First up, a warm GoodGym Portsmouth welcome to first timers Cheryl and Megan who joined us tonight and welcome back to Jane on her second week.

Tonight was a group run of two halves (although not exact halves!) with the walking group heading to MAKE to finish off the paint work and the longer option of a run to St Jude's to help out the teachers with all sorts of jobs. So there are two parts to the run report tonight, both with their own puns...

MAKEing our mark! by Val

6 GG’s walked to MAKE to finish off glossing 2 doors and painting the floor. There was a workshop going on so we kept the noise level down. Before long most of us had paint covered hands and we had the usual 'oops just trod in wet paint'. Manuel tried on a Hulk mask, he looked great ha ha, and Tracey bought the last 2 comedy bums (this makes more sense if you have seen this report)!! Hilarious. Jane and Catherine painted floors with Tracey and Manuel. Catherine demonstrated some impressive lunge skills whilst painting. Maxine and I finished off the glossing.

Hey Jude / plastic fantastic / put a lid on it

The remaining 19 runners headed down to St Judes where the headteacher met us and divided us into "horticulture" (Rosie & Lynn); artistic (Angela & Rachel), happy up a ladder (Michael, Joe & Fionn) and crafty (the rest!).

Rosie & Lynn planted up the large planter outside the school just as the rain started so got double bonus points for doing a cold task while everyone else headed inside. Angela & Rachel were painting the tree trunk and branches onto the celebration of pride tree made from recycled bottle tops. Team Pompey Uni managed to resist the temptation of the pubs and clubs on the run down and ended up climbing ladders to screw in some hooks & hang the massive new RE banner which features in the back of our group photo.

The crafty group got to use glue guns (caution, very hot glue.... mentioning no names!) to finish off the kitchen foil squid and recycled bottle tops blue whale for the sea inspired display. They looked amazing. Sadly we can't take the credit for the ideas but we definitely helped bring it to life.

We also got to meet a very cute whippet puppy called Dash. Yey, a dog on a task - it's the dream right? There was also a small doodle dog hanging around reception who didn't get his photo taken for the run report!

GoodGym-ima puddle duck

On the way home the rain was really coming down. Michael and I were motivated to keep going with the thought of what was on the menu for dinner tonight (midweek roast & enchiladas respectively) whilst Rosie was busy finding every single puddle on the route back and getting her feet nice and wet - she christened herself GoodGymima puddle duck so please feel free to address her as this in the future. Tony and Sam did sterling work as the back markers and we all made it back to base a lot wetter than when we left!

Coming up

As promised, a round up of what's coming up: tomorrow we need a few more painters at SSJ, preferably at least one who's tall and/or happy up a ladder. On Friday Rachel is leading a run on the seafront (hopefully drier than tonight) and next week we are on another school trip, this time to St Swithuns (where 2 rogues tried to run off to tonight, luckily the back markers were on it!).

Bookmark this page and you can always see what's coming up - Maura is going to be organising a Sunday community mission soon so keep an eye out for that one!

Hope you all have a lovely week and I will see you next week for more fun and games (& hopefully less rain!).

NEWS

Firstly, big welcome to Ashleigh who joined us for her first GoodGym experience tonight - hope it wasn't too overwhelming!
Secondly, congrats to Jen who's reached her 50th good deed (52 tonight!) so got to model the hat (albeit briefly!).

Tonight there were a whole 27 of us which makes for A LOT of concentrating on the headcount but also equals our attendance record.... That's three times we've had 27 people along now and tonight we had three tasks too, hence the run report title, with the extra bit of nerdy maths in there - I can't help myself!

TASKS

We had the A team of BA Barracus, no, hang on, Louisa, Val (safely back from the massive GG York group run) and Tracey who did a litter pick around Kingston Rec. Their most interesting finds: a battered umbrella and some mini kids chairs (which they threw back into the nursery school) plus lots of food including an unopened Mars bar! They found lots of bottles and cans that have been recycled back at the community centre and they continued the Fratton based good deeds by picking up lots of cigarette butts at the entrance to FCC.

The B team (B for Brilliant obviously) headed up to Tipner shore to attempt to tidy up some of the rubbish on the beach near the Park & Ride. We had to report some fly tipping as there was a lot there but we managed to fill 4 big bin bags with rubbish and left them by the bins for collection. We found some clothes (of course), lots of fishing netting and polystyrene and an old kids car seat but our oddest find was a pillow complete with pillow case in quite good condition! We ran back a slightly different way and Jen lead the Buckland back street tour!

The C team were the keen runners tonight, who opted for the longest option of 5 miles. Their task, led by Maxine with the clipboard and Tony with the route knowledge, was to measure the distance between all the benches on the newly opened foreshore path so we can share it with Age UK Portsmouth & the community connectors team so they can encourage people to use it for short walks (with the ability to gradually increase their distance). Maura was brave and went along with this group AND she didn't moan any of the way. Kat had fun on the small posts and there was some testing of the sun loungers despite the lack of sun. This group also did a little bit of litter picking while they were out and ended up doing the entire foreshore and therefore actually covering 6 miles!! C for Champion perhaps? (appropriate as Jo was in this group!)

