Tonight was our last run from Fratton Community Centre but don't worry I will continue reminding you of our new venue for at least the next month!!

Firstly, congrats to Tim on his 50th good deed. Tim got to wear the celebration cap, but don't be fooled by the photo with Molly the puppy, this is not a new gift when you get to 50 good deeds, it's still a black T-shirt! She's the new addition to Tim's family who came to visit us before we headed out. She is GORGEOUS.

Tonight's task was an unusual one for us and also came with lots of last minute illnesses and broken down cars so after our record breaking run last week, numbers were a little lower than we've got used to! We headed out in 4 groups to deliver leaflets for our local branch of the British Heart Foundation. Groups were lead by Kat, Jo, Val and yours truly and we headed out to various parts of Southsea to deliver volunteering requests. I think there is a bit of irony there! Judy (fresh back from sunnier climes with a tan!), Ellie and Megan got to see lots of little random back roads and hidden houses by luck of being in my group! Jo's group headed up and down some one way streets, Kat's were straight down south nearly to the Pyramids (with a short cut home for Jane) and Val's group got "Fratsea". Wherever we went the smell of takeaway wasn't far away and we all returned hungrier than when we started.

When we got back, the hardcore group of Louisa, Kat, Jo and Mel decided that they liked the idea of some running drills and a sprint relay with minimal recovery... extra bonus points for you guys. It also made for a couple of additional entertaining photos at least!

Don't forget there's a number of different sessions going on between now and the next group run. Find out more here and keep those good deed points adding up.

Good luck to Jo and Tony repping GoodGym at the Vitality Big Half in London this weekend!

See you next week at MAKE, 1 Cornwall Road. We're heading north to Naomi House, it's a short run but as Val pointed out, longer than it used to be!

First of all a big warm Wednesday welcome to Dave who joined us for his first run tonight! We had record breaking numbers so HUGE thanks to everyone for coming out and Egg for making a special appearance as well as a return from Penny & Frankie who last joined us a year ago at this trip to Naomi House. Please come back again this year!

After our intro and a quick warmup we headed south to St Swithuns school where we were greeted by the ever-organised caretaker, Chris. He provided a whole new level of task organisation and delegation with carefully masked out areas for painting, notes on what needed doing and other notes of other jobs. Impressive!

The group of nearly 30 strong were split into different tasks - many taking up painting jobs, while others took on buffing the floors (or wrestling with the buffer in India and Pippa's case), cleaning carpets, wiping down tables, and other tasks Chris could find for us. The "buff" group in the hall added a whole level of exercise to their task, undertaking the lunge and squirt method of floor cleaning. There was lots of laughter and lots of tasks were completed saving Chris 18+ hours of work, so he was very grateful for our help!

We headed back north to the community centre, some of the Southsea lot split off, while the rest headed back to take part in a fitness session of squats, glute exercises, press ups, rows and single leg squats.

Another wonderful Wednesday!

Don't forget there is a community mission on Thursday evening and the Southsea Parkrun takeover on Saturday morning where many familiar faces will be volunteering and donning our red t-shirts! All the listings can be found here

Hope to see you soon!

First up, a warm GoodGym Portsmouth welcome to first timers Cheryl and Megan who joined us tonight and welcome back to Jane on her second week.

Tonight was a group run of two halves (although not exact halves!) with the walking group heading to MAKE to finish off the paint work and the longer option of a run to St Jude's to help out the teachers with all sorts of jobs. So there are two parts to the run report tonight, both with their own puns...

MAKEing our mark! by Val

6 GG’s walked to MAKE to finish off glossing 2 doors and painting the floor. There was a workshop going on so we kept the noise level down. Before long most of us had paint covered hands and we had the usual 'oops just trod in wet paint'. Manuel tried on a Hulk mask, he looked great ha ha, and Tracey bought the last 2 comedy bums (this makes more sense if you have seen this report)!! Hilarious. Jane and Catherine painted floors with Tracey and Manuel. Catherine demonstrated some impressive lunge skills whilst painting. Maxine and I finished off the glossing.

Hey Jude / plastic fantastic / put a lid on it

The remaining 19 runners headed down to St Judes where the headteacher met us and divided us into "horticulture" (Rosie & Lynn); artistic (Angela & Rachel), happy up a ladder (Michael, Joe & Fionn) and crafty (the rest!).

Rosie & Lynn planted up the large planter outside the school just as the rain started so got double bonus points for doing a cold task while everyone else headed inside. Angela & Rachel were painting the tree trunk and branches onto the celebration of pride tree made from recycled bottle tops. Team Pompey Uni managed to resist the temptation of the pubs and clubs on the run down and ended up climbing ladders to screw in some hooks & hang the massive new RE banner which features in the back of our group photo.

The crafty group got to use glue guns (caution, very hot glue.... mentioning no names!) to finish off the kitchen foil squid and recycled bottle tops blue whale for the sea inspired display. They looked amazing. Sadly we can't take the credit for the ideas but we definitely helped bring it to life.

We also got to meet a very cute whippet puppy called Dash. Yey, a dog on a task - it's the dream right? There was also a small doodle dog hanging around reception who didn't get his photo taken for the run report!

GoodGym-ima puddle duck

On the way home the rain was really coming down. Michael and I were motivated to keep going with the thought of what was on the menu for dinner tonight (midweek roast & enchiladas respectively) whilst Rosie was busy finding every single puddle on the route back and getting her feet nice and wet - she christened herself GoodGymima puddle duck so please feel free to address her as this in the future. Tony and Sam did sterling work as the back markers and we all made it back to base a lot wetter than when we left!

Coming up

As promised, a round up of what's coming up: tomorrow we need a few more painters at SSJ, preferably at least one who's tall and/or happy up a ladder. On Friday Rachel is leading a run on the seafront (hopefully drier than tonight) and next week we are on another school trip, this time to St Swithuns (where 2 rogues tried to run off to tonight, luckily the back markers were on it!).

Bookmark this page and you can always see what's coming up - Maura is going to be organising a Sunday community mission soon so keep an eye out for that one!

Hope you all have a lovely week and I will see you next week for more fun and games (& hopefully less rain!).