What a perfect night for a stroll by the river, and to make it even better we collected 8 bin bags (bean bags? whatever, just bags!!) we also had hill fun and squat not so fun......sorry, but not really.

Tonight 8 of us met at 6.30pm at lifeleisure, we started with a fab warm up on the big steps, and then did a few hill climbs to hit the hamstrings, oooo it felt* good*.

After a watch syncro and name call we set off to find the river, had a shout to the plumber then carried on! never a dull moment on a goodgym run. We did a fast paced run to a messy spot on the river, bags and gloves were dished out along with instructions to be careful of surroundings and fill your bags, with rubbish. And thats what we did.............after 20 minutes we stopped, not for a break but for a bit of fitness fun. Again hills were involved, and so were plenty of sad faces and high 5's, so a good mix.

After the fitness fun we started to lightly run back, we were more mindful on our return, running slower and enjoying the surroundings. Martin decided to leave at the half way point to run home, but its ok, later on we were bird watching and a local expert told us the many birds flying around the trees were called SAND MARTINS, so it was ok, we replaced 1 human Martin with many flying Martins! see, told you, never a dull moment on a goodgym run.

Tonight was great, as well as running we were surrounded by lovely nature, doing good stuff.

Id like to give out a massive shout out, to not ONE but TWO lovely peeps who got to the 50 good deed mark this week, well done Amy and Anne, you are fabulous, well done, thats a whole lot of goodness. Also it was great to Kate back this week! what a lovely week to come see us again.

Next week were leafleting again for homeinstead, this time in Cheadle.

Have a great week running folks, until next week,

Lisa x x

16 Goodgym runners met at the usual spot of Lifeleisure Grand Central at 6.30pm to set off for the weeks task.

This week were running in a different direction to hot foot it over to Brinnington to Westmorland primary school, to fix up the raised beds and surrounding areas for the spring time, to make the area clean and safe and ready for the children to plant next year, it was wonderful space for the children, with sunflowers, fig trees, frogs and more, we were very proud to help out and set up the area in preparation for next year.

We had a quick briefing and little mobilisation workout before setting off, the nights task was 4.3km away, so one of our longer runs and so we kept the warm up brief. We set off through the sunny streets of stockport, it was lovely and light as we set off, but the sun was quickly setting, so heres another gentle reminder to say that the evenings are getting darker earlier so its a really really good idea to bring along a head/chest torch and also remember to wear some reflective gear to keep safe and seen!

As the sun set we arrived at the school where we were greeted by “Red” the caretaker who explained that we were to clear and sort the raised beds and surrounding areas. All equipment was set out and well organised ready for us to get to it.

There were 3 main beds and so the team were split into 3 teams of 5 and set to compete with each other, the teams named themselves: potatoes, the hoes and the turn it overs! Very inventive!

The idea was to be competitive and see who could finish their bed first, but if im honest it wasn’t very fair as some were more dense than others, the beds that is, not the Goodgymers!!

We were super close to completing a task when a big frog jumped out at us, and then in the same area we found a little frog and so we decided to leave a small section untouched for them.

After the task was complete we downed tools and got to run back down the hill which was a great relief.

Back at Grandcentral we had a cool down and de-brief.

This week I would like to welcome Clare and Kate, who did fab on the first Goodgym run, it was great to have you join us. Also good luck to all the runners taking part in this Sundays Manchester half marathon! Dont forget your medals for a group photo next week. Lots of mentions to say well done too! As a few people are in hot climates or have been and kept up running, either on jolly holidays or as part as a charity event, well done folks.

Also well done to people who got a place in next years London marathon, I got my usual “not wanted” email for the 8th year……nevermind!

Look out for our 10 wk social event in 3 weeks time, its also Davids 50th task anniversary so a wonderful to celebrate and also arrange a few runs for fun.

Till next week folks, where we are leaflet dropping in Cheadle, keep running,

Lisa x