Today we ran to the Penhill Haven; a second visit to the community wildlife corridor to lend a helping hand to the lovely Glynis.

We had a new member and welcomed Andrew to GoodGym for his first group run! Andrew’s special skill is the speedy bathing of his 3 boys - in 20 minutes! Impressive dad skillz 👊

Other talents that we must see out on a GoodGym social are Kirsty cutting a grape into 16 pieces in 10 seconds and Simon eating a standard sized apple in 4 bites (has to be standard sized and it is everything except the woody bit).

It was an Up(pen)Hill struggle to get there, literally it is all up hill to get there, so we broke the run up with a couple of stops at the Beat The Street boxes on the way. Stuart kindly took on the role of back marker, which he did need reminding of a couple of times 😂

Glynis gave us a lovely welcome and explained The Haven to the newbies. We then cracked on with our tasks! Scarifying the grass, painting and wildflower planting. Simon,the greenkeeper, went off with what looked like a Medieval instrument of war to attack the grass. Mike found a different instrument to handle this evening in the form of a paint brush rather than his guitar.

Lily and Steve did an amazing job painting up two planters - no Mario Kart skills needed there! Charles got dug into the raised bed painting. I also heard him pipe up on the run back that the Run Lead (me Crazy Legs) is bossy - I’ve got your number Charles 😂😉

Daniel proved that he is always photo ready by posing perfectly for every shot and said his best feature is his bum, no guesses what I snapped next! Paul attempted some carpentry, he says next time he is bringing power tools. We may reach a point where we need a GG support car with all our equipment in 😂

Jason’s mind control failed again and he had to physically perform the tasks this evening, something Wynspecialskill does so well; a man who can always spot a job that needs doing!

Next week we will be heading to Swindon's Shock Wheelchair Basketball Team, to do some wheelchair maintenance. Do you need wheelchair maintenance skills? Not at all! There will be someone there to give help and advice, so give it a go! Sign up today!

At long last; our first GoodGym run 'beating the street' had finally arrived! Some funny looking grey boxes on lamposts have been placed all around town waiting for people to tap them? Strange, I know; it took me a while to work it all out? The idea is that you pick up a fob (if you are school child) or a card (if you are anyone else!) and walk, jog, run, skip, scoot, cycle from one box to another tapping them with your fob or card as you go? The more boxes you tap, the more points you get, and more points mean prizes!!! It's in Swindon for 6 weeks meaning that we have 6 exciting GoodGym runs tapping boxes to and from tasks! Yay!!!

What makes it more fun, is that people can join a team with Beat the Street. GoodGym Swindon has formed its very own team, which we would of course encourage any GoodGym runner to join?! Team Captain Dan Coles will be there to support you all the way; by issuing cards, maps of East and West Swindon (there are no North and South Swindon maps by the way?!), and to ensure that you are tapping your card correctly on the box. No flashing lights mean no points! You have been warned. Come and join us to find out more about this addictive child-like game that everyone across Swindon seems to be playing right now?

6pm arrived and there were loads of you gathered inside the Oasis, keen to get going last night. What a fanatstic turn out! 18 runners and myself. Was it because of Beat the Street (and my promise of 8 boxes to and from the task), or maybe because we were going to STEAM and perhaps many of you are secret train enthusiasts?! Or maybe, just maybe you all love GoodGym no matter what we're doing? Answers on a postcard please?!

We welcomed four fabulous new runners last night: Ben, Kelly, Mallory and Steve (who many of us know as the chap who (quietly) sets up the cones and tape and a whole lot more at parkrun every Saturday!). Thank you for joining us! It is always good to see some new faces every week; feel free to tell your friends and family about GoodGym, and don't forget - we have a website, we're on Facebook and Twitter and thanks to Paul the Scientist we now have a WhatsApp chat group for anyone who likes to chat about GoodGym?! Want to join the WhatsApp group, just drop me an email or just ask me to add you when I next see you?

Before setting off, we formed a circle outside the Oasis - to get to know one another a bit more. With the Emmy Awards the night before, our lovely GG runners had to tell each other what their favourite TV programme was? The responses were quite varied, unusual and funny, but also worrying. Is there really a TV programme called the Killing? Sounds lighthearted doesn't it?! An American Drama Series apparently? Anyway, it's always good to talk and we're good at talking at GoodGym; and not only do we talk before the run, but also during the run, at the task, and afterwards in Coffee Corner. GoodGym is just a big social really?

