This evening, 27 GoodGym runners ran and made a HUGE impact at two community projects in Cardiff!

Welcome To GoodGym Cardiff and The Vale - The MOST AMAZING place to get fit in Wales

Tuesday's are the BEST day of the week. GoodGym is an opportunity to get fit, do good, meet like minded people and have fun. This evening we had 1 runner come along to GoodGym for their first ever time!Welcome to GoodGym Yasmin. We hope you had a fantastic time and come back again. :)

Before heading out for the evening's run we completed a warm up and did a headcount.

Two Tasks this week!

This week there were two tasks for runners to choose from. They could either run to Mackintosh Community Gardens, a slightly longer run, or run to Butetown Pavilion - I know how much you runners love a choice of where to run to!

Ellen led 10 runners to Butetown Pavilion whilst Ben led 17 runners to Mackintosh Community Gardens. We waved each other off knowing that in 1 hours and 30 minutes time we would regroup again and share stories of the tasks we completed.

The run to Mackintosh Community Gardens

In Ben's group, Ben led the runners along queen street, down Newport Road and up Richmond Road. They then ran through lanes to get to the gardens. Carol, the task organiser for the evening, was quick to welcome eveeryone in. She said she wanted to the make the most of the time she had us for and immediately began explaining the tasks that needed doing. "The weeds need to be cut back, steps need to be made up to the children's play area, the gravel needs to be shifted from the path and onto the play area, and I need some other volunteers to pick tomatoes and green beans."

Everyone got stuck in for 30 minutes, working together to complete the task. Emily, Lucy, Anthony and Ben did a fine job shifting the gravel. And everyone else did a marvelous job picking tomatoes, building steps, laying the gravel and pulling up weeds.

"I can't believe how much you managed to get done in 30 minutes. We should've had a film crew here!"

Carol was in disbelief about how much we managed to get done in 30 minutes. She thanked us for our hard work and wished us a pleasant run back.

Before running back to Big Moose everyone partnered up and ran circuits around the gardens. In partners runners alternated between running and squatting - Such a fun exercise!

The run to Butetown Pavilion

Ten runners trotted on down to the Butetown Pavilion, to do some weeding and a general clear up astound the grounds. This was so that social areas around the grounds are more inviting and useable for the community, and youth clubs using the centre. We quickly got to grips with the task, pulling, pushing, hacking and cutting - even with a tiny pair of scissors! Emma W went to town with the cleaver (a scarily common tool!), and Tori hacked away like a seasoned jungle veteran! In all we collected 7 bags of greenery and rubbish, and left the Pavilion in a better shape then we found it. Result!

The Tweet Off

Well done Lucy. You're into double figures. Can you make it two weeks in a row? You have to be in it to win it!

• LM 10
• MO 4
• DRN 4
• EW 4
• MG 3
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

This week, we pridely present to you the run report from our GoodGym run that happened in Cardiff! - The text that is in red has links to some songs that will get you in the mood for pride

It's Pride week in Cardiff this week - cue to jump in the air with excitement. The pride festivities are always incredibly fun, so positive and action packed full of events. From a parade that goes through the centre of town to a stage with music going on throughout the day, at Pride there is something for everyone! Are you coming out for it? Cue first song to get you in the mood for Pride!

How did we make ourselves feel pride?

Here is a short summary of how some of the runners made themselves feel pride...

• Lowri brought along rainbow face paint so that we could all look ravishing with the pride colours on our faces, legs and arms
• Emma D-B brought glitter so that we could make ourselves sparkle
• Llion brought along a pride flag that he wore as cape which had the words 'Peace' written on it
• Pete also brought along a pride flag
• Mike wore the most amazing rainbow coloured shorts
• Lucy wore an orange tutu
• Emily had a bright orange tee and wore face paint

We also welcomed Robbie to the evening's run! Robbie was a fantastic sport and volunteered to wear Pride cat ears - Robbie they looked majestic on you! We hope you come running with us again - Robbie is going to be our task organiser for the run on the 3rd September. Click here for a glimpse of what he has in store for us.

Can you spot us in this video btw from last year's parade? (we are within the first 5-10 seconds!

Run to the bay

We jogged to the entrance of Queens Arcade so that we could have a photo with the Pride letters which are by St. Davids 2.

After having some fabulous photos we did some fabulous running! Ben led the speedy running group to the bay. Mikey followed close behind leading the sexy runners and Welsh Dave led the power walkers!

