On a sunny Spring evening, 14 GoodGym runners ran along the canal to do some gardening tasks at Alice Park Community Garden. We got loads done and really made a difference to the community space. We all enjoyed being outdoors surrounded by nature and we can't wait to go back again later in the summer. We got some great exercise by running an awesome 7km and doing some extra training along the way!

We met at our usual sport outside the leisure centre and I shared the news with the group. We had a really successful Community Mission at the weekend where three of our runners helped out the National Trust volunteers on the Bath Skyline walk. It sounded like a very tiring but a very rewarding task! We have some Group Runs later in the summer where we are going to be helping develop the Skyline walk so make sure you don't miss out! We have the monthly pub quiz on Thursday (tomorrow) and two really exciting Community Missions coming up at the weekend (details below).

Along the canal path to the park!

After a warm-up we took the scenic route along the canal path and made it to Alice Park in good time. Our host, Kathy, met us and introduced the project to those hadn't been there. For the last 10 years the garden has been growing a variety of different fruit and vegetables. It is a community project that is run by volunteers and anyone is welcome to come and help out in the garden and enjoy the produce.

Gardening and volunteering is a fantastic way to look after mental health and wellbeing ... and you get to help your community at the same time!

They are looking for volunteers to help out in the garden, so if you are interested or know someone who is interested then see the picture included in the run report for more information.

Kathy had a whole range of jobs for us to do which she had kindly written up on a whiteboard for us. With only 50 minutes before we had to leave, we had our work cut out for us, but we relish a challenge and were excited to get going!

If you have a better gardening pun then lettuce know!

Tom and Rob spent a large chunk of their time emptying the compost bins into a newly prepared bed. On previous tasks we have worked on this compost by 'turning' it and sieving out lumps, so it was great to finally put it to use! The runners created mounds of compost and planted some new butternut squash plants ready to grow.

The weather has been warm and dry recently, and to make sure the plantlife in the garden stays healthy it needs watering regularly. Chris D and Ali spent their evening running up and down the garden watering all of the flower beds. This was a classic example of combining exercise and volunteering!

We'ed always wanted to do some weeding!

Mary and Ed hacked away at some pesky weeds that were invading part of the garden. There was lots of sticky bind weed that needed removing as it was starting to suffocate some of the plants in the garden. This was a job benefited from some GoodGym enthusiasm!

Singing an untamed melody

At the back of the garden, Una, Kathryn and Max were weeding the patch around a plum tree. They had to make sure not to pull up a young Rose bush that was growing nearby! By removing the weeds around the base of the tree they have cleared the way for other volunteers to easily work around this area and also made the area a lot tidier. Great team work!

We are so sage and wise!

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Chris L donned some gauntlets and pulled out some nettles. They had made their home among the Sage and they needed to go! There was a huge pile of them at the end ready to go into the compost area. Nice work Chris!

Into the strawberry patch we go!

Steph and Dora weeded the beds of Strawberry plants. We could see lots of young strawberries on the end of the plants that look like they will grow into tasty berries to be picked later in the year. The bed was so much cleaner after the efforts of the runners here.

We did lops and lops of gardening!

Always ready for controlled destruction, Emily used her loppers to cut down lots of branches. There was a big pile of wood that needed to be trimmed down so it could be fit into a big bag and be stored for later use.

Thanks

Thanks to Steph for backmarking for us this week and for making sure no one got left behind! Thanks, again, to Steph for the Beatles (surely Beetles!?) pun. Thanks to Kathy and her team for hosting us last night. We had a lot of fun and look forward to coming back soon!

Upcoming events:

• On Thursday (tomorrow!) we are heading to the monthly pub quiz at St James Wine Vaults.
• On Saturday we are gardening at Dry Arch Growers
• On Sunday we are helping out at a Scout Service Day at a campsite in Bath
• On Saturday 8th June there is a Community Mission to paint the children's section at Moorland Road Library
• On Saturday 8th June there is also a chance to help out at the Saltford Summer Festival
• Next week we are gardening at Smallcombe Nuttery

It was a chilly evening in Bath but that didn't stop a fantastic force of 19 runners coming out to help clean toys at Oldfield Park Toddler Group.

We welcomed Chris, on tour from GoodGym Bristol, and Andreea who has joined Bath from GoodGym Hounslow.

