Off the Wall…for Off the Fence

We’re the paintin’ people night and day, doing lots of scrapin' that’s the only way!

Before we go any further with this week’s run report I just want to be very clear. They (head office) make me write the corny, punny not funny titles. I have to do it. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I will be asking for your help on this in coming weeks!

So after 3 weeks we are settling in and I am actually remembering a few more names. Apologies if I have asked you on several occasions what your name is….there are rather a lot to remember! Well done to Martin, Steph, Charlie, Emma, Jonathan & Lydia who have come to all 3 runs. Who will get the longest streak?!

Tonight we welcomed some first timers, Rachael, Alex, Scarlet, Gilles (fresh from running the Snowdon Half marathon at the weekend!), Ellie, & Michael, some of whom already had their Goodgym t-shirts. It seems head office are doing a great job of getting your t-shirts sent out and we are quickly turning into a do gooding red army!

After a warm up including some ‘knee fencing’ our run took us through the town centre and up the really rather steep Dyke Road. We had covered some uphill running technique in the warm up and were all fully focussed on upright posture, good arm drive and lots of little steps to get us up the hill.

After just over 2km of running, Monica from local charity ‘Off the Fence’ welcomed us and told us about the work they do to help the homeless, support vulnerable women and they also do some great work in schools. Tonight’s task involved smartening up the outside of a house they have recently inherited and are using to house some interns. We painted some window ledges, a wall in the back garden, a safety rail and a wooden table. There was also a front wall which needed a lot of prep, scraping off old paint and we will going back to finish the job by painting it in coming weeks.

This week we split the group in two with half going for a 20 minute fitness session on Dyke Road Park, before swapping over with the painters and scrapers. In the fitness session we continued our focus on hills by doing some drills to practice the technique we had previously discussed. We then put it all into practice by sprinting up the hill for 15 seconds, placing a cone at the point we reached. After jogging back down and a minutes rest, sorry I mean plank, we sped up the hill for another 15 (or 20!) seconds trying to beat our previous marker. We then got into teams and had a fun and exciting relay race, with each team member taking it in turns to run out and retrieve their cones. It was so thrilling and exciting I completely forgot to remember who won. You know who you are.. be proud!

It was then a mad rush to finish off as much painting as possible and tidy up before heading back home, down the hill for a quick stretch and a fond farewell. We will be going back to finish off what we started at Off the Fence in the next few weeks.

A big thank you to run leader Helena for back marking and keeping things in check on the task whilst I was off taking the fitness session.

Next week we have 2 tasks for the same organisation in different locations so you can run 3km or 7.5km. Sign up here. And the week after (8th August) we will be having our first social at the YHA bar so please put that in your diary so we can celebrate our first month of keeping fit and doing good deeds in Brighton.

Until then Keep On Running!