Andrew met us at Cardiff Bay as he is currently suffering with some niggles and he doesn't want to make it worse and be out for the cross country season! Stuart also joined us at Cardiff Bay too.

The speedy runners made it to the bay first. So, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity for more fitness, Llion, Ben and Lewis all did laps of the Pierhead building, stopping to do squats, star jumps, burpees and step ups after each lap.

Hello GoodGym! It's so lovely to see you all again

Gian greeted us with the warmest of welcomes. He told us when the first Pride march happened in Cardiff and what Pride stood for. He loved our enthusiasm so much that his smile went from ear to ear.

Gian then distributed the flyers to everyone and Ben started the clock. Runners had 23 minutes to distribute 1000's of flyers. In short, the mission was for EVERYONE in Cardiff Bay to know about the pride festivities.

Lucy and Mike ran all the way to the aqua park and back distributing flyers. Sue and Robbie teamed up to flyer together and everyone else disappeared in different directions to spread the word.

Another epic moment was, when there were only seconds to go, Martin sprinted back to the meeting point with his Pride cape flying behind him.

We are all promoted out!

After 25 minutes of promoting pride we were done! Only a handful of leaflets remained that we had earmarked for the Glassworks pub.

We ran back as two groups. Welsh Dave led the walking group and Ben everyone who wanted to run back. Those running back were made to do sprints at every other traffic light on Lloyd George Avenue - Oh Ben does make them work hard for their good deed doesn't he!?!

It's important to remember we are superstars, and that we are who we are!

There is only one question left... Do you believe in life after love?

Thank you for joining in the run. Our GoodGym club is and will always be a place where members of the LGB&T community can feel safe, welcome and free from discrimination. We stand united.

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The Tweet Off!

Well done Emma. I can imagine you doing the 'flossing dance' as a celebratory dance for winning the tweet off this week. Martin, not having won the tweet off for some time now, was quite sad that he hasn't had much success recently. Sophie is considering getting a new phone or complaining to her network provider because everything she tries just isn't working.

• LM 9
• MO 4
• DRN 4
• EW 4
• MG 3
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

This week, 27 runners ran to do good in the Cardiff Community!

Our numbers seem to be growing week on week - Yipee! - and his week we had the pleasure of welcoming two new people to GoodGym. A HUGE welcome to Elsa and Jen who came along to their FIRST EVER GoodGym run this evening - Hope we didn't scare you off and we hope to see you back very soon!

What else is worthy of a mention:

• 29 of us headed to the Lake District to hike Scafell Pike over the weekend (Helping Nathan complete his 2019 New Years Resolution).
• The AWESOME Meg ran the Port Talbot half Marathon and achieved a new PB - You go girl!
• Lewis did Parkrun - He is our religious parkrun runner at GoodGym

Before we headed out for this evening's run we got warmed up by playing a game of Fish and Chips; Fish and Chips is an EPIC game. Run around and then when Ben shouts "Fish and Chips" you must find a partner and say either Fish or Chips, say the same and you must perform 10 star jumps, say different and you perform 10 squat jumps. We also did some running specific basic warm up drills.

It's time to help out in the community

Ben led those wanting a further run to Global Gardens whilst Ellen led the group wanting a shorter run to the Grangetown Hub.

On the way to Global Gardens Ben had everyone doing step ups, planking, running forwards and backwards and performing tricep dips on public benches.

Run to plog

Unfortunately Poppy wasn't at the Global Gardens Allotment - We hope she is okay! So instead, we took to the streets and back streets for some fast paced plogging, shouting PLOG everytime we needed to bend down to pick up litter. Ben managed to find an empty chewing gum packet and crisp packet. The Daz machine picked up LOADS of cigarette ends. Lucy found empty beer cans, a yankee car air freshener and also an empty packet of cigarettes.

After plogging we headed down to the roundabout by Roath Park and from there we turned onto Fairoak road. Fairoak road is where the 12 mile marker is in the Cardiff Half Marathon. It is also the place where runners have to tackle the final hill in the half marathon. To practice getting used to the hill, we ran up it and then jogged down it to recover. We did this 3 times.

After the hill sprints, which everyone LOVED :D we began running back towards town. We stopped one final time to run on King Edward VII Avenue to run the final 200 metres of the Cardiff half marathon course. Lucy gave everyone a pep talk before they ran the 200 metres which helped spur everyone on.

