Our terrific 10 braved the cold and the dark for an extended session, helping out Penny Lane Development Trust.

The first challenge of the evening was to find the meeting room. Our usual space, kindly lent to us each week by the Hope Street Hotel, was in use. Rather than using a room next door as we sometimes do, we adventured up to the 5th floor, and then found an extra mezzanine to climb up to. Once on the sixth floor we enjoyed a panoramic view of the city at night. It was a great room, nice and warm, and we were tempted to stay. But no, not when there were good deeds that needed to be done!

With the clocks just gone back it is really dark out, but nothing frightens a GoodGym runner! After a more vigorous than usual, weather beating warm-up, we headed off on the 4+km to Penny Lane. We were warmly greeted at the project and even given cups of tea and coffee to warm our cockles. Our task was to remove three rotten flower beds. Limited by lack of tools and lack of time, we managed to totally clear 2 of the 3 beds (not bad, eh Meatloaf?!).

This week's shout outs go to Sam, who has quickly turned from a newbie into a dependable regular and is managing to run further than he knew he could. And to Mat for spreading the GoodGym love far and wide, and for coming up with the title pun.

Back on the road and we retraced our steps in great time. I was hugely impressed by all of the runners who kept a solid pace on a longer than usual run, on the coldest night we've ever run together (yet...!). Nice one.

Next week we're back to a newbie friendly distance of around 2km each direction and don't tell Central Office but we're going to skip the fitness session in favour of some 5 November sparklers! So sign-up now and tell your friends.

A massive team of 19 rad runners beat the heat on a run to help out a community sports centre in Kensington.

We were newbies aplenty on this perfect starter run underneath a beautiful blue sky. The 2.2km run to Jubilee Sports Bank took us up a small hill and there were barely any complaints! On arrival we met with Laura who introduced the project to our newbies and welcomed back those who joined us when we tidied up the place a few weeks back. Jubilee Sports Bank is a community sports centre located in one of the most deprived areas of our city. It seeks to make sport available to all. We love their mission and love to help them out.

The team grabbed a pile of tools and Laura led us to some dead flowers beds and to an accessible path that was no longer accessible as it had become badly overgrown. I split the team into two groups and they set to work on both areas of the park that were badly in need of TLC. Half an hour later and with a pile of cuttings and weeds almost as tall as Leo, they had done a fantastic job.

A fun fitness session followed in the form of a good old fashioned relay race, with a little balancing and hurdling involved. Then it was downhill all the way back to our Hope Street Hotel base. Well done team! It was amazing to have such a big group this week - thanks to everyone who came along to give GoodGym a try for the first time, you are so welcome to join us again soon.

Shout out to GoodGym giant Beth who was in town for a long weekend and joined us to clock her 610th good deed - what a rockstar! And a big welcome to Ellie who joins a growing group of GG Lpool runners who have escaped from That London and are now living the good life in Merseyside :)

Next week is a bit different, as we'll be taking on a challenging run of 6km (in each direction) in an extended 2 hour session. We'll be heading to The Reader at Calderstones park to paint benches, so sign-up here if you're ready for the challenge. If you're a less confident runner, feel free to drop me a line to discuss whether this run is right for you, or to discuss alternative options such as running in one direction only. And/or/also sign-up to the following week when we're back with the Friends of Everton Park and the run is a steady 2.5km each way.

Looks like the weather is a going to be a bit cooler this week so make sure you get those training runs in. Until next time, Char <3

P.S. I really need help me with title puns folks!!!