A very soggy day, that according to the weather forecast was supposed to clear up toward GoodGym time....well....the weather forecast was WRONG!!!!

With the promise of a get together and some beach time to go with it 14 lovely people hoped for the best and turned up to do some good!

Due to the weather we changed our plan from a beach clean to a Boscombe Garden clean. So a longer run and probably a lot more litter to hope for....well.....Bournemouth is pretty clean on Wednesdays!!

But after filling a few bags and then sorting through them for recycling....didn't want our Sarah coming after us....we made friends with a guy who had litter picked half a bath....and set off on our way back to Bournemouth Pier...somewhere in the foggy distance!

After 6.5km and getting very wet through a mix of rain and mugginess we got back to our meet location to gather our things and get together at the pub for some food and drinks!

Always lovely to hang out with our GoodGym family!!!

Next week we are gardening!!!

Tonight saw us do a bit of a task swap. We were meant to go to the Foodbank but I had picked up a niggling injury on the weekend and thought it more sensible to go for a shorter distance...yep super selfish of me!

We welcomed Sarah and Sara to their first group run. They are lovely and got right into the groove of what GoodGym is about. We hope they come and join us whenever their busy schedules allow! Show them some support and give them a cheer.

It was nice to have Neil back after his escape to the sunshine and Sarah and John after their one weeks sabbaticals! And even Chris managed to come along despite suffering from a cold!

Sophie and Marianne were proudly sporting their new GoodGym t-shirts that had finally arrived! Amber is still waiting for hers.....I will make some calls and get them to hurry up....at this rate, they may have to send you your black one at the same time!

Not knowing how much stuff we were going to be shifting we set off on the most direct route to Hope Housing which was just under 2km. Mark led us to a new place when we got there....suspense mounting amongst the regulars, wondering what new places we were going to see.....and it ended up being the neighbours' place!

So this nice big pile of logs we had stacked beautifully, around this time last year, had been chucked over the fence into the neighbours' garden....well, the property also belongs to Hope Housing so it was legal....

Well, we had to re-stack the wood onto pallets, but of course, not any old way, flat bits here, nice round one there. Massive blocks over on the other side and so on. After about 20 minutes and a lot of team work the task was done.

All that was left to do was to play a little teamwork game. Put he planks on the ground...pretend the ground is lava...and get all the way to the other side, without pushing anyone off....pretty good teamwork and coordination on display and minimal fatalities! Win!

With the job done and some extra time on our hands we decided to extend the run home a little and headed for the prom via a zig zig, then to the pier for a photo opp and then up some stairs, part of the BIC hill and back to Flirt Cafe for a stretch and chat about our next social event on the

**19th June 2019.....a Wednesday.....

Probably going to be a bit of a beach party so we may do a beach clean before it.....we will put details up next week but save the date

WEDNESDAY 19th OF JUNE!!!

Thank you Amber for the title of the run....I had to read it 5 times to make sure I had it right....and probably still made a mistake.....sorry Caprice we didn't use your one: We got Wood.....promise we'll use a rude one soon!

Well done everyone! See you next week for the Foodbank one!

Despite the soggy weather and facing a near task organisation "fail", 15 lovely GoodGymmers turned up looking to get their hands dirty with a spot of gardening at St Michael's School.

It was great to have Janet back with us, and I'm happy to say she managed to get back into things with no problem at all. Hope you fully recover soon!

I promised the group an easier run this evening and only had them go through one set of steps. St Michael's school is just up the road from our meeting point so usually we extend the run a little and find lots of hills. This time round we ran around 3km at an easy pace and all managed to stick together for all of it.

Chris was fluttering about taking a "couple" of photos and beating his record from last week by quite a bit....he was kind enough to only send me a selection this time which I was very grateful for!

At the school we needed to weed the areas we worked on last time around so that the soil would be ready for planting. The A Team consisting of Marianne, Hannah, Janet, Amber, Claire and myself took on the challenge of the elevated flower bed and left it looking like a Japanese Zen garden (Karesansui).

Team B consisting of Grace, Chris, Mark, Sean, Sophie, Phil, Alex, Fredrika and Caprice headed over to the other side of the playground and took care of the flowerbeds there....and played some baseball at the same time, showing how great they are at multitasking!

After about 45 minutes of constant gardening and trips to empty all the weeds on the other side of the fence, we had to call time on our task. The next challenge was to get back to Flirt in time for closing and then run to the pub for a much deserved drink!

No injuries, lots of laughs, getting to know each other a little better, spending time outdoors, doing some exercise, helping our community, having a drink together.....makes for a pretty perfect evening!

Next week we are at the Foodbank, one of our favourite tasks, so please make sure you don't miss out!!

Thank you Phil for the great pun this week, Caprice for looking after the back of the group and Chris for snapping great shots!

A beautiful evening in Bournemouth brought together 14 runners looking to do good and do a bit of exercise along the way.

We welcomed back Sophie from last week, now a fully fledged member...hopefully you won't have to wait as long for your t-shirt as Phil!

It was Janet's first group run with us and she more than held her own on a testing route. She will be more than alright!

We also had Nicola and Kristina join us after taking a little break. Nicola managed to complete the London Marathon a few weekends ago and loved it too! Brilliant!

We set off through the gardens and down along the prom..and soon spotted out first photo opp next to a lifeguard tower with Bournemouth Pier as a backdrop. We enjoyed the nice flat terrain, mixed in with a little sand at a gentle pace, catching up and chatting with each other. We regrouped at Boscombe Pier...took a deep breath and powered up the steep incline on Sea Road and into Boscombe Town Centre where Cary was waiting for us inside the Sovereign Centre. She runs a charity called Creative Kids that run after school programs for children to help them express themselves by being creative through art.

After a quick briefing on what needed doing the gang soon started moving props, boxes and all types out of one unit and over to the next. This all on the roof of the Sovereign Centre, where none of us had even been before...yep we were a little excited!

We had to move gazeebos, boxes of decorations, marquee stands, chairs..you name it! It made taking photos pretty easy this evening...and of course the fact that everyone is so photogenic!!! Why so many backpacks??? Well Cary was so happy with the team that she gifted them some...after about a 1km of chafing and numerous attempts at wearing them in different ways, most just accepted the discomfort and embraced the feeling of gratitude instead!

The gang managed to do all the moving in a record time of 20 minutes! Saving Cary hours of work! With all that time spare we decided to extend out run home a little to include some hills and stairs...they begged for them...honestly!

We headed back down the way we came to Boscombe Pier, then up the stairs from Boscombe garden to the top of the overcliff...then back down again to the middle of the garden....David feeling the need for hills did a repeat of the stairs and the garden hill...why not right??!!!

We came back up the gardens again on looped back onto the Overcliff again and headed back towards Bournemouth Pier where we regrouped and got set to do our last hill. Neil and David still had enough energy to try to beat their PB on the Strava segment climb back to Flirt.....fingers crossed they managed it!

Thank you Mark for back marking for us, much appreciated. And thank you Caprice for some fun photos!

Good luck Daryl running the OX and to Nicola and Kristina running their 10k this weekend. Hope you guys enjoy it and tell us all about it next time!

Next week we are doing some therapeutic gardening just up the road. Come along!