Run to the Grangetown Community Hub

10 GoodGym runners ran to the Grangetown Hyb to help spruce up the outdoor surroundings. We weeded around the car park, digging the moss and weeds in the cracks of the paving stones. Some of those pesky weeds need quite a good whacking, which Fancy Su provided. Andie Cleaver showed us her namesake skills, handling a miniature cleaver to cut up some of the weeds! Some of us also did a mini-litter pick, grabbing up the litter blowing around in the car park and surrounding lanes, with their excellent pincer skills. Ceri (spelling?) from the Hyb said it looked so much better coming out of the double doors, seeing that so much had been cleared up, so quickly! So with a group photo and a wave, we set of back to base camp.

Well done

A task well done by everyone. You should definitely be proud of yourselves :D Here's what's coming up over the next few weeks:

• Next week our group run will involve running to promote Cardiff Pride - Rainbow colours encouraged! Click here to sign up to it
• On Sunday 1st September, we have the opportunity for you to volunteer at the Cardiff 10K. Click here to find out more
• On Wednesday 4th September, a number of GoodGym runners will be getting up early to partake in the festivities of Soulful Sunrise. Click here to find out more
• On Saturday 21st September we will be running to help Coryton Primary School set up their Autumn Fair. Click here to find out more and get involved.

We then headed over to the Glassworks for drinkypoos and for the weekly tweet off.

It's time for the tweet off!

Darren has stopped Marie's winning streak - Marie had a whopping 4 consecutive weeks of tweet off victories! I almost fall off my chair every time the tweet off happens as i'm always sitting on the edge of it. Tune in next week to see whether Darren can make it two wins in a row.

• LM 9
• MO 4
• DRN 4
• MG 3
• EW 3
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

On a glorious summers evening, 20 GoodGym runner took to the streets to combine their running with doing good!

Another Tuesday, another AWESOME GoodGym! Tonight we had two new runners joining us and a very special visitor who came across the border, all the way from England, to join GoodGym for this evening's run.

Let's get warmed up

To get warmed up we started this evening's run with some technique drills. We followed this up with a game of 'Captain's coming!' Runners were encouraged to scrub the deck, catch parrots, climb the rigging, run from port to starboard and mark the arrival of captains girlfriend with a big "oooooooooooo."

Head count

Whilst jogging, we did our headcount and announced what our favourite spread was to put on toast. We had Elvis Presley fans stating that they like peanut butter and jelly, we had some runners who love the taste of butter, other runners who like jam and we have Alex who likes potato on his toast, yes potato - "Smashing," Ben said! - Don't knock it until you've tried it! We wished a MASSIVE welcome to Meri and Emily. We hope you enjoyed this evening's run and will come back again. Emily got herself a red lace #LifesGoals for bringing Meri along. ((Rumour has it Mo Farah is also trying to get his hands on a red lace because, if the tales are true, it will help him run even quicker)).

Running to the task

Ben led runners to the task whilst Emma and Ellen both backmarked.

Welcome to the Global Gardens Allotment

Poppy welcomed everyone to the allotment. She explained the vision of the Global Gardens Project is to create a growing space that supports community-based sharing of food and cultures. At the Global Gardens allotment site, where we were for this evening's task, Poppy is cultivating an organic kitchen garden, celebrating crops from around the world.

Poppy gave runners the following tasks to help out with at the allotment:

• To water the plantation beds
• Turn the soil
• Get stuck into weeding the plantation beds
• Cut back overgrown bushes to make room for a composting toilet

Everyone was given 30 minutes to complete the above tasks. It was amazing how quickly everyone worked together over that time to make sure the tasks were completed. There was much discussion from those weeding about what's a weed and what isn't. Those cutting back the overgrowth ready for the installation of a compost toilet had the most delightful discussions about who's used a compost toilet before and what compost toilets smell like; Lydia shared her wisdom that sprinkling sawdust over your business helps prevent it from smelling,

It's time to run home

Okay, not quite literally home, but sadly it was time to wave goodbye to Poppy and leave the allotment. We ran back as two groups. Ben led the speeder runners and Ellen led the sexy runners. The speedy group ran SUPER speedy so that Alex didn't miss his train... and fortunately he didn't :)

The RunPunStiltskin Award

Ellen came up with tonight's pun for the run and win the virtual RunPunStiltskin award - Well done! *You are a punny one!

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The Tweet Off Leaderboard

Well done Lucy - You've proved that you are still a force to be reckoned with in the Tweet Off! Here are the current standings on the tweet off leaderboard -

• LM 9
• MG 3
• DRN 3
• EW 3
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1