13 people ran 8k to give out fruit to the homeless

Tonight, it was great to welcome three newbies to GG Brum, we had Elizabeth, Joana and Dave joining us for tonight's run. It was great to have you with us!

After the intro's we were ready to go on what was a virtually tropical night compared to recent standards. Tonight's task was a bit different. Normally we help a specific organisation, however tonight we were running around the city centre giving fruit, mainly bananas, though Karin (who also thought up tonight's 'pun') brought some nectarines along as well, to the homeless. We split up into two groups, I led one group along the canal, before coming out at Brindley Place, while Rob was the 'big boss man' of the other group running more centrally through the city centre. We then arranged to all meet outside the town hall at 6.55pm.

Banana man!

Once we met at the town hall we ran together to give the remainder of the bananas out. Luke the 'banana man' was very keen, running in all directions to give out his copious bunches of bananas he had brought along! By 7.25pm we had given everything out, so on the way back to base we quickly stopped in Cathedral Square or Pigeon park as many know it, due to the amount of feathered friends in the vicinity to do a very quick Bootcamp blast! It was a little mixture of high knees running, jump lunges and tuck jumps. The group put in great effort as usual. Joanna put in some great work on the high knees, Morwenna got nice and low with the jump lunges and David got the knees right up in the tuck jumps!

Once that was all done, it was just the small matter of the 1k run back to 1000 Trades.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

13 people ran 6k to Birmingham Mission to help wash up, sort clothes and food for the homeless

It was another cold GoodGym run tonight, but as ever we had plenty of 'hardy souls' to do good! A bit of cold weather doesn't faze us! With no newcomers tonight, it was good to see George back with us, taking advantage of half term to join us on a none Uni evening. Once the intros were done I gave Aaron the job of front marker even though he wasn’t sure how fast he could run due to his tough recent rowing training…..safe to say he was fast enough! Aidan kindly did the back-marker honours.

The Mission

We set off to Birmingham Mission for the first time since December when we all were wearing Santa hats. We could have done with those hats tonight! Once we arrived John wished us all happy new year! It's obviously still 'allowed' in February! Anyway, he was pleased to see us as always and split the group into three. One group helped wash up, another group sorted out all the tinned food and another group helped Maureen upstairs sorting all the donated clothes.

Back on the hills

Once done we set off back ready to do some hill sprints! The group did six minutes of 'efforts' running hard up the hill and then jogging back down. Aaron and Richard led the way. Kate showed awesome technique getting up on to her toes. Morwenna really worked hard, but as always, the whole group put on a great show of effort! Especially on that last sprint, we all find a bit extra on that last one ;-)

Once done we headed back to our base taking a slightly longer route, to get the run up to around 6k in total. Kudos again to the group for this especially as I gave them the option of the shorter route back, which could have been tempting after those killer hills!

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

15 people ran 6k to the Girl Guide Association to clean around the outside of the building

Tonight, we were off to the girl guides with another good attendance on a cold January night. Summer will be here before for you know it…….hopefully! Anyway, we got on our way taking the canal route towards Brindley Place and then along to the Mail Box before arriving at our destination. The task was quite a quick one tonight, as we were all done in around ten to fifteen minutes. It was just a case of sweeping the car park and getting rid of the moss around the building.

De-tour and Bootcamp time

Once done we handed the equipment back to a grateful Maureen and after a quick photo the group were keen to get moving again as for some reason the temperature seemed to have dramatically dropped! Due to the task being on the quick side we added on an extra loop through the city centre before heading to our Bootcamp venue of St Paul’s Square. The group started off with some incline press ups on the benches followed by some reverse tricep dips to really get the back of the arms burning! They even held the position hovering above the floor for 30 seconds on the last set, causing a red-hot burn!! Aaron was smashing them out like he had spent a stint at her Majesty’s pleasure, Garry and Paige put in some great work, Kate H put in some top press ups on her first Tuesday night GG group run, and Kate E worked well as always on her first group run of 2018. Once done with that it was into some plank work again using the benches followed with some squat jumps and finishing with one last set of tricep dip holds. Laura and Karin worked hard together, and Abi showed she had really been working hard on her core strength and muscular endurance showing great form on all the exercises. As always, all the group supported each other and put on a top display that I’m sure the passers-by were impressed with! I know I was! Phew!! After all that we just had the short jog back to our base!

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.