17 GoodGym runners showed up this evening to help out at Chapter Arts Centre! With the opportunity to help out such an incredible organisation, this was a task everyone was looking forward to.

Everyone arrived prompt for the run at 6.15pm, and then at 6.30pm the evening’s exciting run commenced. We headed to the downstairs of Yr Hen Lyfrgell to do our warm up, which consisted of jogging on the spot, and butt kicks. Ben then had the wonderful idea of including running up and down the steps in the building as part of the warm up. We had a new runner to GoodGym this week, a HUGE and INCREDIBLY LOUD cheer to KIERA!.... WELCOME :) – It’s lovely to have you join us. We love it when new people come and join in - We hope we didn't scare you off and we see you again :)

Warmed up and feeling incredible, it was time to begin our run. On our way to Chapter Arts Centre we stopped off at Bute Park where we did sprint drills (By popular request!). The fitness session consisted of 10 minutes of sprint, recover and repeat as many times as possible in the timeframe.

After 10 minutes the fitness session was over - to the delight of many! we had a group photo on what looked like a sacrificial stone and then made our way to Chapter Arts Centre!

WELCOME TO CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE

We were greeted with the warmest reception by Jennifer from Chapter Arts. Jennifer told us all about Chapter Arts Centre and explained what our task was that evening. The task was to stuff letters into envelopes; this was to help with the fundraising efforts of Chapter who are dependent on generous donations to help stay open. We split into 4 teams of 4 and competed against one another to see which team could fold and stuff the most letters into envelopes in half an hour.

The teams were called:

• First past the post – Charlotte, Alice, Amy and Rachel
• Folding, stuffing, sticking with love – Lucy, Sophie, Fiona and Sue
• Stuffing it – Keira, Mikey, Adam and Martin
• Barbara – Emma, Aimee, Ellen and Katie

Thank you so much GoodGym for your incredible efforts

Jennifer thank us all for 30 minutes of non-stop envelope stuffing. It was so much fun and everyone enjoyed; Mikey was in his element.

Run Home :)

We then ran back to Yr Hen Lyfrgell where we then did our warm down and went to the Glassworks pub for drinkypoos.

This weeks winner of the RunPunStiltskin award goes to Ellen and Su. Wooooo! Well done for coming up with such an incredible Pun for the run! Please hand back the award next week so it can be passed on to the next winner!

Remember there is an extra run in Penarth this week to help out at Marie Curie. Get signed up to the run by clicking here Join in next Tuesday’s GoodGym run by clicking here

Tonight 17 fantabulous runners trotted off to the Samye Foundation Centre to help their ongoing renovation of 3 flats above the centre. We welcome one new face - hello Sophie! - one returning face - welcome back Andie! - and say goodbye to one departing face - adieu Tom at least for a little while - it was fun while it lasted!

Twist and Shout

So the group was headed up by a new leader tonight - little ol' me - with welcome assistance from Ben and Darren. Our warm up included an added twist: a side-stepping, hip-flexing, sashay movement which everyone appeared to like bar one runner who shall not be named (Sue), who promptly shouted she did not like it one bit! So we headed off towards the Samye, and on the way took advantage of the lighter evening to do some fittening work. Darren led us on a great timed out-and-back run up along the Taff, with runners pushing themselves a bit more than normal to go out as far as possible in 7 minutes, then turning around and heading back to the starting point. It will be interesting to see how far we get to next time.

Stuff of legends!

Once at the Samye, we were welcomed by Lorraine who was as jolly as ever, telling us of her exciting trip to Nepal recently. Then we got stuck in. The description of the task included 'moving stuff' and boy did we move a lot of 'stuff'!. Fridges were going upstairs, boxes were going downstairs, and on the way we passed microwaves, wall panels, curtain poles and carpet tiles going goodness knows where! Aimee, Lucy and Sophie stuck into painting the walls of the front flat, adorning themselves with the very flattering bin bags as usual - I swear that we use these so much, that GoodGym should come out with its own line of bin bag painting smocks! In the back room, Amy, Alice and Ewan got stuck into sorting out some old curtains to be recycled into further decor for the rooms. Still others put some elbow grease - or was it Danish oil? - into the new wooden kitchen counter tops! Although it was busy and crowded and noisy with 17 runners plus staff on site, we got a LOT done and it was really rewarding to see how the flats are shaping up over time, and how we've contributed to them. Legends - every one of you!

Did someone say Avocado?

What GoodGym Cardiff run would not end in food? Lorraine and her team very kindly made up sarnies with avocado in them, which went down a treat. After saying goodbye, we headed straight back to the start to warm down, hear the latest news of upcoming events, and part our separate ways. For some of us, this was to the usual watering hole for "Two-drink Tuesday" (non-alcoholic drinks included), and to enjoy some vegan cookies and Welsh cakes in celebration of me hitting my 50th good deed recently. I've enjoyed every one of them! (even though I may not have appeared to at the end of January).

Special thanks to Aimee for her gorgeous cookies, Lucy for the special badge, Ben and Darren for the support tonight, and to everyone else for being so kind and complimentary on my run leading. x