What a turnout, 40 runners came to GoodGym this evening and for 7 runners it was their first time ever GoodGym run! It's amazing that nearly the whole population of Cardiff came tonight, okay, not literally, it was actually 0.011% of Cardiff's population, however that is a good number and the most we've had to date.

The new runners to GoodGym this week were: Rosey, Ben, Clare, Emma, Skye, Vicky, Lawrence and Lauren! It was ABSOLUTELY LOVELY to have you come along. I really hope you come again as you already feel part of the GoodGym family. I know we are quite a lively bunch and the warm up activities aren't the most 'serious' warm up drills, however I really believe it's important to have fun whilst we get fit and do good in our community!

Achievements

• A huge well done to our two red lace winners. Well done Sara and Alice! #LifesGoals. Alice and Sara both brought friends to GoodGym this week and therefore earned themselves a single red lace. It is a fact* that wearing a red lace makes you run faster.
• Adam, one of our lovely regular GoodGym runners has had a baby (Not Adam himself, but his wife) - Congratulations Adam x
• Awesome that some of you volunteered at junior parkrun on Sunday - You are helping the athletes of the future.

Warm up

To warm up before the evening's run we played 3 different games. We played the game 'Fish and Chips', 'Captains Coming' and 'Marmite, Digestive and Staycation or Vacation'.

Let's get our walk/run on

Mali led the walking group. She had a contingent of 4 walkers! Ellen led the more relaxed paced runners to the Tenovus Charity Shop. Ben led those runners who wanted to run a bit further this evening. They went plogging and leafletting.

*Welcome to the Tenovus Charity Shop *

As runners arrived to Tenovus, Carl explained the mission of the Tenovus Cancer Care charity. If you have cancer or you’re close to someone who has cancer, it can be frightening and stressful. Tenvous tries to help. They bring expert advice, emotional support and life-saving treatment to the heart of communities. They help cancer patients and their loved ones cope, and our their vital research gives hope.

After Carl explained about Tenovus charity and the tasks. 24 runners jumped into action and helped get the shop ready for spring. They sprung into action, steaming clothes and tagging them up ready to be hung out on the shop floor. Some of the runners helped to tidy up the racks of clothes, and dusted down the shelves. Others put price stickers on the cds, dvds and lps. We dressed mannequins and sorted sizes. Others looked like they were having story time around a pile of books - but they were just pricing them up 😀 All in all, they carried out tasks that would have taken the staff and volunteers all morning to do.

*Litter picking and leafleting runners *

9 bags of litter were collected in total in approximately 20 minutes! 4 streets were leafleted with flyers about GoodGym.

We then played Bring Sally up and Bring Sally Down - It's not something any of us will forget in a hurry.

Time to head back

After returning to Big Moose it was time to stretch out and reflect on the evening's run. Ben led the warm down and everyone clapped runners as they returned.

After the walk/run everyone headed to the Glassworks for post run drinkypoos.

2020 Tweet Off

WAHOO! Megan you have won the tweet off THREE consecutive times and have overtaken Marie. Marie will be nervous now. Lucy, last year's winner hasn't made the leaderboard yet - but there are still 11 months to go and a lot can happen between now and the end of the year.

• MJ - 3
• MOH - 2
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

. Ding Ding Ding. Gareth came up with this weeks pun for the title of the run report - You, my friend, get a point!

• EW - 2
• BA - 2
• AS - 2

• GD -1

• May not actually be a fact

Helping at Mackintosh Community Gardens, flyering about GoodGym and plogging the streets - Wooo that was a busy one!

Despite the changeable weather that we had all day in Cardiff, 33 runners showed up to GoodGym this evening, ready and willing to combine their running with doing good in the Cardiff community.

We had 4 new runners this week - AMAZING! Word is getting about how cool GoodGym is and now everyone is keen to get involved. A HUGE WELCOME TO GOODGYM CARDIFF Rob , Sam, Danielle, Grace. We do love having new people come along. GoodGym has so many benefits and we hope you reap the benefits! It's incredible to have you part of the family (Yes, you already feel part of the GG family to us :))

Acknowledgements

• We had 2 red lace warriors this evening. Anthony brought Sam to GoodGym this evening and Danielle brought Rob and Grace #LifesGoals
• Clap Clap Clap to Pete for reaching 50 good deeds!
• Hip hip hooray to Llion who also reached 50 good deeds!

Don't forget; when you reach 50 good deeds you are able to claim your black goodgym milestone tee

Time to get going!

Tonight it was Ben leading the speedy runners, Ellen leading the runners who planned to run at more of a relaxed pace and Amy led the walk/runners.

• At this point I would like to express a MASSIVE thank you to all of the run leaders who help make GoodGym accessible to all abilities.
  

Welcome to Mackintosh Community Gardens

Carol welcomed us to Mackintosh gardens. Mackintosh Community Gardens is well used by all ages and nationalities. Carol has made huge progress in recent years developing the space and the garden is now very much a part of the community.

The tasks this evening included:

• Building steps
• Building a woodstore
• Shifting soil
• Sweeping leaves

With the combined efforts from everyone at GoodGym this evening, the tasks were completed and the evening was a success!

The flyering and plogging platoon

Whilst the walkers/runners who went with Ellen and Aimee remained at Mackintosh community gardens, Ben took his group flyering the streets. They delivered flyers about GoodGym. You may now be asking why did they flyer about GoodGym? Well, we targeted well known student areas in the Roath area. Students are a population that can sometimes feel isolated, moving to a new area, not having many friends and being away from home. Students can also feel overwhelmed, with many deadlines to meet and exams to revise and sit. GoodGym can benefit the student population, and in order for them to get this benefit, they need to know about us!

Time to head off!

With the task complete and flyers distributed, it was time to head back!

We ran back to Big Moose where we did our warm down, reflected on the night's achievements and shared info about what's coming up over the next couple of weeks!

2020 Tweet Off

WAHOO! Megan you have won the tweet off two consecutive times now and you are moving up the leaderboard!

• MOH - 2
• MJ - 2
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

Combined effort from Andrew and Ben this week. Ding Ding Ding. A point to each!

• EW - 2
• BA - 2
• AS- 2