Today was all about promoting the good work that we do in the local community. It started with my appearance on the Express FM breakfast show (yes, we took the photo the wrong way round!). And we followed it with our group run: a running loop north of the community centre and a walking loop heading south to spread the word to local charities and organisations about what we do and how we can help. Our one down side was that most of the schools had locked their gates and had no post boxes... it's almost as if they don't want to hear about things outside school hours!!

It was great to be back to a normal Wednesday, spending the evening with the enthusiasm and positivity of all the Portsmouth GoodGym Runners. Thanks also for getting stuck into the rotating plank challenge when we got back inside.... the temptation to just sit down in the warm was pretty strong!

Our ABC activity to start involved "B" for balance combined with everyone's highlights from Christmas and New Year. Maura & Tracey were both sporting a new pair of trainers, good for racking up those kms in the January challenge!

Three cheers

Shout outs tonight for achievements: * Lara for running the furthest she has run as part of our group - hope the legs aren't too sore tomorrow! * Angela for running the furthest she's ever run at the beginning of the week (12 miles in preparation for the Pompey half in February) * Sam for completing her "LIRF" course which means she's on her way to becoming a GoodGym Run Leader.

And I'm sure there are others we should be shouting about, so don't be shy - share your achievements with me!

We have another chance to do good on Saturday, this time in the daylight! Meeting at Hilsea Lido and there's CAKE afterwards. Hope to see you there - details are here. Next week we return to Naomi House. Both runs have a walking option (thanks to our walk leader extraordinaire Jo!)

Until I see you next, happy running & thanks for giving me that GoodGym Good Feeling again tonight :)

Well this is a bumper edition of the run report!

Today is the 175th anniversary of A Christmas Carol - written by Portsmouth born (oh yes!) Charles Dickens so look out for the related puns...

News & Updates:

Judy managed a 5km PB at Great Run Local on Sunday - she's been taking big chunks off her times recently - nice one Judy!

Rachel is doing her 50th Parkrun on Saturday before she flies off for some Aussie sunshine. Come on down to Southsea to run as well, give her a cheer and maybe celebrate with some cake after!

Festive Tai Chi is now on this week: Saturday 11:00 at the Coffee Cup. Free to attend and guaranteed laughs.

Tonight's Task

Tonight we welcomed back Shakira who has returned to the south coast for her Christmas break... just remember your friends here in Portsmouth when you're a super star!

For our first task, we returned to Buckland community centre tonight to offer many willing hands and some seasonal cheer. Mary wasn't expecting quite so many people but we split into various groups. The hardcore folk went outside to sweep up wet leaves in the rain, those who stayed in the dry sorted out the charity shop area, leaflet stands and swept the floor of the cafe area - mince pie crumbs, glitter and dried peas were the main haul. Louisa was singing Christmas songs whilst brandishing the mop, if only I'd taken a video it would've been a viral hit!

After the task we headed back to Fratton Community Centre to share food and fun. Task number two was a task with a Twist - try to eat all the food that we had collectively brought along to share! There was plenty of festive good cheer and no sign of Bah Humbug! as we shared Christmas plans (Lapland and Australia by far the most exciting) and good news about future new members of the gang!

And we also had the Awards - perhaps there were Great Expectations for this part of the evening. It wasn't quite the Oscars but the right people got their certificates! Here's the round up:

Top of the Pops (most good deeds this year excluding tonight!) in reverse order were: Judy (15), Rosie(16), Maura(18), Laura(18), Sam(19), Tony(30), Mel(30), Angela(31). Pompey Angel with a massive 34 good deeds in 2018 is Jo.

Forrest Gump award to Angela for most kms logged with a total of 439km!

Hat Trick award to Mel in recognition of her coach runs, missions and group run good deeds.

Mr Bump award to Rosie for most random injury. Sustained not in a group run (in case Ed is reading and wondering about the missing accident report!) but on the way to GoodGym when she was lassoed by some plastic binding.

Congratulations to all our winners AND also a big thank you to everyone who comes along to GoodGym and makes it a great place to be. Tonight we hit 487 Good Deeds for Portsmouth - awesome team work!

