5 runners made their way to Age UK to help out with a painting task.

After a steady run on a surprisingly mild evening, we arrived warmed up and ready to crack on with the painting task that Sue introduced us to at Age UK. Today we were tasked with freshening up the reception area.

Before we began, a special congratulations were in order for member Clair, who reached a milestone and hit the big 21 today... 21 good deeds that is. Happy 21st Clair!

Then with two big tubs of magnolia emulsion ready to go, we donned our aprons and set to work. Our chat covered a variety of topics, from cycling and running to holidays and Halloween. There is particular excitement in the air with regards to our Halloween Special group run... costumes at the ready, folks 🎃

With every wall benefiting from a good coat of paint, we washed up our rollers and trays and tidied up the plastic coverings - the glossing coat of paint to be saved for another day. We thanked Sue and set off again into the evening.

After a run back to base with a final uphill stretch, we just had a couple of minutes left for a quick fitness task. The challenge was to see who could hold the longest plank. With the promise of a prize for the winner, spirits were high. Everybody did great and we all made it way past the 1 minute mark. It was a close finish with Jane cracking 2 minutes and James scraping the win with 2 minutes 6 seconds. As you can see in the photo, James was thrilled about his gold star.

Another great evening for GoodGym Barnsley. Thanks everyone!

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Our next Group Run will be a leaflet drop for Barnsley Museums on Wednesday 23 October. Sign up here.

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And we certainly had a lot of runners last night, 14 to be exact a new record for GoodGym Huddersfield! Fortunately we had a task lined up which could accommodate such an army of athletes eager to do a good turn for their community. Sue from Growing works had a plethora of jobs to keep us amused and busy on their allotment in Dalton.

But before the work comes the play, in the form of a 2K run along the very pleasant Riverside Way and the slightly less pleasant Wakefield Road. There was certainly a supportive spirit amongst the GoodGym group as we ran our way to Dalton, with much chatting, laughing and joking to be had.

As ever Sue was there to greet us at Growing works with tools at the ready and a clear list of the tasks she wanted us to get on with. In fact there were so many tasks and so many runners I’m not entirely sure exactly what everyone was doing! Louise Galvin was already on site having run there earlier and was busy with weeding. It looked like first time GoodGymmers Mary Hirst and Oksana Shimon were getting stuck in straight away along with Jo Talbot digging one of the vegetable beds, whilst the big task of the night involved Ben Godfrey and Peter Phillips levelling a path, so Catherine Gormley, Helen Rutherford and Jane McCrea could cover it with plastic grid and gravel.

Meanwhile Mark Donnelley and David Bilton were digging in a poly tunnel, Meg Deacon and myself cut recycled plastic sheeting to make a greenhouse roof and Vicki Knight-Phillips did my usual job of running around keeping everybody motivated whilst taking photographs. Some potatoes were also dug at some point too, what a busy session! Suffice to say for 45 minutes last night the Growing works allotment was an absolute hive of activity, everywhere I looked red T-shirted GoodGymmers were had at it, putting the effort in and making a difference.

I have to say that of all last night’s jobs, perhaps the most impressive and arguably the crowning glory of the session was the newly laid path. What 45 minutes earlier had been a rough, uneven grassy walkway was now a neat, levelled gravel path that would have graced any garden. Well done all, they say team work makes the dream work, that was certainly the case last night!

There was so much work done, we didn’t even get chance to stop for our traditional tea and biscuit in the potting shed. But we set off for the 2K run back to the Stadium in the knowledge another good GoodGym job had been done and that 28 hands certainly make for light work!

Thanks to all last night’s record breaking GoodGymmers, great to see so many of you.

It’s the start of September so GoodGym Huddersfield went back to school last night. Back in fact to our old friends at Berry Brow Infant School for some more painting of fences and playground furniture. However painting wasn’t the only task, the school had some leafleting to do promoting their free nursery provision. It was just as well GoodGym friend and task provider Katrina Whale from the school had come up with two tasks as twelve GoodGymmers turned up last night, all eager to run do a good turn for our local community.

