Good numbers at GoodGym Portsmouth this evening... great to see everyone. Plenty of chat and laughter too.

We welcomed Rasha for her first ever group run, and she only thought she was turning up to do a doc check! We also welcomed Rachel for her first run with us, she first ran with GoodGym in Cardiff but now lives down our way. She was also christened Welsh Rachel to differentiate herself from Rachel C who we welcomed back from her Aussie adventure. We also had 2 Sophies with us tonight so they are from here on known as Queen Sophie and Normal Sophie.... this is what happens when you let people choose their own nicknames!

Having a ball

Ashley ran us round to Manor Infants where he had very kindly arranged some indoor tasks - the first was touching up the walls and the skirting. We love a double entendre here in Pompey so that really set the scene for when we started the other task which was clearing out & tidying the PE cupboard - we had saggy balls, balls that were too hard, ball sacks, lumpy balls, balls that needed pumping up - you name it there were plenty of ball related quotes of the night. Once everything had been sorted and was being loaded back into the cupboard there was even a comment about being back in the closet! If you look at the photos you will also see that Lara and Lou have been (self)nominated as playground friends and they very fetching they look too in the yellow cap.

How many GoodGym runners does it take...

...to put together a goal with no instructions? The answer appears to be greater than 16 as we didn't quite manage to work out what pieces went where!

Squats lunge got to do with it?

As it was face-freezingly cold and we are a group of (mostly) southern softies, we did our fitness session inside our room in the community centre. I was impressed that for once we actually left a task in time to do a full fitness session! There were many excellent efforts on the agility ladder, some gorgeous grapevines and skips on the drills station, groaning efforts coming from tricep dip corner and some good air on the squat jumps.

Awesome work from everyone, hope you're not too sore tomorrow!

Next week we are outside so wrap up warm as we return to St Faiths, site of the bindweed battle. And there will be a final chance to bag some good deeds for the January challenge on Thursday 31 January with a plog at Hilsea, meeting at the Rugby Club/Covers car park.

This evening we welcomed 2 new runners for their first GoodGym experience... Sophie and Sadik. Please give them a cheer on their pages!

We also welcomed back Angela from her volcano running adventures and Lisa who we haven't seen for most of last term as she was on placement in a distant land (well, Bohunt) but is now closer to home!

It was a shortish hop up the road to the Naomi House charity shop so most opted to run it with Jo and Val striding up in the walking group whilst talking IT (on the way there) and politics (way back). High brow!

Tonight's task was a sort out but Simon set us a challenge that he thought was madness... could we manage to sort a whole cupboard of donations in the time we had? GoodGym Portsmouth runners do love a challenge / the chance to go one step beyond (and an excuse to stay a wee bit longer at a task) so everyone threw themselves whole heartedly into the job.

There were all sorts of items in the donation bags, from odd shoes to children's toys to baggy trousers to bridesmaid's dresses. Sadik took a shine to the head wear, Jo & Mel were sizing up the posh frocks and Tony and Tim were kept busy on baby clothes. Sophie made a purchase of a lovely fluffy jumper which added an extra dimension to the run back.

After a few kerb step ups and some 2 touch squat jumps we headed back to the warmth of the community centre for some stretches.

Simon & Debbie were so pleased with our efforts that they've booked us in again for 13th February. We will also make that night the first curry night of the year so pop it in your diaries!