Tonight, we had a newbie as Sam was getting ready to welcome everyone, Oriana appeared outside Old Spike. He opened the door and welcomed her in. After a year or so of signing up, she had decided to join us for a group run. Since it was meant to be the "launch of GoodGym x Raleigh", she thought it would be the best time to come. However, Sam never received the treats from Raleigh...so this has to be postponed.

Like the previous weeks, Sam had the privilege of 7 GoodGymers joining him on this group run as everyone knew it was going to be a short 2k run there and 1k run back. Lindy, Nelly, David, Claire, Paulin and James were all up for this run in colder than usual conditions (given the time of the year). As 18:45 approached, Sam delivered his intro GoodGym speech for Oriana before everyone went out to warm-up in the alleyway for the last time before next week we'll be warming up on the green.

Sam's ice-breaker question tonight had nothing to do with any social dates, so he used one from his list of ice-breaker questions, so he asked: Which cartoon character would be your friend and why?

There were suggestions from Spongebob Square Pants to Winnie the Pooh!

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Hardly any Lambrini

Our steady 2k run from Old Spike to Cossall Estate took us on a detour as Sam had to ensure the run met 2k and he had 5 minutes to burn. Once we arrived at Cossall Estate, we met up with Vic who smashed it at the weekend with a 3:22 marathon time - hence she walked to the task...we also met Alan and Jaki, who showed us to the tools and the tasks.

Sam split the team as there were two tasks:

The team that stayed at Cossall Estate to de-weed and remove moss from the courtyard was Claire, David, Lindy and Paulin as they chatted and cleared the courtyard in 40 minutes.

The second team picked up some litter pickers and bin liners to join Alan and Jaki in Kirkwood Nature Reserve. James and Oriana paired up and Nelly and Vic did too as they found some unusual items in the calmness of this beautiful, but unknown Nature Reserve.

With a warden sitting in the Nature Reserve waiting for us to finish our litter pick in order to lock-up, we stayed making our way back to Cossall Community Centre at 19:50.

With the weeding team finishing up, we packed all the tools and took a few group photos before saying our goodbyes to Alan and Jaki. Our run back was more direct and just over 1k.

Despite the monthly social being next week, Claire and Sam met up Daryl at The Montpellier.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! Having a big group definately helps as we were able to do two tasks in 45 minutes. We will be back to clear the courtyard and do extra bits and bobs for Alan and Jaki in June. A warm welcome again to Oriana and I hope to see you again. Thanks David for coming for your second good deed and hope to see you again too.

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Thank You Alan and Jaki

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan and Jaki for organising this session and managing to split the tasks and supply the tools. I'll be in touch about the next group run session to Cossall Estate and Kirkwood Nature Reserve.