By completely excellent planning we all got back to base at the same time so we were able to have a fitness session comprising of the evolution game (I did worry that Michael was going to stay as an amoeba forever!), a quick stretch out and a nicely lit photograph of 26 runners taken from a totally risk assessed and safe vantage point - honest!

Thank yous

Big thanks to the task force for helping to lead the groups and bringing equipment. Massive thanks to Sam for being an amazing delivery driver - I wouldn't have got to Fratton with all that on my bike (don't forget she's looking for ideas for the bid for the GoodGym Games). And thanks to Rosie for being a courier with a book for Laura!

Coming Up...

We still have a few community missions to keep the good deeds coming for the January challenge. Check out the listings here Plus there are a few chances to up your good deeds tally over the weekend too. Next week we're off to Naomi House so it'll be a short run and a nice warm indoor task!

And finally

Good luck to everyone running the Coastal Half at the weekend, especially Maxine who's doing her first half marathon!

After a bit of a tricky start to the day for many GoodGymers (train delays, boiler breakdowns, breaking up fights, forgotten kit) we were all in need of an antidote so it was a good job it was Wednesday!

We welcomed Michael, Joe & Fionn back from their Christmas break - all in one piece after snowy escapades and family festivities. Obviously being in snow meant that tonight felt warm, as evidenced by shorts and t-shirts... at the opposite end of the scale we had Maura who was keeping warm in 4 layers!

Rosie and Mel formed the walking group tonight and set a good pace as we didn't manage to catch them until the final road crossings. By that time, they'd persuaded Rachel to slow down her pace and join them! Abby's tired legs and Catherine's cough didn't slow down the back of the group and we also learned that Katie used to volunteer as a Samaritans listener in the place we were headed for and in London too.

Once we were inside we got to work straight away. We're almost like a well oiled machine at this donation sorting although each charity has a slightly different method! Pippa delegated label writing duties to Rosie and soon there were plenty of categorised bags quickly filling up. India made it still with plenty of time to help out. We found some rogue winter items which were put aside to be taken to the shop soon. All the summer stock is being put into storage for a couple of months and will make its way to the shop once it's time for the "new season". Check out their Facebook page for offers etc - there are bargains to be had! We found lots of high quality donations including plenty of "posh frocks", hats galore, a 3 way scarf (?) and some sky high platform shoes. Catherine found herself a skirt to purchase!

40 minutes flew by and we made a good dent in the "needs sorting" stock. Tony volunteered to take the group photo (or 10), then it was back to Fratton for a mini circuit (Toni & Maura managed to be in sync for most of it), some cake for Angela's birthday on Monday and some green beans rescued from the trash cafe.

There are still lots of community missions to get involved with over the next couple of weeks - let's try to maintain our place in the GOLD league for the January Challenge. Next week it's a magical mystery task, there are a couple of different things we'll be doing & it will be outside so wrap up warm and bring your head torches - all will be explained at 630 on 29th!

What a lovely way to get into the festive season.... great to see so many of the Portsmouth crew embracing the Christmas hats, gloves and even some very impressive festive leggings and socks. How will we up the ante next week?!

This week's celebrations included Val finally getting to wear the crazy celebration cap to commemorate her 50th good deed and Rosie supplying us with some lovely chocolate cake and mince pies to celebrate her birthday tomorrow plus a thanksgiving pumpkin pie from Maxine - all very much appreciated and enjoyed post fitness session.

Despite the chilly temperatures, spirits were still high as we set off to decorate the Baffins Pond Association compound in readiness for Santa's visit. The runners and walkers arrived at the same time (excellent work by all) and once we'd rounded up Ellie from the other side of the pond, we all got stuck in to hanging baubles, twisting tinsel and untangling lights. Val and Lynn were tasked with washing up cups and then wrapping boxes which will be added to the sleigh which is touring Baffins later in the week (check out the community missions listings to get involved with that).

Michael and Kat showed superb dedication to the light hanging task, climbing up a tree to make sure the lights were evenly spread out. Not sure what the elf & safety officer would have to say about that though!!

India and Sam took on the challenge of completing the decoration of Santa's shed (sorry, grotto!) and then posed the question, how many GoodGymers can you get into a shed? The answer is 15 - at a squeeze! I'm not sure the picture really does it justice though.

How will we better the festivity next week? Well, it'll have to be in outfits as there will be less tinsel in the task! We're off to help the foodbank sort through all the Christmas donations. Sign up here for that one. But before that, there's the Fratton Festival of Light tomorrow, sleigh accompaniment on Friday and Monday, Christmas party on Saturday and Santa Run on Sunday. Have an amazing week!