On an evening that was starting to feel Autumnal - it won’t be long before we’re all wearing raincoats and head torches! - 24 Good Gymers set off from the Showroom to run to St Wilfred’s Centre who, in their own words, provide a place where homeless, vulnerable and socially excluded adults can find understanding, practical assistance, a sense of belonging and the support to regain self-esteem.

The Centre provides basic services including hot meals, showers, laundry, sleeping bags, help with finding accommodation, having a haircut or food and clothes parcels as well as a wide range of daily activities. You can find out more about the good work they do here.

Before we headed off we gave a big round of applause to Chris who was embarking on his 50th GG Sheffield run – a great achievement Chris – which he celebrated in the now time-honoured fashion of donning his GG 50 bow-tie.

We were met by Josie, who manages the Centre, and her partner Jim and given our tasks for the evening which included, pruning a seriously spiky pyracantha bush, clearing rubble, weeding and scraping moss. 45 minutes later the front of the Centre was looking spick and span and we left with a quick tour of the Centre and Josie’s heartfelt thanks ringing in our ears.

Group Leader Sam had taken us on an extended run to the Centre and led us back via a killer, and seemingly never ending, hill which he made us fartlek up - I’m beginning to note a slightly sadistic theme in his runs! Respect to all the GG team for getting to the top - especially Mike who had already run 60 miles, with 10,000 feet of ascent, at the weekend.

Back at the Showroom we sadly said goodbye to Shona who is leaving us to go and work in Hereford. She has been a great addition to GG Sheffield with her always-enthusiastic attitude and her ability to repeatedly win the art prize at the pub quiz! We’ll all miss you Shona – and you know you’re welcome back at any time.

GG Sheffield were back at Heeley People’s Park and showed just how much 36 people can achieve in a limited timeframe – we managed to cover the length of a path (twice!) and a rock climbing area with wood chip, with members shovelling wood chip or running with wheelbarrows and buckets – top mulching team!

We were joined by new members Jackie and Sarah – welcome to Good Gym!

And by Adam from H.O.M.E., a newly launched charity whose mission is to get every homeless person in Sheffield a safe place to sleep. You can follow the charity on Twitter: H.O.M.E.

A big shout out to James and Tim who both arrived on time to celebrate their 50th Good Deed – a great contribution to GG Sheffield chaps – and who both looked very chipper (apologies for that terrible pun) in their 50th bow ties.

Having completed our work at the Park, run leader Sam brought us back via the Park Hill amphitheatre where he entertained us (and bemused members of the public sitting there) by having us running and doing press-ups & burpees/ star jumps to the tune of The Police’s Roxanne. In an ideal world he would have had the exhausted group running back to the Showroom to the sound of Every Breath You Take but apparently Health & Safety Regulations prevent us from doing press-ups on the ring-road...

This week we we're back off up to Manor to help SUPER SIMON & colleagues with the upkeep of the fantastic Sustrans National Cycle Network which provides everyone with a network of multi use sustainable transport pathways to walk, run, scoot and cycle from place to place along traffic free paths enjoying the local area away from busy roads and noisey and polluting traffic.

We had a plethora of tools to choose from this week thanks to a donation of tools from Sheffield City Council and some loaned from our long term friends at REGATHER. We got straight to it after being briefed by Simon on the tasks that were needed and split into three teams;

1. TEAM CHINESE LANTERN LITTER PICK
2. TEAM EDGEY
3. TEAM LOP & CUT

When it was time to call it a night the path was looking so much better and in places was now about 3 times as wide as it was originally after scraping and edging the overgrowth back to the edge of the concrete which will make it much more useable and easier for people to pass each other as well as making the network much more attractive and open, attracting more user.

Great work team!

Until next time, happy running! :)

Oh what a night!

It was a scorcher! But despite this we had a great turn out inc Kat, who was on her 100th good deed and so received the now customary garb of the @GGSHEFF wings and hat and she pulled it off marvelously!

This week we were back off to Heeley People's Park to continue with much needed help that Heeley Development Trust are in need of now that the summer sun is here to stay and Rob is the only Parkie on site to manage all of the huge and fantastic space the park has to offer.

With a quick overview done we got straight to work splitting into TASK FORCE TEAMS lead by;

• WILD TOM - Cutting back the chaff
• POCKET ROCKET KIM - Legging it with buckets of mulch
• ANGELIC KAT - Spreading the mulch all over
• SECATEUR SAM - Also cutting back the chaff

A great team effort was put in by all, with some putting in some sprints to make our time as effective as poss, nice one!

After saying our goodbyes we formed a circle and had an alternative game of duck, duck goose that involved sprints and various plank positions.

Next we split into 2 teams and formed a long line of high planks for the complete team to commando crawl through in a race to be the victorious team!

On route back we chucked in some sprint and returns and stair sets for good measure.

Until next week, happy running!