A fantastic GoodGym run to help St. Monica's Primary School and the Samye Foundation

How much bigger and better can GoodGym Cardiff get? A whopping 25 runners showed up to GoodGym tonight. Keep coming guys, and don't forget, bring a friend and earn yourself a red lace :D - Exciting times :)

It's TWO task Tuesday

Tonight there were two tasks and runners got the choice of where they wanted to help - Pretty cool eh? Runners could either run with Welsh Dave and head over to the Samye Foundation to clear, lined and filled a plantation bed OR they could run with Ben to St. Monica's Primary School where the runners would be set the task of painting a HUGE wall.

Let's get warmed up

Before we could run to the tasks, we had to do a head count and get warmed up. Runners participated in the headcount and shared with the group were their favourite place to run is - where is your favourite place to run on that note? Comment at the bottom of this run report.

The warm up involved the game 'Stuck in the Dance'. It's a game that is similar to stuck in the mud, but different. If you get tagged you keep dancing until you are saved!

Let's Go GO GOOOOO!

With our warm up done it was time to get our groove on. Those running with Welsh Dave ran in the direction of Cardiff Castle and continued up Cowbridge road towards Samye. Dave made runners 'get their squat on' as they waited for the lights to change in order to cross the road safely. Those running with Ben ran in the direction of city hall, they passed by the extinction rebellion drumming band on the way which provided a great opportunity for Ben to demonstrate his talents at dancing whilst he runs.

Welcome to St. Monica's Primary School

It wasn't long before those running with Ben arrived at the task. Abi gave everyone a warm welcome that was as warm as the weather. It was so nice to visit the school as it has been a while since our last visit. Abi told us about some of the changes that have happened at the school and told us that the school now has introduced the THE DAILY MILE. The Daily Mile encourages children to get out of the classroom and run a mile everyday Abi challenged us to guess how many laps of the playground the children needed to do in order to run a mile... the children have to do a total of 30 LAPS!

We then got stuck into the task, and armed with rollers we all began painting the wall white - WE WERE ON A ROLL!

Martin managed to accidentally paint himself during the task - Or maybe on purpose because he wants white shorts?. Llion mentioned about the fantastic book he has just got published - It's written in Welsh!

Circuit time!

With the task complete and time remaining, what better way to make the most of the time we had remaining than do a circuit session on the playground. There were 6 stations, and in no particular order, here they are:

• Hopscotch
• Hopping up a ladder on 1 leg, alternating between legs on each ladder ascent
• Running the daily mile route
• Running up a small grass hill in the school and rolling back down
• Running, hopping, jumping, walking on tip toes between points on the floor
• In pairs copying the other persons actions

Abi told us that the school children love running up the grass and rolling back down it, pretending that the grass is a hill. This was not a view shared amongst the runners who attended St Monica's tonight, though.

Time to leaveeeee

Oh it was great to be back at school, but alas the time had come to leave. Abi thanked us for our help and told us about how amazed she was about quickly we got the task done.

We ran back towards the city centre, running over obstacles, sprinting down museum avenue and running hard up the slight gradient between the city hall and town centre.

Sam-Yayyyyyy!*

Whilst the other team were rolling their way up to St. Monica's, 13 runners were navigating the protests of Castle St. With plenty of opportunities using the closed road for everyone's favourite step-up challenge!

Speeding down Cowbridge Road East, we make it to the Samye foundation and are welcomed by Lorraine, in true Samye spirit, with a table full of food and a van full of soil for the new plantation beds (those who attended the Samye last time might remember painting these ones at the front of the car park - they're looking 👌!)

The team got stuck in removing rubble and adding the soil to the planters for new flowers to be added, 40 bags goes down surprising fast! Aimee meanwhile set about saving some plants that Lorraine found recently thrown-away.

The first task-riddle was solved in a matter of seconds - what's got a head and tail but no body? Well done Charlotte!), So it was time to make it more of a challenge - there are three tube stations with all the vowels in - what are they? (Turns out there's only two and Dave read the riddle wrong...)

Unfortunately, after our second snack-stop courtesy of Lorraine, it's time to run back - which means no time for the threatened Sally Squat Challenge! ...maybe next week? If anyone happens to be passing the Samye be sure to have a peek at our work!

Make sure you keep up with your fitness by signing up to next week's run - Click here to sign up.

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The Tweet Off Leaderboard

Well done Marie - You've got yourself on the Tweet Off board, and you are one point closer to winning the tweet off this year! Here are the current standings on the tweet off leaderboard -

• LM 9
• MG 3
• DRN 3
• EW 3
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1
• MO 1