This evening, 26 GoodGym runners turned up to help the Samye Foundation

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is fast approaching and there is no getting away from the fact I simply LOVE Christmas. I apologise for all the times I am going to be making referencing it over the next months... how I make the most of Christmas is by enjoying the lead up to the 25th December as much as I can - Be prepared for lots of Christmas themed tasks and social events over the next month! Anyway...

26 runners showed up to GoodGym tonight. Another awesome turnout. Ms Sue Fernandez spent over an hour queuing in traffic in order to be able to get to GG this evening - More kudos for your perseverance . We had 2 new faces at GoodGym this week too - WELCOME CURTIS AND FLO! We hope you loved this evening's run and we encourage you to come back... every run IS so different.

To warm up we can a quick game of stuck in the dance... Everyone is certainly 'upping their game' now it's getting closer and closer to the Christmas party.

Let's get our run on!

Mikey led the sexy runners; there were definitely some heads turning by members of the public... we our running form was THAT good! Welsh Dave led the speedy runners; he took them through Bute park. Fortunately they all made it out despite the darkness.

Welcome to the Samye Foundation!

Lorraine was tonight's task organiser. She welcomed us in like she always does; with a big smile that makes you feel warm to the core! She explained to us what the centre needs our help with. We were tasked with;

• Distributing 200 leaflets to all of the homes on Clive Street, Canton
• Litter picking the streets of Canton
• Weeding and collecting all of the leaves in the centre's car park

Afterwards runners were invited to dig into some nibbles. The selection consisted of great grapes, delicious vegan cakes, the most scrumptious avocado dip to go with crackers and raw coconut cake... Nom nom Nom! I was almost having to drag runners away from the nibbles... Lewis was a HUGE fan of the raw cake.

Thank you so much, now hundreds of people know about the events we have coming up at the centre because of your help

We then ran back, stopping outside Cardiff Castle for a photo by the Christmas tree. After arriving back at Big Moose we warmed down whilst reflecting on the evening.

After the run everyone headed to the Glassworks pub for drinkypoos and a chinwag.

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The Tweet off

Ring a ding ding ding. Meg has claimed another point on the tweet off leaderboard! Well done! ALL points count and there are less and less opportunities to move up the leaderboard as each week goes by.

• LM 12
• MO 9
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• MJ 4
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

32 GoodGym runners helped Sustrans this evening at Grangemoor Park

As per usual, we met at the Big Moose for our GoodGym group run. When the clock struck 6.30pm we then headed outside for our warm up; to warm up we played an exciting game of captains coming - A fav amongst a number of runners. We then did a headcount and welcomed new faces to GoodGym Cardiff... A HUGE WELCOME TO ROISIN, SARA, SCOTT, EMILY & STUART! It was seriously amazing to have you come along and we hope you come back!

This week we also had Ceri and her colleague from Barn Media join us for the run. We have been shortlisted for an award and they were there to put together a nominee video for us.

We celebrated runners achievements at the beginning of the run too:

• Martin ran a half marathon
• Those that participated in Parkrun
• Darren, although he couldn't make tonights run, has reached 100 good deeds... This will get another cheer when he next comes to a group run.

Time to choose your group!

Every week we try and organise ourselves into groups so that those who want to run hard, can, and those who want more of a relaxed run, can! This week we had a walk run group which enabled people to get the benefits of walking and running! Mikey led the speedy runners. Welsh Dave led the sexy runners and Aimee led the run walkers!

Let's head to the task!

It was time to 'get our run on!' We headed off down St Mary's Street towards Penarth Road. The clocks going back was no problem for us because we were equipped with headtorches, so even in the darkness of the night we could illuminate our path.

We're here!

We met Claire and the Sustrans team halfway down Penarth Road. Sustrans is a UK walking and cycling charity and custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created 16,575 miles of signed cycle routes throughout the UK including 5,273 miles of traffic-free paths. Claire was positioned by the entrance to Grangemoor park, the location where we planned to help out this evening.

Claire was amazed with how many of us turned up to help this evening. "32!" she repeated when I told her the number.

Claire explained our tasks for the evening; "I heard you guys get a lot done in a short space of time... here are the tasks I have for you" she said. The task we were set were as follows:

• Use loppers to cut back the bushes and trees that are encroaching onto the path
• Pick up and move cuttings
• Raking up overgrowth
• Litter picking the local area

Every single runner broke a sweat helping out this evening. Even though the temperature was quite cold, because everyone was working so hard no one felt it.

Well done and thank you everyone!

Claire and the other Sustrans volunteers were so thankful for our help. They couldn't believe how much we managed to do in the short space of time we were there for.

We then had group photos and did a cheeky dab and floss before heading back to town. We ran back with huge smiles on our faces, knowing we had done something amazing that evening that made a massive positive difference in the community.

After warming down we collected our belongings. Approximately 15 of us headed to the Glassworks for some drinkypoos afterwards too.

An AWESOME run - Well done everyone for coming along. See you all next week hopefully!

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The Tweet off

Marie won the tweet off this evening. The gap between first and second place is closing up. People are watching this leaderboard closer than anyone is watching the discussions in the houses of parliament.

• LM 11
• MO 9
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• MJ 3
• NS 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1