SEVENTEEN (definiely not 18, that's an admin error on Tara's part!) GOOD GYM MEMBERS RAN 7KM TO ST ANDREWS CHRUCH HOVE TO HELP WITH VARIOUS TASKS UNDER THE INSTRUCTION FROM VICAR DAN HENDERSON .

Our first group run of February was run on a lovely evening along the sea front to St Andrews church in Hove , just over three kilometres in distance . We were greeted by Mr Dan Henderson the vicar and his assistant who welcomed us and talked us through the two main tasks for the evening in the Graveyard . There has been some antisocial behaviour in the graveyard at night so having taken some advice the church are adding some lighting to illuminate the graveyard at night .Half of our group were provided with spades and tools to dig a trench for some new cables to provide an electricity supply for the new lighting system , hopefully the new lighting will stop the need for increased security as people are 'dying' to get in (boom boom!!)

Removing Ivy and weeds from tombs and gravestones was our task for the second group of volunteers . One large tomb was so overgrown with Ivy that it was ninety per cent obscured from view , it did not take long for our team to completely clean the ivy from this tomb plus several graves as well . We also had a general clean up and litter pick of the general areas , our volunteers
were so engrossed in their work you could almost here the skeletons coffin' (boom, boom!)

Once we had completed our tasks we said our goodbyes to the vicar and his assistant and we made our way back to the sea front where we started our fitness work out for the evening . This was led by our coach Tara Shanahan , who instructed us on a speed and recovery session running set intervals along the sea front , this also incorporated some steep ramps and steps to add some extra work rate .

We rounded off the lovely evening with some stretching and a warm down and look forward to another task and our social evening next Tuesday evening .

Tara writes....Thanks Andy for a great run report, love the 'jokes', we're all dying with laughter!! Just also to say welcome along to Theresa and Daisy joining us for the first time on a Tuesday evening, hope you enjoyed it and that you'll be back for more. And also hope to see some of you at Hove Prom on Saturday for our monthly parkrun meet up.

A brand new location for our task tonight as we visited the Phoenix Art Gallery for the first time.

There’s a lot going on in this massive building including loads of affordable artists studios, exhibition spaces, family workshops and community art therapy groups. It’s run on a not for profit basis and has the core mission to create the conditions through which art can flourish.

After welcoming Ajil for his first group run and congratulating PB machines Michael & Roy on their progress at parkrun we headed north, negotiating the improvement works of the Valley Gardens Scheme. Premises manager Jon welcomed us and set us to work. Katie & Paul took on the outside task of litter picking and weeding the parking area at the back of the centre. This is an area we visited a few weeks ago to paint over graffiti and it was good to see that the area is still mostly graffiti free. And now it's litter and weed free too, thanks to our efforts.

Meanwhile indoors our other task was to sweep and mop the two main staircases. It seemed like it had been quite some time since this had been done and much dust was swept and mopped and we left the area much improved.

We then headed south for our fitness session featuring speedy laps of our 400m ish ‘track’ . There were some fantastic times and it was great to see you working off each other and pushing each other on. The laps alternated with a butt busting sequence of moves designed to strengthen those 'all important for running, but a bit knackered by sitting' gluteal muscles.

There was some discussion during the evening of the best night for our Christmas social, and social sec Nipun suggested a ‘doodle poll’ where we can vote on our preferred evening, 5th or 6th December. More details in this weeks newsletter.

Next week we’ll be back in the Hanover area but until then hope to see you some of you at parkrun on Saturday.

Big thanks to Roy for taking on the writing of this week's run report and pun, over to you Roy....

Tonight's run report is brought to you by the letters A and E (sorry Laura), and by the number 2, which is how many pints I had before agreeing to write this.

We started the evening by congratulating [Michael} on his elevation to goodgym legend status, having completed 50 good deeds. Michael now gets to distinguish himself from mere mortals by wearing a very fetching black goodgym t-shirt. We also welcomed a number of new and returning faces including Cece, Jenny & Paul for their first run and Rachel & Luke who we haven't seen in ages. Great to see you all and hope you'll be back for more soon!

21 runners unfortunately became 20 when we lost Laura early on after she injured her wrist in the warm up. Luckily our task was just down the road from the Royal Sussex and Laura wisely decided to get her wrist checked out at A&E. We all send her our best for a speedy recovery.

Tonight's task was at Somerset Point, a block of sheltered retirement housing in Kemp Town. There we met resident Tomm (with 2 'm's), who maintains the communal gardens (including a lovely fig tree), which reach around all sides of the block.

Tomm set us to work on a number of tasks, including weeding, hoeing, clearing beds, pruning, shifting bags of compost (#girlpower) and spreading the compost over some of the cleared beds. I also learned a valuable lesson not to enter a man's shed uninvited, having eyed up a pair of Tomm's shears that I thought would come in handy.

Tomm seemed really happy with our evening's work and having cleared up we made our way to the seafront for a fitness session which - and I'm sure I speak for everyone here - was all too short tonight. I'm sure Tara will make up for it next week :-)

Afterwards about half the group headed off to the Mesmerist for our monthly social, where Brighton's halloumi stocks took a big hit and somehow I ended up agreeing to write the weekly report.

See you next week!

A soggy 8k run this evening with a “Gert Big” hill thrown in for the lucky 14 who braved the weather showing true grit to keep fit.

The Task

To paint some community banners at St Phillips and St James’s church in Odd Down and emulsion a wall in this rather large room.

Welcome Christopher ... wow!!! Another great runner in Bath.

A few announcements before we took to the hill Well done to Pascale who ran a marathon in Majorca last week... Hip Hip!! Good Luck to Ollie who’s running The Athens Marathon on Sunday .. Hip Hip!!! Cllr Goodman though you guys were great last week... so fab stuff for doing what you do every week.

Superman Sam was leader of the pack tonight with Lovely Mary back marking on one of our longer runs out to a task so no time for that extra fitness stuff for us this evening. We had a lot to get done.

Indoors

Andy was our host this evening and he was ready and waiting to direct the troops to their allotted task and a wall in need of a coat of paint or two.

Some intricate work needed on the community banners, the boys on the blue and the girls all yellow and must say you can tell who applies make up with some nifty brush Work going on. You can just make out the crib with baby Jesus in amidst the rays of sunlight, the local school children will be finishing them off tomorrow.. Fabulous stuff!!

We also enjoyed a little history lesson before leaving on how St James’s Church was bombed during the war and rebuilt in 1956. St Phillips was unaffected.

Thankfully the run back was a downhill affair but I’m sure they’ll agree that strava elevation looked mighty impressive and let’s face it the rain was very cooling tonight. That stretch out was much needed back at the leisure centre with a chat about the group pun, Thanks JOE for some great looping back and tonights edited pun.

The group enjoyed hearing about Bowen technique from Steph so here a link to explain, I really recommend http://www.bodyinbalancetherapies.com/

A reminder our Goodgym Charity Calendar is now on Sale, just £10 with profits going to the new cancer centre at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

Christmas party is now up and listed so don’t miss a fun night and get signed up, a casual night of glowing balls and festive drinks https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/a-very-bath-christmas