GoodGym, The Red-Shirt Relay!

Two Teams... 12 Hours... 175km.

Our two relay teams were lead off by Kat and Katie who both ran faster than their predicted times, paving the way for GoodGymmer after GoodGymmer to shave minutes off of their times, leading to a mad scramble to find extra runners to fill up the time! Special thanks go out to Harry in Team 1 (recruited by Alfie) and John in Team 2 (recruited by Vicki) for stepping up last minute to add an extra 5km to each team's total. Team 1's runners ran so impressively John and Jen took on an extra leg.

Some mega achievements were played out today, Val wiped four minutes off her 10km PB and newcomer Gareth ran his second fastest 5km ever, even after an indulgent few days over Christmas. Rachel, Jo, Sinéad and Dr Jo also knocked minutes off their estimated times.

Ellie was our distance champ of the day, covering 15km in an icy cross-country setting. Sarah's wet and cold walk early in the morning looks to have had the worst weather - her trousers were foaming by her 10th kilometre!

Our other new runners had a smashing day too; Cheryl in Team 2 managed to find the motivation to get back out and run after a dog walk earlier in the day and Alfie ran a speedy 5km for Team 1.

Maura ran an impressive 5km with a blister, which some members of Team 1 were desperate to see, but the majority voted against a photo. I bet she still looked fabulous regardless! Val and Judy showed the true spirit of GoodGym by turning up to cheer each other on during their legs. We also had lots of competition between our couples - even those on the same team! Duncan vs Lucy, Katie vs Tony and Samantha vs John.

Another special mention goes out to the whole of Team 2 who all carried beautifully decorated toilet roll batons!

I am so amazed by the effort, support and camaraderie from everyone today, however our winning team were..... Team 1! Team 1 finished with an average pace of 10km/hr and a distance of 120km. Team 2 were pretty damn close behind, with an average pace of 9.16km/hr and a distance of 55km in half the time!

Can't wait to see how the other areas got on... and I'm already planning another relay for Easter Weekend!!