painting refresh, this time focusing on the studio.

A few of the group kicked things off with a one‑mile jog from the Up in Arms before we all met up and got painting. After an encounter with some mouldy paint and a handful of brushes that seemed permanently welded together, we got stuck in.

By the end of the evening, the studio was looking brighter with its first coat of white paint complete, ready for us to build on in a couple of weeks. We were kept entertained by the upbeat circuits playlist from the neighbouring class, along with visits from a GoodGym favourite—Nelson the dog. Ellie inevitably ended up covered in paint again and attempted to rescue her jumper in the sink to limit the damage.

As always, the painting came with plenty of chatting about running plans, adventures, and, of course, cats.