We really are on a GoodGym roll at the moment!!! Our second task of the week saw 14 runners join forces once again with Kenny from Guinness Housing and the residents of Mavor Court Gardens to continue work on the grounds and outdoor space of this residential area.

We carried on where we left off last week with more cutting, digging, raking, pruning, sweeping, and chopping. The muscles that had just recovered from last week were put to good use once again.

There's no doubt that this is a big task but with 14 pairs of hands plus those of the local residents, the impact in an hour and a half really is enormous. It was lovely to chat with our fellow Goodgym runners as well as the residents. It was a great community effort and there was lots of fun and laughter as well as hard graft.

At one point however, we did think that we might actually get wet (that would be a GoodGym first and incredibly rude!!) but luckily, it was only a shower and soon passed! The GoodGym weather gods triumphed once again.

Another great night of fun, laughter, fitness, friendship and feeling good #LOVEGOODYM

Welcome

A massive welcome to Sam who joined us for her first GoodGym experience tonight! We hope you had a great night Sam and enjoyed the craziness that is GoodGym Crewe! Hope to see you back again soon.

Kudos

Great to see Michelle back for her second task, even though her new hairdo completely threw me and I re-introduced myself like a total numpty!! (sorry Michelle!!). Great to have Barry, Louise and Phil back with us after a bit of a break (no pun intended Barry!!!). We’ve missed you!

Thank You

Huge kudos to Sophie for becoming the 4th member of the Taskforce and for taking on the role of walk leader along with Maurice to lead tonight’s walking group. Thank you Sophie and Maurice. Big thanks to Karl who took on the role of back-marker this evening, ensuring nobody was left behind. A massive thank you to Cheryl & Rob at St. Pauls for taking 22 runners into the foodbank this evening and allowing us the responsibility of sorting and organising your shelves!

Tonight’s Task

This week is Valentines, so naturally, we had to have a Valentines Theme! It started with the pre-run refreshments (or should I say pre-run nutrition…….erm) – jammy dodgems and love hearts (very healthy) with a few chocolate fingers thrown in for good measure (and to cater for us chocoholics!!).

Our warmup was meet and greet (basically, you have two teams. One person from each team sets off and runs in a big circle until they meet the person from the other team, they high-five each other and return to swap with the next person). I think it’s fair to say that we’ve all become good friends since GoodGym launched in October so I couldn’t understand their reluctance when I suggested they kiss their partner as they swapped over (well, it is Valentines after all!) ;-0)))) LOL! In the end, we settled for shouting out the name of a song with the word ‘LOVE’ in the title instead – they seemed happier with this – no idea why! ;-0)

Once suitably warmed up we set off into the (once again) dry night (so lucky). We had a large walking group this evening (7 in total which is fantastic!) with the rest of us running. The runners took a slightly longer route to the foodbank, heading up through the town centre. I always love to see the sea of red t-shirts as they weave their way along the pavement – we never fail to get a reaction from passers-by (even though people do sometimes look a bit like a rabbit in headlights when they see us all coming!!). I always love to see the reactions!

We were greeted with a wonderful welcome from the lovely Cheryl and Rob at the foodbank. They showed us all the food that had been generously donated by the people of Crewe and needed to be sorted (481kg in total!!!). We set to work like a team of worker ants – sorting, stacking, carrying and organising tins, packets, jars and boxes until they were on the shelves where they needed to be. As there were 22 pairs of hands tonight, we had spare capacity to sort some of the bric-a-brac that had also been donated to the church. We had great fun trying to inflate an airbed, adorning ourselves with large diamond rings and making conversation with pottery ducks – as you do! We even had time for a brew and a biscuit that had been kindly laid on by Cheryl and Rob. Michelle and Karen were chief brew pourers as I can’t be trusted apparently (can I Karl? ;-0)))

