21 York Goodgymers kept the flag flying while Trainer Egg was on a much deserved ski trip in the Alps with Lizzie. We celebrated Becky's 50th Good deed with the now traditional Cape of Good Deeds and Paul led us out to Clarence Gardens with Barbara backmarking. We met up with Iain and set to work collecting leaves with rakes and handy leaf-scoopers.

Nicky said that she could swim pretty fast with two leaf -scoopers for paddles, so we were tempted to empty out a big pile of leaves for her to demonstrate.

Becky struck heroic poses with the aid of a rake for cape support while Tim mostly threw leaves around (when he wasn't running into garden benches that is). We bagged up a pile of leaves - we're pretty sure 50+ bags - and then headed off for some circuits of lunges, ladder climbers and rock, paper, scissors squats with bonus burpees for the losers.

Ellie & Leanne's game of rock, paper, scissors seemed to end with both of them losing - go figure!

Pretty soon it was time to head back to base with Tim dodging benches and a pause outside the art gallery for a heroic cape of good deeds slo-mo panning shot from Becky.

That little lot should help with our January Challenge.

The Kamelia Chronicles

On a particularly grey and damp evening in not so sunny Worthing we extended a very warm welcome to our newbies Tamsin and Paul and also to Jo our GoodGym tourist and guest of Belinda's. It was so good to meet you all tonight and thank you for your time and energy. I hope you all enjoyed yourself whilst doing some good deeds and possibly challenging your fitness levels too! Massive GoodGym cheers coming your way.

Tonight we headed off for another visit to Kamelia Kids special needs day nursery which is a challenging 5 k run each way but ideal for working on endurance with a bit of speed training thrown in too.

Once again and in what is becoming a true Worthing GG trend I set out with 5 runners and ended up with 8 at the task. A piece of GG wizardry in advance of Halloween next week.

Good news not fake news for the kids

We were met by the caretaker Andy who lined us up for some sweeping and general tidying and pruning tasks in their drive and front garden. All kitted out with head torches, tools and gloves the team set to work for 30 mins of ''rooting about in the undergrowth''

Sweeping up appearances

Paul and Tamsin didn't waste any time getting stuck into the task with some great weeding and raking in the far point of the drive followed by some sweeping and pruning in the main flowerbed. Duncan and Nick were also on sweeping duty collecting up bagfuls of debris whilst also manging to immerse themselves in fine pruning ( Couldn't resist my favourite most used pun!)

Smelling like lavender

There was a wonderful aroma surrounding Gill tonight that wafted around us all as she delicately re shaped the lavander and it came as no surprise that she also found a bit of bindweed to destroy!

Beth was Bethside herself in the bushes

So in true Beth style she almost disappeared into the jungle of the palm tree fully immersing herself into the task as ever and thoroughly enjoying pulling the dead wood out of the roots of the palm tree. Every week I think we will have to pull her out by her legs !

I think I had better leaf right now before i fall for any sweepers

After a tidy up and photo the group started to convene ready for the 5 k run back to Splashpoint.

But wait ! Another fiasco with my car key began to unfold and yet again it kicked of another series of amusing GoodGym Worthing moments. Surely this kind of thing doesn't happen in any other GG group runs ?!

What a waist of time - Bummer!

So whilst 6 of the runners were limbering up on the corner Nick convinced me that he had handed me the first aid kit which also contained my car key . After a lot of frantic searching around the area ,no kit and no key ! So just when Andy had thought he had waved goodbye to us he also got involved with the search . After what felt like an eternity and feeling rather desperate I bent down and tipped the whole bagful of gloves out and as I did so my eye caught the familiar sight of that green bum bag with a white cross safely attached round Nicks waist !! So all was resolved ( after a few expletives from me! )

However in the course of this craziness we had now lost 6 runners who understandably wanted to get moving and had disappeared into the dark!

Mist of chaos

With drizzle and mist well and truly set in the group had turned right instead of left and headed off out of sight . After a few phone calls and a hijack of a car I eventually tracked them down and all was well . Duncan ,Paul and Beth headed off for a slightly longer loop whilst Tamsin ,Belinda ,Jo ,Gill and myself headed for the seafront where, thankfully we all reconvened ready for some lamp post sprints . With the group working to individual pace goals there were some great efforts all round for the final 3 k back to base.