After a quick warm up we ran out to Oldfield Park Baptist Church, where our host Katie was waiting to meet us with a huge pile of toys which needed cleaning. This has become a regular half-term task for us, as we can get the work done in 30 minutes whereas it takes the church volunteers at least a day! We split into two teams and got to work!

Esme, Chris, Katrin and Dora were the dishwasher team, who took care of all the small plastic items, including building blocks and an interesting array of plastic food, including a very realistic Pringle! We had to send in back up as there were so many small toys to dry and we ended up leaving some very soggy tea towels behind!

The rest of our mean, clean running machine took care of the larger items, using cloths and anti-bacterial spray to give everything a wipe down. Tom left his Maths PhD behind and went old school with an abacus, Dan resumed construction of the castle he built on a previous visit and Pascale was let loose with the steam cleaner to clean up some softer, squishy items! Tim even grew a tail?!

After cleaning up and a quick group photo, it was off on the run again and back to the Leisure Centre. Thanks to Pascale for back marking this week. Emily had to come up with the pun and can only apologise for lack of originality. We need a replacement pun-master while Joe is injured!

Happy running!

Upcoming runs

*Running the Bath Half? We have a series of weekend training runs. Next one is Sunday 3rd February and will be 12km. *Send A Cow have also offered us some FREE BATH HALF PLACES as a result of all our fantastic flyering. You just need to try and raise £200 for the charity. So get in touch with Emily or Sam if you're interested. *Next week we are helping to organise the store cupboard at 51st Bath Scouts

Socials

We're headed to St James Wine Vaults for the pub quiz next Thursday (31st January) for our end of the month social. Join us if you can!

Social Media

Please like/follow us on social media and share/retweet our content! We are on Facebook and Twitter. Organisations are getting in contact with us through these platforms and this means we are securing more varied tasks for you to enjoy!

For our first Group Run of 2019, 13 of us ran around Holloway and Bear Flat in Bath delivering 750 flyers for Send a Cow. We ran a very hilly 5km and had a fantastic workout!

Welcome Tom!

We met at our usual meeting spot inside the Leisure Centre main reception. We welcomed a new runner, Tom, to our group. Is there someone you know who would enjoy GoodGym? Then invite them along to join us!

Strava and our January Target

Across the country, GoodGym groups have set themselves January targets. We have set ourselves the challenge of running 500km and completing 100 good deeds in January. We are in a league with other groups and want to try and come top! Track our progress here.

You can be part of this by signing up to Strava (it's free) to record your run data. Then link it to your GoodGym account on the GG website (GoodGym Settings -> Strava/RunKeeper). As long as you do at least one good deed in January every run you record on Strava (even if it isn't a GoodGym run!) still goes towards our target!

After sharing news, we did a comprehensive warm-up to prepare us for the hilly running ahead on a cold wintery night.

Holy Cow, what a good cause!

Send a Cow is a charity that do lots of development work in Africa. They are an established charity and have been working with communities there for over 30 years. We were asked to deliver flyers advertising their Bath Half marathon places. If you are interested in a getting place in the Bath Half this year through Send a Cow then please refer to their website. There is only a £10 entrance fee (compared to the usual £40+) and an expectation that you can raise £200 in donations for them. Still not convinced: you get a free cow-print running top!!!

Scared of hills? There were no cow-ards here!

We split into two groups for this task. Emily lead one group around Holloway and then part of Bear Flat. I lead a second group further into Bear Flat. This was to make sure we made the best use of our time and spread the flyers to a variety of areas to increase our impact. We joined up near the end of the task and finished the final roads around Bear flat as one big group.

An udderly brilliant way to beat the January blues!

Getting back out running after a festive break is always a challenge, but we made sure that we all got around together!

Thanks!

Thanks to Emily for leading a group and thanks to Emma for backmarking. Thanks to Ruth for the awesome pun this week!

Upcoming runs

• Running the Bath Half? We have a series of weekend training runs starting this Sunday.
• Join us for a fun task to celebrate Wassail with other community groups at a Community Mission on the 19th Jan
• Next week we are gardening at Action On Hearing Loss.

Social Media

Please like/follow us on social media and share/retweet our content! We are on Facebook and Twitter.

Organisations are already getting in contact with us through these platforms and this means we are securing more varied tasks for you to enjoy!