Once our work was complete, we set off back to base via the infamous ‘Rocky Steps’ (well Crewe’s version at least!) for a short workout. We were ‘encouraged’ in our exercise session by some local youths. Everyone took their encouragement in good humour as we did our one-legged squats, plie squats and a couple of circuits around the perimeter of the steps. We made sure that our ‘supporters’ knew who we were and what we were doing, so who knows… maybe they’ll look us up when they’re old enough…

Another amazing turnout tonight and such a huge credit to each of you for being genuinely wonderful human beings, who come out on cold nights week in week out to put something back into your community. Not only is it truly inspiring but it restores my faith in people and our society. There’s a lot of good in our local community and it’s a huge privilege to be a small part of it. Thank you for making my Wednesday evenings so wonderful and for making Crewe a better place to live.

Hope to see you all next week! Have a fab weekend everyone!

Stay safe, Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

Welcome A huge welcome to our newest GoodGym recruit, the lovely Michelle who joined us for her first-time last night. We hope you had a great night and will join us again next week for some more GoodGym antics! You’ve also earned your very own GoodGym T-shirt now that you’ve completed your first run! Super Exciting!

Kudos Huge kudos to Alex who completed the Heaton Park Half Marathon last weekend. Not only did he do it in a cracking time, but he also ran as part of the GoodGym Race Team!!! Well done Alex, mega proud of you! It’s also great to see so many of you hugely improving your fitness levels in the short time I’ve known you - it's awesome to see. So many of you have now got the magic 10 tasks under your belt - well done – time to work towards that all important 50 T-Shirt. Who will get there first?

Thank You Thank you to Chris who took on the role of back-marker once again. Thanks Chris. We really appreciate it. Also, super huge thank you to Dan who has become a Taskforce Member. Really thrilled to have you Dan! If you've done 10 GoodGym tasks and would like to be part of the Taskforce, you can either speak to me or become a member via your profile page on the GoodGym Website (there's no commitment by the way.... ;0))

Tonight’s Task We kicked off the evening with chocolate digestives and chocolate chip cookies (one of these days, I should maybe think about bringing a healthy option instead.......... or maybe not.....lol!!).

For our warm-up we used giant playing cards for a bit of fun. 6 cards in total: 10 of Spades, 10 of Diamonds, 10 of Hearts, 10 of Clubs and 2 Jokers. Pull a suit card and you do 10 of the exercise, pull a joker card and you do 50!!! Much to my disappointment, nobody pulled a joker!!! I’ll get you next time!!

With heart rates up and Strava activated, we set off into the night on a mission to deliver as many flyers as possible promoting a charity event to raise vital funds for a baby bereavement unit at Leighton Hospital. We split the group into two teams so we could execute our mission effectively. We were like the GoodGym SAS as we moved swiftly but stealthily from door to door (with the odd curtain twitcher as we did so – but then is it any wonder when an army of runners in red t-shirts and bright lights are running all around your avenue like worker ants!!!).

Not only were we elite leafleters tonight, but we were also the friendly neighbourhood watch - Amanda knocking on the door of one property to let them know the boot of their car was open (they were very grateful once they decided to open the door to us, lol!). We knew that if we were to get as many leaflets as possible delivered, that time would be tight, so we decided to include our fitness session into our leafleting – so, Dan came up with the great idea of squatting every time we came across one of those ghastly low letterboxes!! And Amanda was feeling extra energetic with some letterbox lunges for every waist height letterbox (which was most to be fair!!).

Our route home took us along Crewe’s version of the Strip – well, perhaps a slight exaggeration but it probably has about 1000 food outlets (again, perhaps a slight exaggeration – maybe 50!) and the perfect opportunity to hand out some flyers as well as share the GoodGym love. Flyers were graciously accepted by many of the stores and lots more people have now seen the GoodGym Gang in action (hopefully they’ll give us a google!). Back at base we did our cool down and dished out the remaining leaflets for people to kindly take into their workplace.

Another fantastic night with The GoodGym Elite leafleting Crew….. MISSION WELL & TRULY ACCOMPLISHED!

I had the BEST time - as always. Same time next week?

Have a great week everyone! Stay Safe! Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx