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🥪 The Great Sandwich Heist: Zoe's First Run & Andy’s Three-Course Carb-Fest

A massive GoodGym welcome to Zoe, who survived her very first group run! It’s the first of many missions, provided she wasn't completely scared off by our post-run catering habits.

The Journey (And the Wedding Gossip)

The squad—Nadia, Andy Julie, Wayne, Kirsty and Zoe—convened at the Winston Churchill School gates. Kirsty clocked a cheeky 2k from home just to show off, while Anne skipped the running part and met us at the site as she currentlt can not run 🏃🏼‍♂️

After Run Leader Nadia gave Zoe the breakdown of the route, we set off on a 2.5k tour of Knaphill’s finest hills. The calves were burning, but the distractions were elite: we got to hear all about Nadia and Andy’s wedding and honeymoon, complete with a mid-run slideshow of the wedding pictures.

The Battle of the Bedding

We arrived at the Knaphill Community Fridge perfectly timed with a massive food delivery. Jules appeared with a wheelbarrow full of tools, and we were assigned our mission: total annihilation of the weeds and dead flowers around the church and food bank tent.

Wayne went rogue at one end with the strimmer. 🤣

The rest of the crew armed themselves with rakes and scissors.

Andy inherited a temperamental leaf blower that was clinging to 1% battery life, yet somehow managed to blow the paths clean through sheer willpower.

Two giant green bins were packed to the brim in record time.

The Legend of the Three-Course Sandwich

Then came the grand finale. To thank us, Jules offered us crates of surplus supermarket sandwiches. While most people took a polite token snack, Andy saw an absolute buffet. 🥪

Andy successfully curated a full three-course meal out of targeted carbohydrate acquisition:

The Starter: A breakfast sandwich. 🥪

The Main: A lunch sandwich. 🥪

The Dessert: A steak dinner sandwich (because nothing says dessert like beef).

He was, unsurprisingly, the happiest lad in Surrey.😄

Jules kindly provided bags so we didn't drop the haul, and the group had the distinct pleasure of jogging back to the school loaded down with a bakery’s worth of bread. Massive props to Zoe for fitting right in, and hats off to Andy appetite! 😄

Last night, six members of GoodGym Woking went on a plogging mission near to the Hoe Valley.

Adam, our designated photographer, Julie, who is thinking about training as a Run Leader, Karen who has now completed 40 good deeds, Kirsty whose enthusiasm for GoodGym knows no bounds, Luan who is determined to join our tasks and missions more often and Anne, armed with Woking Council's litter pickers eagerly joined forces to fill up three enormous bags of rubbish.

Our plogging was met by local people expressing their gratitude, which boosted our spirits! We also appreciated completing this task in the daylight and without feeling cold or wet! Let's agree that this second plogging session was a (rubbishy) success.

5 Woking GoodGymers, Agathe, Anne, Julie, Melanie and Rebecca, made the most of the warm and light evenings while they are still around, to do a littler picking run.

It was a great opportunity to catch up as a couple of us have not completed a mission for a while. We also explored a new route some of us had not been to before while picking up litter next to a stream.

We cleared up the usual crisp packets, vapes and drinks cans but also a sock!

Plogging is meant to be one of the least favourite GoodGym tasks, but here at Woking we love it. It makes our community a better place, prevents more litter being dropped, shows GoodGym doing tangible good in public and a good chance to have a chat. It was nice to be thanked by people walking past.

If you could not join us this time, we might see you next Wednesday? In the meantime, have a great running week.

Julie and Nadia set off from Woking Leisure Centre for an evening mission with a purpose. 🏃‍♀️💪 We ran over to St. Mark’s community fridge in Westfield, where Reverend Rachel welcomed us with a smile. 😊🙏

Once inside, we got to work: clearing out old stock 🗑️, cleaning shelves 🧽, tackling cobwebs 🕸️, and mopping the floors 🧹 until everything was spotless. ✨ We wanted to leave the fridge in better shape than we found it and we were proud of the result. 💚

After tidying up, we ran back via the Hoe Stream under the stars 🌙⭐, feeling energized and grateful. Mission complete: less waste, more taste, and a community that’s been served. 🤝🍎

Opening Of The Nature Garden

After months of hard work today was the grand opening of the Knaphill School Nature Garden 😃

Goodgym Woking have been helping Vicki & Mark over the last few months getting what was a waste land at the back of the school into a educational nature garden for the kids of Knaphill Lower School. After months of cutting back brambles to making TP’s, painting fixing the once tired and broken trim trail through the cold wet winter months and even through the recent heatwave we had done it.

This morning Wayne, Julie & Katieheaded to the school to meet Vicki & Mark & Victoria who helped with the designed of the garden as well as the headteacher along with a special guest to officially open the area 🌿

The weather did not seem to get the memo 🌧️. But that did not stop special guest Charlotte Hawkins from GMB to come.

Charlotte arrived about 9am and Vicki introduced the whole team and even mentioned some of our team who unfortunately could not make this morning

Brollys were up ☔️ and a little walk around the garden showing all the different play zone. Charlotte was very impressed by the bird Boxes 🐦‍⬛ that were done by the Goodgym team, Ola’s box was picked out 😃

Charlotte was also keen on hearing more about Goodgym and was really impressed and was going to get her husband to sign up to a local session 🤣

As the weather got worse we headed into the school for a warm beverage and chat.

Hopefully as the weather gets better the kids can get out and enjoy the play area.

Charlotte then said her goodbyes and headed off.

The finishing posts are in sight as the finishing touches and final tidy up got done. It was lovely to see Katie who did a great job weeding the brambles out of the wild flower area and the herb beds, and Stephanie who battled with the ivy and more brambles trying to reclaim the bird watching area. A lot of raking up dead leaves and a few more plants in place means that we're nearly ready for the big opening on 8th June. It's been a long journey and i hear that the children are getting very excited about the new area as they watch it come together.