Meeting at our alternative rendezvous point of Lockwood Park it was good to see a total of three first time GoodGymmers as part the Huddersfield crew. Welcome to Jane McCrea, Jo Talbot-Patterson and Anna Kingston, joining old timers Kati Law, Ben Godfrey, David Bilton, Peter Phillips, Laura Merriman, Vicki Knight-Phillips, Zena Whalley and Richard Byrne. I made up the numbers completing the impressive total of a dozen GoodGymmers. I also had the dubious honour of sporting the GoodGym Huddersfield Superhero cape for the evening, this being the occasion of my 50th GoodGym run.

After a warm-up at the rugby club it was swiftly into the 3K run to the task at Berry Brow. Avoiding main road running, the footpath to Armitage Bridge provided a very pleasant alternative in the September sunshine. Less pleasant perhaps was the final pull up Waingate, but we all made it and arrived at the school ready for action.

Dividing into two teams the painters were swiftly dispatched into the playground to get on with painting a fence blue, whilst four leafletters grabbed a huge stack of flyers and made their way up the hill to Newsome posting as they progressed. A little local knowledge often goes a long way with these things and fortunately Laura and Anna, both of whom have lived in the area all their lives were able to plot the most effective route to get as many leaflets posted as possible within the time available. The fence painters certainly certainly seemed happy in their work too, chatting away as they gradually transformed an old picket fence from a worn woody brown into a new vibrant blue colour.

40 minutes hard labour later it was pretty much job done, the leafletters returned and the painters down brushes in preparation for the 2K run back to Lockwood Park. In the gathering gloom (looks like we’ll be back to working with headtorches pretty soon guys☹️!), there was just time for a group photo on the school climbing frame (and for me to do justice to the superhero cape by sliding down a fireman’s pole) before running off downhill back to our start point.

Thanks to all last night’s GoodGymmers, once again it was great to see us maintaining double figures for attendance following on from our busiest ever month in August. Let’s keep it going through September!

Thanksto Vicki Knight-Phillips for some of the photos.

After what was a scorchio day in brilliant Barnsley, five fiesty runners ran the four kms there and back to Locke Park to help the volunteers shift sand!

Tonight we were joined by a new member Jane let's give her a cheer here. Great to have you along and I hope you enjoyed your first run! We were also joined by James, Rachael and Sharon - lets spread the love and cheer them all!

After a quick courtyard warm-up and introductions, we set off as a group of 4 on the way to the park. The pace was nice and steady, allowing everyone to chat along the way. The majority uphill route felt tougher than usual due to the stuffy humid weather, but everyone dug deep and made it up the long steady hill without stopping!

Good effort team!

When we arrived, volunteer Anne explained that the planned task of weeding was going to be far too difficult as the ground was rock solid thanks to the weekends unusually hot weather, so she had a plan B. Plan B involved 17 tonnes of sand, 4 brushes, two rakes and a shovel!

Anne showed us to the park's large sandpit which had become one of Barnsley's most popular attractions for the local kids over the summer holidays! They had recently raised enough money to have the sandpit restocked with 17 tonnes of sand but due to it's popularity, there was now just as much sand outside the pit as there was in it! We got to work sweeping up and raking the sand in the pit. James focussed on a huge pile of sand that had blown out of the pit into a neighbouring climbing frame, pulling out alsorts of plants that had grown in the sand like sandunes! Sharon removed the litter and other oddities found in the sand, whilst Jane used a teeny tiny plastic spade to scoop up the sand around the edges. Myself and Rachael were chief sweepers, trying our best to collect as much of the sand as possible - not a job for someone as OCD as me!

Time was up and we had managed to replace a huge amount of sand back to the pit! We grabbed a picture and said our goodbyes, heading back down the hill for our fitness session! On the way back we stopped to use some steps and benches for tonights mini fitness session. Using the steps for cardio, the benches for dips and box jumps and the railings for press ups, we ran through a local park completing two laps to get our hearts racing and finish off the evening.

Back at base we did some stretches and said our goodbyes.

Tonight was my last night leading the group and as I drove away, thinking about the last 15 months I've spent leading and 24 months I've been part of GoodGym Barnsley, I felt very sad indeed! It has been such a pleasure to be part of the group and lead it and I am going to miss the friendly faces, funny conversations, bommerangs, running and all of the people we help locally. I feel very proud of what we have acheived as a group and hope the amazing work will continue.

GoodGym Barnsley will be continuing in the capable hands of Rachael who is very passionate about the group and has been involved since July 2018. Rachael's first session will be on Wednesday 11th September, so please sign up here if you can make it!