Tonight’s merry band were led by Safety First Simon on his first outing as Run Leader. We were under strict instructions not to heckle, wolf whistle or get up to anything that could be counted as mischevious. The temptation was almost too much! Tonight’s ice breaker was a question about our most embarrassing childhood memories. This was a most revealing question. In her youth Ashleigh ate a worm (plenty more opportunity for that in tonight’s gardening task!), and Charles was still getting over being made to wear those gloves that are attached together with string. Lucky that none of our GoodGym gloves have string although it would solve the conumdrum of lefts paired with lefts and rights with rights!!!

On day two of Autumn and with sunset due at exactly 18.59pm, tonight saw the return of the much loved chest lamp. Yay! GoodGymers who don’t have one are advised to bring one in the darker nights. They are super useful for safety on the run and the outside tasks, and also the flashy setting means we can have our own disco whenever the mood takes us. “Staying Alive” in more ways than one!

Tonight we had walkie talkies and runners, the latter not really up for more than a gentle(ish) jog. Post-race chat had included inventive ways GoodGymers had found to move about with hurty bits...

They had been self-named as “the crab”, “the bum shuffle” and the “John Wayne”.

We’ll leave it to your imaginations to picture what these look like in practice but there was none of that tonight and we all made it up the very steep hill to “The Old Lady on the Hill”.

This was a return visit for us to the town’s much loved Christ Church and we continued the weeding in the Rose Garden. Despite the rain and the chill in the air, this was a tranquil and rewarding task as the roses are intermingled with many remembrance plaques. Clearing the weeds means that those visiting can more easily see the plaques and mementos of loved ones. It’s great to see the difference that 32 hands can make in 45 minutes! In the end there were lots of wet and muddy shoes, knees and bums. Luckily it was very dark on the way back so as not to raise curious eyebrows!

We arrived back to the warm glow of the Oasis, after a much needed (and very professionally led by Simon, we must say!) stretching session. Inside and during coffee and chatter, a rather disturbing scene unfolded...

There was an interloper of the most heinous kind – a snail on Mike’s jacket that had hitched a ride from the rose garden!

Mollusc Lover Mike’s snail was quite unbelievably left to lounge around on the hood of his jacket for the duration (while some of us silently broke out in cold sweats) and the new friends casually left together at the end. Hopefully this will be the last instalment of mollusc mayhem – will it ever end? - and next week there are only plus ones of the human kind!

Next up, we will be running approximately 7km in total to Age UK Wiltshire to help with their improvements to Toothill Community Centre. We’ll be doing some gardening outside the centre. There is lots to do, so rest assured you will be busy! You don't need to be a green fingered expert, just enthusiastic and keen to help out. This is our third visit to the centre and we are very excited to be going back there again! You can sign up here

We had a bumper congregation of GoodGymers for the Super Saturday community mission, including the lovely Zdeni visiting from GoodGym Bristol.

We started our day in the splendid Lydiard Park for parkrun. Lucky for us, our Super Saturday community mission was just a hop, skip and a jump away at the beautiful little church within the park. St Mary’s church received a Heritage Lottery Fund to restore the historic interiors, which include remarkable wall paintings and vibrantly painted architectural features. The conservation process requires specialist knowledge and world-class expertise. We do like a painting task but we had to admit that restoring medieval wall paintings would be a tad ambitious even for us so we had the task of sprucing up the outside areas with a spot of weeding.

The weather was glorious and it was lovely to be out in the sunshine for a couple of hours. We set about clearing the weeds on the footpath leading to the church and clearing a lowered planting area at the back of the church.

In 1592 Queen Elizabeth I, no less, came to Lydiard and awarded a knighthood. So we thought it appropriate to perform our own version of a knighthood as we celebrated Sam’s 50th good deed - congratulations Sam! The Risk Assessment prevented us from actually waving a sword about but we dub thee for your valour and service to GoodGym. Arise Sandy Sam, and go forth and collecteth your black t-shirt! We then made merry with traditional Tudor fare of ummm, cupcakes and gluten free flapjacks?!

Despite the lovely tranquil task, there was a nervous frizzle in the air as a few of us were minus one day until the Swindon Half Marathon. A first for some, helped by many GoodGym runs improving our fitness but mostly by the months of congratulations at each training milestone and the lovely pick-me-ups during the inevitable set-backs along the way. This community mission was perfectly timed for some last minute preparation, pep talks and positive vibes that only a GoodGym task can bring.

With frequent check-ins from the lovely people at the church – including advice on how many squats we needed to do to burn of the cake – super helpful! – we were soon done and waving goodbye.

Next up, we’re off to church again when we will be walking and running approximately 5km in total to Christ Church and back to help with a gardening task in the grounds of this stunning landmark in Central Swindon. You can sign up here!.

A small but perfectly formed intro circle this week meant we could all gather nice and close to welcome back Selina and celebrate Sam’s last task as a single lady.

A longer run of 4k (possibly closer to 5k) to West Swindon awaited us, a nice route utilising Swindon’s cycle paths as the temperature thankfully dropped. A special mention to Gina who was running her longest ever distance, putting in a real effort, water bottles were a good idea.

Given our Run Leader had moved to West Swindon especially not to get lost this week, but mainly because Sam also cycled the route and helped lead, we didn’t get lost or collide with any bikes. So confident of arriving on time we even stopped at the outdoor gym for a quick session. Our task owner was one of our own, Hannah who gave us some background about what she does at the Saltway Centre and ensured we were all motivated by providing biscuits and doughnuts. The centre is bigger than it looks from the outside, maybe that is something to do with the police call box door?

It was more Wild Garlic than Dalek though, as we dived in to the gardening task clearing brambles and Rosemary bushes from some planters. We worked solidly and got most of the planters cleared, ensuring some clean up Thyme. Paul mainly supervised along with blackberry picking.

Back we went to Oasis for our stretches, coffee, water(!) and de-brief chat.

Next week we are sprucing up a big yellow bus and it’s a full week with a Wednesday Mission and a Saturday Community Mission at Penhill Haven in the meantime.

Today 24 GoodGymers ran 2k to the Swindon NightShelter where we sorted food donations for distribution across Swindon’s charities. GoodGym Swindon’s 10th task and the largest turn out since the GG launch! The group was a great mix of regulars and first timers, the GoodGym word is still spreading!

A vegetable themed intro now means at least one GoodGymer has a new nickname; Mr Potato 😂

Not a long run today and in a flash we were at the NightShelter! Steve taking in back marker duties. Karen met us and gave us a run down of the tasks; supermarket crate sorting, food sorting, van loading and van driving.

In a supermarket sweep the empty crates were sorted, loaded and trolled off to the van. Mr Van Can Stuart took on driving duties. Pump Trolly Daniel on angry loading duties 😂

O crate I now need to find a pun for the food sorting....! It turniped out we were wheely good at it!! All the tasks were wrapped up and done in record time - a perfect example of why GoodGym is so effective and brilliant at this sort of thing!

A big thank you from Karen and back to the Oasis! Plenty of time in hand, what to do? Maybe an early finish and home for dinner? O no! It was time for a beasting and Crazy Legs’ 10 x 10 celebratory 10th task work out 😂

If someone had told you, you’d be blasting out 550 exercise reps today, would you have believed that?! Well you totally did - awesome work (and good luck with walking). Tomorrow everyone will be wobbly Mr Potato 😂

We don’t need Hippo-crates or So-crates to think we did a good task - we totally know we GoodGym smashed it ❤

Next week we will be plogging in Pinehurst with Paul (!); litter picking around Pinetrees Community Centre and the Circle. Please come and join us! Click here for all the details and to sign up.