Oh what a big hill to get to tonight’s task! All the way to the top of Elm Grove! But we made easy work of it especially Laura who claims that prior to her first Goodgym run 2 weeks ago she’d never been for a run! And yet she was right at the front of the group, chatting comfortably all the way, despite revealing that she’s not too many years away from being eligible for a mission! Great work!

Our task was helping the residents of May Road reclaim a neglected area behind some flats that had become a target for anti-social behaviour. A local resident told us it had got really bad so the neighbours had got together and organised a clean up. They’d made massive progress and one end of the area was clear and ready for planting spring bulbs. So that was the task for half the group whilst the other half continued with clearing dense brambles and generally tidying up. Perhaps the trickiest job was getting the long, tangled mess of brambles into bags but we persevered and by the end all the brambles were cut back and bagged up.

A few suggestions for the pun were made before previous pun of the month nominee Lydia suggested sticking with the Star Wars theme from last week and the pun was done!

See you next week for an indoor task and a big fitness session!

Welcome to 2018 and what a perfect way to start the year off! A really nice mix of regulars and new runners tonight as we welcomed Danni, Laura & Roy for their first Goodgym experience and also Jamie who has previously ran with Goodgym in London.

There was a change to tonight’s advertised task as the elderly residents at the almshouses decided they would prefer us to visit when we have the evening light so that’s one to look forward to for the spring. So instead we headed to a task the same distance away but at the top of one of Brighton’s biggest hills! I tried to find the easiest way up but I know this gave some of you a bit more than you bargained for so well done on achieving your first summit of Southover Street!

Tonight’s task was another gardening, pruning and clearing one, this time in a community garden behind the estate in Finsbury Road. As the area to work in was quite small we split the group with half working at the task with run leader Helena whilst the other half completed a fitness session with me including lots of squats, lunges, kicks, jumps and exercise you can do in a small area whilst standing up!

The task involved cutting back buddleia, grasses and other vegetation which was covering a path and by the time we’d finished half of the path was totally clear and I’m sure we’ll be returning soon to finish the job. We’d bagged up about 15 bags of garden waste and the final task was to try to cram it all into Cllr David’s car to be taken off for green recycling. And cram we had to including a few bags in the front seat (hence tonight’s pun, thank you Helena!)

We headed back to base via a slightly different route and as far as I’m aware no one even mentioned Christmas! (Apart from me when I commented that nobody had mentioned Christmas!)

See you next week, keep on running!

Fourteen runners ran 5km to Bloomfield Allotments (the seedy end of town) to help Virginia move some compost.

Frost things frost...

No new runners on this cold winter evening, but there were plenty of familiar faces this week, including Emily visiting from London. The run was led by Sam who's enthusiasm for squats was matched only by his determination to get us lost. We ran up the Holloway (again), which at least kept us warm in the almost freezing temperatures.

Lettuce Begin

We managed to find Virginia in the darkness, she had several tasks for us, and we split into groups to tackle each. Emily, Sam, and Steve found building a new compost bin more pallet-able than shifting the smelly tank of compost tea. Joe, Mark, Chris, and Dan set to moving some flagstones - Mark managed to break his second shovel in three weeks, well done Mark. Mary got her hands on a saw and the rest of us moved the compost tea and built a new fence with the remaining pallets.

Coming Up

The Christmas Party is coming up on 16th December, so get signed up.

Everyone's been booking flights for Budapest, it's not too late to join.

15 runners lucked out and ran 5.5k on a dry and mild evening.

Task

To run to Oldfield Baptist Church and uproot their flower beds.

Welcome to Mark, who broke a fork on his first group run!

Congratulations to Ollie who hit 3 hours on the button for the Athens Marathon on the weekend. We do not expect him to pull a Pheidippides and run back to Bath bearing news of the battle.

A welcome back to Daisy who joined us for her second run - Steph will get her name right on the third.

Pascale returned in triumph from the Majorca Marathon to lead the run out to Oldfield while a partially-injured Steph back marked and took a shortcut specifically to catch everyone for pressups.

Petal to the metal

We were met with applause by Liz and Chris who handed us spades and forks and assured us that we shouldn't hit any live electrical lines under the flower beds. A short run left us plenty of time to get stuck in and we used every minute of it digging out some well entrenched rose bushes.

We had just enough time for a dab in the dark before running back - with a pit stop for walking lunges of course.

Reminders

Our GoodGym Calendar is on sale for £10. All profits going to the new cancer centre at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

The Christmas party is up, sign up soon!

Autumn may have fallen in Bath but that didn't stop 10 fabulous runners from putting their best football feet forward for a 5k run out for a spot of leaflet dropping for Bath City football club ahead of their annual community day on 21st October. The club is community owned so don't miss out on this fun packed day for all the family.

Welcome to Rosie and Joe joining us for their first taste of Goodgym.

Three cheers to Mary and Rosie on completing their first marathon in Bournemouth on Sunday. Well done to Pascale on another marathon in the bag ahead of The Eden project Marathon this weekend... GO GIRL!!

These speedy guys soon had 200 leaflets posted to promote Bath City football clubs community day. This is going to be a fun packed day for all the family and will raise vital funds for the community led football club, make sure you spread the word and go along on the day.

Time for task two

With the leaflets well and truly posted we had time left to shift some bark chip at the foot of some community allotments on a very slippery grass pathway,

The team certainly worked hard tonight bagging up the bark chips and shifting them along a length of muddy ground at the bottom of the community allotments. A bit of OCD with the variation in bark shade along the stretch of path but all was made very clear when Katie and Rosie spilled the beans on newbie Joe bagging up the lighter bark because it weighed less...HA!! they certainly marked his card.

Great to hear everyone enjoying themselves whilst getting fit and doing good tonight helping out two great community led projects.

TIME UP

Run back to the leisure centre for a well earned stretch out and reminder to bring your documents along to your next group run and get mission verified.

Thanks to Emma for back marking and Joe for a Barking mad pun

Well done you crazy bunch