Here are a few things to be aware of as we head into the New Year:

The January GoodGym Good Deeds Challenge - we have set a stretch target of 90 good deeds for the month and a collective running distance of 650kms. We are competing against all other GoodGym areas for the coveted Golden Trowel trophy! So sign up to the group runs, community missions and keep an eye out for anything else we can get involved with - please speak to me or one of the task force (Mel, Jo, Angela & Sam) if you see a good opportunity. AND please link your Strava accounts to your GG profiles if you haven't already!

RED January - This started life as "run every day" in January to support your mental health but this year is slightly different - it's about being active every day so that might be running but walking, biking, gym class, dancing etc etc all count too. You can sign up and use it to raise money for MIND if you would like to or just get involved via their social media accounts on Facebook & Twitter.

Strava Club - Rosie has kindly set up a Strava Club for us called GoodGym Portsmouth if you also join this we can see how far we can all run together in 2019... How fast do you think we will get to 2019km? Place your bets!

Group Runs restart on Wednesday 9th January with a mystery task! Before that you have a chance to come and join in with a coached session on Monday 31st December and a beach clean on Saturday 5th January. Plus there's an additional Southsea Parkrun on Christmas Day at 9:00 and the opportunity to do the double on New Year's Day - Southsea at 9:00 and QE Country Park at 10:30

If you are still awake at the end of this report, well done! Thanks again for playing your part in GoodGym this year. Here's to more fun, runs, puns and good deeds in 2019. I will leave you with a genuine quote from A Christmas Carol which seems fitting:

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour

Have a brilliant Christmas and New Year. See you on the other side!

Katie :)

Looking out of the window at 4pm, I thought it might be our first run in the wet stuff but luckily enough the skies cleared for a cool but dry night.

We kept it super local tonight to help Fratton Big Local... and after our warm up headed down Clive Road to Kingston Rec where we met some of the group who are trying to keep the park nice. We did a round of the whole Rec ground to pick up litter - there was plenty hiding in the bushes but no underwear found this week as in previous tasks! We also helped with some park specific issues - picking up cigarette butts; sanding the horses' bottoms so they can be painted and have their tails repaired and tying up some of the trees that have been planted this year.

Littaaa Pickaaaaa

We were treated to some enthusiastic cheering (or should that be jeering) from a group of local kids, or one in particular who just kept repeating the phrase above - did he think we didn't know what we were doing?

Post-task the group admired the lovely sunset as they assembled for the hotly anticipated 1km race for the golden trainer. This involved predicting their 1km time and then running the time trial naked.... that's without the aid of a watch/phone not without clothes! Well done to Jo who was 3 seconds away from her predicted time - strong competition also from Angela and Louisa who were 5 and 10 seconds out respectively. Impressive! 6 people were within 30 seconds of their prediction and most of the group actually ran faster than predicted so the main message to take home is:

don't underestimate yourselves!

Everyone was also treated to a fitness session after the time trial which involved a bit of balance and bounce... and plenty of laughter.

We said Au Reviour to Shakira who's off to drama school, hopefully she'll find time for GoodGym near her new place and manage to come back and visit us in holidays.

All in all, another Wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for your participation and enthusiasm. There were lots of photos tonight, you can find all of them on our Facebook page.

Couple of quick notices.... in case you do wake up early on Sunday, don't forget Anna needs help at Fratton Family Festival (it will count as a good deed). Next week we head off to the Portsmouth Disability Forum. It might be worth bringing a head or hand torch for the run home as the nights are drawing in.

Happy running everyone Katie x

It was nice to meet such a great bunch you are really great and a credit to your run leader i wish i could run with you all more often . A big warm welcome must go to Louisa who ran with us for the first time. We headed over to the church yard to do the warm up which was intervals after which we headed off the 3k to Naomi House which has just had a re fitt ,on the way we managed to pick up a joker for part of the way which was a bit of fun. We arrived to be greeted by a member of staff who showed us up stairs to the task and said there was water and biscuits in the canteen for us which we were thank full for. Which was bag,tag,and re bag clothes This was done with the greatest of ease,we soon were out of time as it had flown by.We said our good byes and headed back to base the joker had gone on the way back so back at base we did a warm down and said our good byes . I must thank Jo for leading the run or we shall still be running round Portsmouth I hope to see you all again soon Daryl