Clean, Clean, Clean.... Another one wipes the dust!

It's Tuesday… and that can only mean one thing… IT’S GOODGYM DAY! This week saw GoodGymmers run 8km to help out the Y...M...C...A

It’s been 8 weeks since our last visit to the YMCA when we cleared out their warehouses. You can read about how that task went by clicking here. This evening's run would involve us running to support the next chapter in the YMCA Cardiff’s journey, the opening of their BRAND NEW furniture superstore. It is projected to open next week!

Welcome to GoodGym Cardiff! Croseo I GoodGym Caerdydd!

So firstly, a huge welcome to Alexis, Sarah-Jane, Lorena, Catherine and Ruth, who are joining us on their first ever GoodGym run! You guys are awesome. You can find out more about GoodGym by clicking here. Lorena, Fliss and Nathan brought their ID’s to be checked this evening too – Sending the Kudos to you guys! Soon you will be able to join in on Mission Runs and Coach runs.

We started the evening’s run by Ben introducing us to GoodGym’s version of heads and tails. How do you play this game you may be wondering? The rules are simple; Runners choose either heads or tails. Ben then throws the coin UP UP UP into the air and then attempts to catch it. If the coin lands on the same side as what the runner guesses then they are allowed to run on the spot for 10 seconds… HOWEVER… if psychic abilities are running low and runners guess incorrectly then they are faced with 10 squat jumps! If Ben doesn’t catch the coin however, then he has to do 10 burpees! (Runners may not actually have been made aware of this part of the game at the time, but fortunately for Ben he didn't drop the coin)

Needless to say, this got us nice and warmed up and Ben felt it necessary to throw a riddle at us to get us mentally warmed up too…

Riddle me this and Riddle me that… "I am Black before I’m used, Red whilst I’m being used, and Grey when you throw me away… What am I?" (Post your answers in the comment box below!)

With fresh oxygen pumping around our legs and minds working in overdrive, churning answers to try and find the solution to the riddle, we began running. We ran down Queen Street, dodging the Tuesday night late shoppers and then onto the long stretch that is Newport Road. We ran as two groups, Ben leading the racers and Lucy leading the pacers. (Racers and pacers… It's kind of catchy eh!) Fliss displayed some sensational backmarking skills too = Nobody was left behind!

Hello? Hello? OH HELLO!

When we arrived at the YMCA, Spencer and Lee were there to greet us. They had beaming smiles on their faces, really appreciative that 20 runners had ran 2.3 miles to come and help them out.

Split into groups, you have 25 minutes… Go Go Go!

Spencer and Lee split us all into groups;

The clothes sorter outers were rummaging through the mountains of clothes, separating them into different piles before the clothes get pressed and taken to the different YMCA retail stores dotted around Cardiff. Tom made the interesting discovery of a pair of pink knickers – Great find Tom! Time for a joke... What do you all a pair of thieves... a pair of knickers! (I know you are laughing inside if not on the outside...)

The deep clean gurus were cleaning all of the leather sofas. Sofa So Good. Laurence took a liking to one of the sofas and the YMCA made their first sale before even opening!

Chris, single headedly, took the lead in hanging up clothes onto rails. Look at the photos to see how him modelling a very flattering dress (He didn’t purchase this though!... Or did he?).

The cage explorers were emptying electrical items from metal cages, boxing them up and then afterwards filling up the cages with matresses.

Observing the task, Spencer said;

It’s great to see how much they are all getting done in such a short space of time. This would take one person ages

Everyone got stuck into the task for a solid 25 minutes. Splitting us into groups meant we got lots of tasks done... the clothes hung up, electrical items were boxed up, clothes sorted and mattresses caged!

We then had a group photo and sang the YMCA by the Village People, and at the same time realised that the majority of us didn’t know more than 2 lines. So we changed some of the words... ready to sing.., 3 2 1,,,Go

It's fun to help out at the Y...M...C...A It's fun to help out at the Y...M...C...A

Realising that time was against us we said our GoodGym Goodbyes and headed off back to Cardiff Centre. We had Mikey leading the group who thrived for lactic burn. They ran ahead and held a 9 minute plank waiting for everyone to regroup – Great effort guys!! My hat goes off to Su and Emma who both took on back marking responsibilities on the return leg!

100 metres from the finish, Lucy encouraged all runners to sprint finish. We then did a warm down altogether... It was beautiful.

The virtual RunPunstiltskin award goes to Alexis who came up with this weeks Pun for the Run! Well done!!! Please remember to hand back the virtual award and next week it will be up for grabs again!

Would you like to get involved with GoodGym? Now you can! Sign up to our next goodgym run here

(Here’s the solution to last week’s riddle)