After so many weeks in lockdown, it was absolutely awesome to be back at the Lighthouse Centre with so many familiar faces - and to meet some new faces for the first time too (a huge welcome to Megan & Victoria). 17 runners made our way from home to the centre - some walked and some ran but we all made our own way there using some form of exercise.

Social distancing rules were observed with some members working on the inside taking boxes down from the loft and another group working outside clearing out two sheds - all tasks that needed doing in order to get the building COVID ready for the people visiting the church again. It really was a team effort and with 17 of us, we really did make a big impact in a short space of time.

As always, we were warmly welcomed by Pastor David and colleague Paul. It was very humbling to hear David tell us that the impact of our help meant that they can now open their doors to serve meals to the homeless sooner than anticipated.

At the end of the evening, we received lovely refreshments (Chocolate is always a winner!) and had a good 'socially distanced' natter. I think we all enjoyed catching up so much that many of us were reluctant to go home!

When we did eventually manage to part company, we all made our way home for a well earned rest.

It really was a fab night and lovely to see everyone again. Here's to many more community missions!! XXX

Welcome

We welcomed two new runners to GoodGym Crewe tonight! It was awesome to meet you Daisy and Jim. Daisy came with the lovely Ginnie and Jim came all the way from Stoke with Phil!! We hope you both had a great night and will come and join us again soon for another task.

Kudos

Huge kudos goes to Claire this week who did the Knighton 20!! A huge race in an incredible time. Well done Claire. Marathon next stop!! And to Phil who completed his 250th Parkrun. 250! Wow!!! Well done Phil. Also, to Emma who smashed the Chester 10K this weekend. Question is, will you go for the Chester triple Emma?! Well done everyone, you’re all awesome! Oh, and extra huge kudos to Claire who was the only one brave enough to tackle the spiders in the toilet this evening (read more in the report)!!

Thank You

Huge thanks to Sophie, Taskforce member and backmarker for our runners this evening. Thanks for looking after everyone and ensuring nobody was left behind. And as our latest TaskForce recruit (thank you Barry), Barry oversaw the walking group. Thanks Barry. Thanks also, to Catherine and Alan at St. Andrews church this evening who welcomed us and directed us in our cleaning duties.

Tonight’s Task

It was great to see so many people join us on our task again tonight. Our evening commenced in the usual manner – with biscuits – but on this occasion, eaten to the musical accompaniment of Y Viva Espana in honour of Pam and Barry’s forthcoming trip to Spain! ;)

Once again, the weather was kind to us as we headed over to the memorial square for our warmup, which tonight, had a bit of an 80’s theme to it. I dug out the old Twister game for a slightly different take on the classic 80’s floor flexibility challenge (which is still going strong into the noughties – or are we back in the twenties again?!) Anyway, I digress. We had four coloured cones (that almost matched the twister board), each with a warmup written on it and spread across the square. With the spin of the spinner, we had to run to the corresponding cone and do the warm up for 30 seconds or until the whistle blew (when Nicola had got the obligatory photos/videos - whichever came first!!). We did toe taps, heel flicks, high knees and leg swings. We did it to the tunes of Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! Suitably warmed up, we headed off to our task for the evening. At just over a mile, it wasn’t too far to run and we arrived at St. Andrews church fairly quickly (and the distance always feels quicker when you’re having a good old natter along the way!).

We were greeted by the lovely Catherine and Alan who told us what jobs needed doing and where to find all our cleaning materials. St. Andrews is quite a big church, so there were plenty of jobs to keep us all busy. Claire was the only one brave enough to tackle the spiders in the toilet (see photographic evidence of said spiders). Between us, we cleared the church of all the hard to reach cobwebs (and spiders – most of which were dead btw - sorry, I'm over using the word 'spiders' in this paragraph!), we hoovered, we swept the floor, we buffed the brass and we polished the pews. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the task and especially the well-received brew at the end. Catherine and Alan were very grateful for our help and said the church had never looked or smelt so good!! It was looking Bright and Brew-tiful! ;-)) Mission accomplished!!

We set off on our way back to base, doing a short workout on the way home. We utilised the benches and railings on Nantwich road to do some tricep dips, standing oblique bends and squats. On the way back, the unthinkable happened…… it started to rain!!!!!!! This is a new concept for us and I was a little put out…. but it’s ok…. Jordan said it doesn’t count if it rains on the way back, so we’re all good (and anyway, it must have only lasted for about a minute - phew!!) ;-)))))

Thanks for another awesome night everyone. Have a great trip Pam & Barry and we’ll see you back in June!!! Hope to see you all on Saturday at Parkrun!!

Stay safe,

Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

HERE'S THE LOWDOWN ON LAST NIGHT'S TASK

Kudos

It was great to see so many of you with us again this week. Huge kudos to everyone for coming out and giving up your evening to do good in your community. You really are awesome and each week, you make me so proud (hope that doesn’t sound patronising, but you really do!). Well done to everyone who is clocking up amazing mileage with their marathon training. You’re totally killing it!! And to those of you who are getting moving – whether you’re walking, cycling, swimming, or pole fitting – you’re keeping fit and active, hat’s off!!

Thank You

Huge thanks to Phil for acting as back marker this evening and ensuring that nobody was left behind. And as our latest TaskForce recruit, Amanda oversaw the walking group (even though she may not have been aware she was overseeing it – note to self for future reference! ;-)). You’re both stars!! Thank you to Kate at Motherwell for having us this evening and giving us a nice warm indoor task!!

Tonight’s Task

We were graced with another dry evening and a lovely clear sky. Perfect running weather. We kicked off our evening with biscuits – as always – followed by our warm-up. Tonight we warmed up by doing various sports. We tried our hand at boxing, swimming, running (obvs), canoeing, skipping and fencing. Poor Jordan took some ribbing from his lovely sister Sasha about his fencing technique (lunges). I didn’t think you looked THAT bad Jordan!! ;-))

Our red army set off along the streets of Crewe once again, having to take particular care around lots of tree roots this week – pesky things!! There were no broken-down cars to rescue this week though, so we just headed merrily on our way, chatting as we went. We had a large walking group this evening who had set off before us and were waiting for us on our arrival – possibly feeling quite smug that they’d beaten us ;-))

Our task this evening was to help sort leaflets into bundles. Motherwell is a local charity that offers support, counselling, therapy groups and well being days for women. They needed some help sorting leaflets into bundles to go out to local schools to promote their forthcoming women’s days. There were 20 of us and it took us 45 minutes. Imagine how long it would have taken for just two people do the same task?! It was a lovely night – we were in cosy, warm surroundings (there was even a bit of background music!) and even though there was lots of counting and concentrating, there was also a lot of laughter – especially when Sasha exposed a minor mix up with the leaflets and we had to go through them all again. We’re not entirely sure what happened but I will take one for the team! You can blame me!! ;0)

We put all the bundled leaflets into a very grateful Kate’s car and headed back to base. We took a slightly different route home which took us via clutch bite hill (renowned driving test route for the dreaded hill start!). Everyone flew up it with no trouble at all.

It was another fantastic night with the GoodGym Crewe Gang. I always come home on a high. Roll on next week. Can’t wait to see you all then!!

Stay safe, Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

PS – Pam and Barry are off to Spain shortly so won’t be with us for a while from mid-March. Thought I’d just let you know in case you weren’t already aware….. ;-)))))