Anyway, with me as Run Leader and Stuart kindly offering to be Back Marker, we got going at around 6:15pm and managed to tap 3 Beat the Street boxes on our way to STEAM. How exciting! Those of us with cards gaining 20 points each?! The best bit about tapping these boxes is that we all have to wait for one another, which gave the majority of you time to chill, and some of you an opportunity to look energetic and jog on the spot (briefly!). Running through town is always interesting with some encouraging comments from passers-by and strange looks from people who have probably never seen us before. They will soon get to know us; out and about with our red t-shirts, smiling and waving as we jog along!

Through the tunnel (running is allowed, cycling is not!), under the train line, and there we were - at STEAM, Museum of the Great Western Railway. what a privilege it was to be there, in such an iconic part of town with so much history behind it? Thank you Ian Surtees for welcoming us into STEAM, through the museum and onto the train platform. It was great to hear about the railway works; how many people used to work there, and what they used to build? Three locomotives in a week? That's hard graft, but we've got grafters at GG Swindon haven't we? Wyn and Lily always working, never stopping even when told to! And yes - this was exactly the case when we got let out onto the traverser (the 'thing' outside STEAM that helps maneuver the locomotives from one set of rails to another). We were given bin bags, brooms, dustpans and brushes and got going de-weeding, de-littering, filling so many bin bags we had to ask for more?! Thank you Tracy for pointing out ten minutes before 'tidy-up time' that we had missed a fairly large section of the traverser behind the platform. In good team spirit everyone just cracked on and got the job done splendidly. Well done one and all!

It was time to go and tap some more boxes. With a cheery wave goodbye to Ian surrounded by bin bags, we found our next box in no time at all; surrounded by school children tapping their fobs. But we had four more to find (in the failing light), so we soon set off around Even Swindon locating them all as quickly as possible? However, I set a challenge along the way. We got to Redcliffe Street and everyone had to sprint and locate the box at the end of the street! Now, Redcliffe Street is a very long street which therefore meant a lot of sprinting, so well done to Jon (who is apparently not competitive at all) for sprinting there and back in no time at all! How did you do that and smile at the same time?! It's a mystery!

On our way back to the Oasis, tapping boxes as we went, I had a nice conversation with Mike, who has kindly offered to take up the position of 'pun leader', which requires thought and imagination on a weekly basis. Thank you Mike for doing this; Dan for being Beat the Street Team Captain and Stuart for his back marking skills. I'm really starting to feel that a Task Force is starting to form? Wonderful!

We arrived back at the Oasis, tapped our final box, did some stretching, had a chat about our adventures that evening and how far we had run? A little further than 5km in our quest to earn more points! Everyone was keen to hear where we were going the following week? The Haven in Penhill to finish painting those purple picnic tables, and to scarify the meadow under the watchful eye of the lovely Glynis. I do hope you can join us next Tuesday for another fun-filled evening of GoodGym activity?! Worried about not having painting and gardening skills; don't worry - Glynis is an expert at both! You can't go wrong!

The drizzle and bad traffic meant it was a smaller group this week that took on the longer run to Toothill Farmhouse but we still got a huge amount done.

We welcomed two new recruits Wyn, and Graham who taught us the colour of magic is octarine (its only visible to wizards and cats), and nice to see Ashleigh again after launch day.

Off we ran, past Mannington Rec, no time for fitness session on this long run but that has been earmarked for future sprints…. reaching Toothill where amongst the houses sits a farmhouse converted in to community centre complete with scout hut, picnic tables, gardens, a boat and most importantly a teapot.

Within 10 seconds of arriving Mavis offered us tea which was lovely but we decided to start with some de-weeding first.

Then 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 15 minutes in to the job she offered again.

Tea anyone?!

We have never been offered tea before and not this persistently. We had to say yes. At which point lots of tea and cakes came out almost instantly, like magic.

Wyn was beasting himself digging out around the picnic tables to lay some slabs. Huge respect to the amount of effort he put in, so he was allowed sugar in his tea.

Whilst Richard, Graham and Ashleigh were happy sorting out the borders and putting in bulbs; for Alethia once she spotted the boat it was love at first sight and in she went.

With the help of Emma and Emily some nice colourful plants were installed in the boat (Ger-RAIN-iums?), we sipped up the tea and made our way back to Oasis to the café for non-tea drinks.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the longer run as we kept together as a group, at least it was flatter than last week. Future routes will try to incorporate tapping boxes for the new Beat The Street initiative which starts today.

Mavis was probably the kindest and most dedicated host we have had the pleasure of working with so far and with very little funding they make a real difference to the community. We have promised to support them much more in future. In winter they will need painting done inside and we will need tea, so its mutually beneficial.

Aside - we have set up a WhatsApp group for all members. If you would like to join the let one of the run leaders know. You will need to provide your phone number.

Please join us at next week's run when we will be heading to STEAM, Museum of the Great Western Railway, to help clear the Traverser. No idea what a traverser is?! Find out next Tuesday!!!