I was mightily relieved when we all ended up stretching and having some GG chatter together before some of us decamped to the Egremont pub to meet up with our rather broken regular runner , Sue who is nursing a broken knee and collar bone. What a great excuse for a visit to the pub ! Great work on the pun finding Beth - Thank you

Thanks as ever to you all for your time and energy especially my new trio tonight ,Jo, Tamsin and Paul but not forgetting my amazing regulars Birthday girl Belinda, Gill , Beth ,Duncan and Nick

The last two weeks have proved that there is never a dull moment at GG Worthing :)

See you next week .

Lots of GoodGym love

Julia xx

A Bone Shaking Warm Up

So we started with 7 runners at the start and ended up with 9 at the task . It was lovely to welcome Leanne , our new member for her 2nd visit to us but the first time I have had the pleasure of her energy and vitality. It was also really good to see Anne again and always fantastic to see my regular recruits Belinda , Gill, Beth, Sue,Duncan and Nick.

Whilst the the sensible 7 took a gentle leg stretcher along the seafront , Duncan put in a swift sprint rushing from work yet managing to arrive first whilst Beth was playing 'beat the train!'

Raking Bad

We were warmly met by Stephanie and Peter who form part of the friends of Heene Cemetery . The cememetry itself had undergone quite a transformation since our last visit with a huge amount of strimming and clearing done on and surrounding the graves. Our task for the evening was to rake and bag up the debris together with some " fine pruning" ( sorry but I do love this pun ! ) The GG team set about this with their usual enthusiasm for doing good in the community.

A Brush with Death

The 2 'die hards' Nick and Gill set about chopping up the large shrubs that had been pruned and Gill even managed to make a broom looking pile ( She does love her improvised tools! ) Newby Leane paired up with Belinda for some 'grim raking' careful manouevering of the wheelbarrow ! Duncan was on a mission tonight . In true scouting style he found a better way of getting from A to B and loaded the bags before transporting them in the wheelbarroow

Did anyone have a coffin fit whilst working

With all the energy exerted I'm surprised no one did ! Anne , Sue and Beth made such 'rake progress' with clearing the pathways and pruning that it looked like a groundforce makeover project .

Chilled to the bone

There was no chance of this tonight. After 30 minutes of hard work , plenty of photos and lots of thanks from our hosts we waved a cheery goodbye and headed out west to put a few more miles in the legs before combined with a double whammy fitness session and stretches before HEADING TO THE PUB !

We should have been drinking spirits

Our treat for all the weeks and months of GoodGym good deeds and running was our first ( of many) trips to the The Egremont pub where we had a friendly welcome from Dominic , the barman who may even join us on a future task. Chatter galore and puns a plenty we were knocking dead the pints.

With graveful thanks

Many many thanks for all the puns, company and good vibes tonight. What a wonderful start to the week.

Have a great week and see you all next week for our first trip to Bugcycle in Beach House Grounds.

Julia :)

A fabulous team of 21 ran to help Edible York at Greenfields Garden.

This was our second of three visits to Greenfields to help install a land drainage system under the guidance of Bill Eve (also known as Edible Bill), and one very lucky new runner came along on just the right night to join in with such a brilliant task - let's give a big Yorkshire cheer to Jenna.

The task involved:

• removing turf as neatly as possible
• digging a long trench to very precise depth specifications
• lining with gravel
• laying pipe
• filling with gravel
• topping with the turf

Phew!

Some of the gang had been to the previous trench-digging epic and led the way, with only 40 minutes on the clock, there wasn't time to hang about. Spade choice was also very important with some of the team favouring a pointy spade for scooping the depths of the trench.

Meanwhile Abi was spadeless, but made excellent use of her time by picking the very best blackberries and raspberries to sustain the rest of the crew.

There was lots of tape measuring throughout the task to ensure the trench was absolutely perfect. We discovered that when Ellie is knee-deep, that's ideal for the low end.

It's hard to get the depth bang on; when the middle section was 1cm too shallow, Abi used another method which was jumping in and stomping it down - much better than digging.

5 minutes to go!!!

With the heavy wheelbarrows of gravel whizzing back and forth, the good bits of turf were re-laid and soil filled all the cracks. It was sort of supposed to look like we'd never been there but I think it will look a bit like that at some point, maybe next year?

Anyway, the task was complete and we ran back to base to finish up with some balance and single leg exercises - the best way to celebrate a good deed done.