Our second GG Swindon group run started with everyone giving an interesting fact about themselves. Saving the best until last, Stuart wowed everyone with his very close horizontal encounter with Ricky Gervais, we await more details. We were joined by GG tourist and Swindon first timer Tina and two Wootton Bassett Hounds, Fran and Jon. Welcome along.

It was 2 miles uphill all the way to Penhill, so it was nice to get there and meet Glynis to hear about the history of Penhill Haven, the wildlife and the Bee Roadzz. Paul was about start pulling out all the weeds and nettles when Glynis taught him, and everyone else, a valuable lesson:

What is a weed? At least 5 butterfly species rely on nettles for survival!

So the nettles were left well alone and only the dead plants removed and rubbish cleared. Lewis cracked the purple paint pots out, yes that’s purple Lewis, and all the raised beds and picnic tables were painted along with most runners hands and legs too of course.

Is it OK to paint a snail or do we have to paint round it?! - Daniel

There are lots of nooks and crannies in this small place and although that’s good to keep GGers in check, sometimes people (Helen and Emma (Sanderson) especially) did tend to end up hidden behind tall grass and even pop up from behind a stack of tyres unexpectedly. We didn’t lose sight of ‘Crazy Legs’ Emily of course.

Even in the short time we were there, it is clear there is wildlife thriving with butterflies flapping around and someone exclaiming….

A frog, it’s a frog, didn’t expect to see that!

Whilst others industriously got on with the work at hand. Lily = grafter! There is still a lot of work to do in future repairing the broken bench seats and clearing some of the grass so that the Haven becomes more accessible. So...

We will be back!

It was great to get our first proper group picture at the end of the task in the low sun in front of the nice freshly painted and cleared vegetable bed. Thumbs up to Greg for stopping around to help clear up the brushes and paint pots.

On the way back half the group went off to do some sprints on Seven Fields (with super speedy Jason running to the max) and we all made it back just in time to do some quick stretches and a chat in the café before it closed.

Huge well done to everyone. It feels like we are properly up and running now and made a nice positive difference to the local community. Bring on next week, building sheds at Playsteps Day Nursery, something everyone agreed we have zero experience in! Please bring a shed savvy friend!

31 runners ran 5.4km to help Wheels for All at the County Ground in Swindon

So welcome everyone to GoodGym Swindon! With much anticipation and excitement our launch night had finally arrived. HOORAY!!! GoodGym was first talked about in Swindon by Paul 'The Scientist' Bonner back in the summer of 2016 and now at last it was here thanks to Paul and a small team of Run Leaders with interesting names:

• Emma 'The Trainer' Sperring
• Paul 'The Scientist' Bonner
• Emily 'Crazy Legs' McManamon
• Lewis 'The Bird' Bird!

Feel free to chat to Emily 'Crazy Legs' as to the meaning of these names! You will know her by sight as she has a reputation for wearing brightly coloured leggings at every opportunity!

With the paparazzi taking photos and people passing by wondering what was going on, the GoodGym Swindon crew gathered outside the the Oasis Leisure Centre ready to get going! Thanks to the Leader of the Council, David Renard, for the opening speech, Emma, 'The Trainer' then continued with some very important announcements, which I'm hoping everyone listened to?! Maybe the parkrun megaphone would be useful in the future?!

Following a headcount, we then made our way to the County Ground, home to Swindon Town Football Club, foregoing the shortest route so that we could go the Scenic Route around the Magic Roundabout, a new experience for our GoodGym visitors from Royal Wootton Bassett (you know who you are!), Bristol and London.

Then at last we turned the corner, ran towards the Athletics Track, and saw 'Bike Mechanic' Lew Lawton and the team from Wheels for All with buckets of soapy water and sponges ready and waiting for us to arrive to clean those dirty bikes! And what fun we all had not only cleaning the bikes but also testing them out around the County Ground Extension with Lewis 'The Bird' one of the first on a tandem! Thanks to Lew for his extensive knowledge of bike maintenance but also Ben, Rich and James from Wheels for All.

We then decided to head back to the Oasis, home of the famous Domebusters(!), with one group going the quickest way and another group taking a detour around Tesco, we all arrived back pretty much safely keen to do some stretching before Coffee Corner closed. And the best bit of the night - relaxing and having a chat while eating mini milks. Heaven!

Please come and join Paul 'The Scientist' next week for a steady run into Penhill. We will be getting those paintbrushes out ready to help Glynis at the Haven. From all of us at GoodGym Swindon we look forward to seeing you all again soon!