Puns and Poses

With apologies to Munro Leaf for borrowing his story of Ferdinand the Bull and twisting it!

Watch this first....Ferdinand the Bull.

Once upon a time in Oxford there was a running club and their name was Goodgym. All the other running clubs in town would run as fast as they could without stopping, but not Goodgym. They liked to jog along socially and do good deeds. They had a regular haunt up in the East close to the Oval. It was a friendly community centre and they would run there regularly and help the community.

One day a parcel arrived from London containing the biggest, shiniest, red-est flag in the country. All the runners ran around full of ideas of where to pose with the flag, leaping and jumping and hanging off the monkey bars so the flag would be displayed to its best advantage. The runners knew that it was important to get a great picture to celebrate 10 years of Goodgym. So they went to their favourite outdoor gym equipment and posed around the monkey bars.

The community centre staff saw them and they shouted with joy. Here was the most useful running club of all. Just the one for the leaflet delivery for the National Careers Service! So they gave them leaflets and litter-pickers, and what an evening it was! Flags were flying, litter was being picked up, leaflets were delivered ... and all the lovely runners had the warm glow that comes from doing good.

First came the Anwen and Bethan with long grabby litter pickers and silly sunglasses. Next came Trev and Ben who ran around the streets at the fastest pace, then Tim and Julia and Isabella and Faruk working one way and another round the streets of Rose Hill distributing their leaflet cargo. Then came the ultimate pairing, the proudest of all — Sarah and Rachael with the Garland of Joy. Rachael glowed in the glory of the garland having run her furthest ever distance in the Round Norfolk Relay at the weekend. She was beautiful in the flowers, and bowed to all her admirers.

Leaflets delivered and litter picked the runners ran to the middle of The Oval and everyone shouted and clapped because they had done their Good Deed for the evening so it was time to run home. But not so fast. When they got back to the community centre and left the 2 sacks of rubbish for the bin and saw there was still light from a beautiful sunset in the sky they stopped for a moment and posed as a group for the ultimate Goodgym 10 years photo. They had red flag and litter-pickers, and bin bags and a Garland of Joy. The best of Goodgym.

And we definitely know the runners will be out again next week, running to another community group, doing another good deed, wearing the flower garland. They are very happy.

For those who ran and got involved in the conversation regarding Bull Fighting (red flag to a bull?) and Minoan Bull leaping, here is your Thursday inspiration: Minoan Bull Leaping.

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY GOODGYM!!