20 people ran 5k to Birmingham Vernon Sea Cadets to help clean boats and stock take life jackets

Tonight we welcomed Beth, Mark and Axel to the group for the first time. Axel is from the GG Central team and is flying from Birmingham to Doha tomorrow on an exciting two week running trip! Once all the introductions were over and the exciting news that our first Birmingham Mission was going ahead tomorrow was announced we were on our way to a brand-new task.

Sea cadets, but weres the sea?!

You may wonder if you are reading this report how is there a Sea Cadet group in Brum when the sea is so far away, well you would be surprised, there are actually a few groups in the city. The group we were visiting were based by Birmingham Reservoir, so it's not quite the sea, but plenty of water to take their boats out to. On arriving we got a great view over the water with a pink sky (see the pictures) as darkness was falling. Jenn also warmly greeted us. Once on with the task the group had to work as a team to tip the boats over and move them. Everyone showed great team work, whilst a few of the group did the stock taking of the life jackets. I got a great vantage point for some pictures, by walking up the stairs onto the roof, initially it didn’t do my acrophobia much good, but I survived!

Sam got his big hose out

While most of the group turned the boats over Sam and Annie looked very excited to use the power hose, cleaning the boats off! Once done we were on our way back. We stopped at a quiet road no cars could drive down to do some interval work. What we missed in traffic we also missed in lighting meaning the group had to go a little slower than usual. I also had problems taking pictures as I thought I couldn’t unlock my phone, only realising I was trying to use Aaron’s phone which I was also carrying in my bag! Doh! Once nearly back I added in one more sprint up a hill, getting the groups heart rate right up before we finished. Once back it was time for a quick stretch off and we were done.

Next week we will be out doing good again and my mistake we aren’t going to Birmingham Mission Care Centre we are going to do a litter pick on the canal, I forgot that I had bought it forward a week, so we could make good use of the last of the light! sign up here.

14 people ran 5k to do a litter pick on our adopted part of the canal

On a bright and for a nice change a rain free evening we tonight welcomed Fiaz along for his first Goodgym run, give him a cheers fellow Goodgymer’s! The reigns were handed over to myself for this group run while our main trainer Jonny is away enjoying the sun. I worked out this was the 34th Good Gym Birmingham run since starting out in January, impressive and many more to come I’m sure. With the briefing done we headed off to the canal for this week’s task armed with litter picks, bag hoops, bin bags and those all-important gloves. Like a flash mob of red off to do good! After getting to the start of our adopted section on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal we split up into 3 groups each taking a smaller area to work on. We did 15 minutes work to clear as much rubbish as possible and met everyone back at Aston locks to drop of the bags ready from collection by our friends at the Canal and River Trust. We finished with 6 bags full of rubbish so a great effort from all. We could all really notice the difference though of Goodgym’s regular work litter picking as there was far less than we have found previously tonight, signs of our success in making this part of canal a cleaner place for everyone to enjoy! With our selfie king Chan present we of course got in a few snaps by our GoodGym sign showing we have adopted this area of canal, great to see they all remain in place after putting them up a few months back now!

Say quack?!

As all this was going on some of the group had found a baby duck or to be more precise a Coot that had become trapped in one of the locks. So, it was Goodgymer’s to the rescue, after a few ideas of how to help from the dangerous and certainly not risk assessed jumping in to the more traditional - get a big stick! We in the end decided on a simple opening of a lock was enough to free our feathered friend. RSPCA eat your heart out! With our litter pick and animal welfare tasks complete it was back to running heading along the canal towards the city centre.

Lung bursting sprints

On finding a nice flat and straight section of canal I set up an interval ‘sprint’ session. Focusing on keeping the posture stable starting with the head, powering through with the arms and trying to push up onto those toes. The group did 5 sprints between myself at one point and a handy bench which stored all our equipment, each with a recovery in between and an extra recovery jog to finish back to the bench after I realised we needed to return with the tools! Fantastic effort and energy all round by the group, Aaron and Simon leading it through strong with Dionne and Maria showing great consistency! The group then ran back to 1000 trades rounding off with those injury preventing stretches! Next week it’s back to normal with Jonny returning with I’m sure stories of sun and beer to make sure us jealous with! We will be returning next week to SIFA Fireside to help them out with all manners of cleaning jobs, be great to see you there please sign up here

16 people ran 5k to sort clothes, organise tinned food and feed the homeless at the Birmingham Mission Care Centre

Tonight, we welcomed three newcomers to GG Brum! Step forward Ken, Dave and Aaron. Thanks for coming chaps! Tonight, we were on our monthly visit to Birmingham Mission. Annie kindly did the back marking and I led the way. Once there we were warmly greeted by John who said there was a lot to do tonight, so the group were split three ways. One group went in the kitchen to help serve the food and wash up, one group helped sort the clothes and another group sorted the tinned food by itemising it all. The task took a bit longer than usual, especially all the clothes sorting, but as Dave said the strap line ‘many hands make light work’.

More rain?!

Last week most of the runners got a soaking on the way to GoodGym, tonight it was on the way back. The wet stuff was falling pretty heavily as we left the care centre so it was probably just as well the task took a little longer! But a bit of rain didn’t deter our runners anyway! We headed off at a good pace. Before stopping at the bottom of a hill to do a bit of HIIT training. A nice mix of lunges, tuck jumps and high knees running got those hearts racing and metabolisms fired up! Then the group did a ‘sustained effort’ rep……a hill climb, straight into stair climbing in front of the town hall, once at the top a sprint to some crossroads. The group put in some great work. Dave led the way with Neal chasing him down. Simon and Philip worked hard all the way, Abbie, Kate and Morwenna pushed each other, driving hard through the rain. Once done we pushed on back to 1000 Trades and that was another run done 😊

GG Birmingham race

Remember it is our first official GG Brum race this Saturday, the Cannon Hill Parkrun, meeting at the bandstand at 8.45am ready for the 9am start. Followed by a coffee afterwards. It would be great to see as many people as possible from any GG group sign up here.

Next week I will be on a sunbed in Majorca, however don't worry Aidan will be 'me' next week, so don't worry you will be able to do good once again sign up here.

Once again, we were lucky after a rainy day to have a sunny evening for a run around Barnsley.

An intrepid team of 4 including Barnsley newcomer - Katie - headed over to the Carer's Garden to meet Gordon, who had all sorts of jobs for us to do. We liked the sound of potato picking the most.

We were introduced to one very overgrown raised bed. Our task was to dig the whole thing over, bagging all the good potatoes, removing the weeds and replanting any tiny potatoes for next time.

Gordon was an amazing source of horticultural knowledge and throughout the task we learnt as much as anyone could ever learn about growing potatoes.

They'll grow anywhere, you could grow them in a wellie boot!

We'd cleared the plot with ten minutes to spare so Gordon had another job for us, which was to relocate a whole wendy house. We were momentarily distracted from this by gargantuan raspberries which proved to be perfect fuel for the big lift!

Our fitness session included a hill sprint warm up, followed by a round of circuits for upper and lower body and finished off with some plank exercises for the core.