The group didn't used to like hurdles, but they soon got over them!

A team of 7 GoodGymers clocked up 16km collectively tonight on there way to and from Emmanuel Methodist Church in Barnsley!

On what turned out to be a rather pleasant evening, we met at the usual start location in town, full of beans and ready to go! We were joined by a new runner tonight, Debbie lets show our support and welcomes to Debbie by giving her a cheer! Great to have you along!

Sharon had kindly offered to lead the group to the task tonight, with James as backstop (Thank you!) so after a quick warm up of high knees and bum kicks the group were on their way.

Slow and Steady wins the race!

Upon arrival we were met by Dawn. Dawn had heard about GoodGym via another group we helped and said she thought it was too good to be true, so when we actually turned up, she was very happy to see us! Dawn runs a playgroup at the church and needed some help to sort and clean the toy cupboard.

First we needed to empty the cupboard as it was going to be painted the next day - so off we pootled, one by one removing the colourful array of kiddies toys! It's not until you do something like this so methodically, that you realise just how random children's toys are! Made from all sorts of chunky plastic, in all colours of the rainbow, resembling real-life forms of transport and miniature homes!

Once everything was out of the colourful cupboard or curiosities, the group got to work cleaning everything one by one with wipes. Kim started with the 'wendy house' fitting quite nicely inside the space, not a job for James! Debbie's choice wasn't quite so enjoyable, as she opted to clean the 'baby walkers' which on closer inpection were covered in alsorts of sticky nasties that you certainly wouldn't want your child to put in their mouths!

James' height was made useful as ever, when he was tasked to clean the very tall shelves the toys lived on - even James needed a step up to reach the very top!

It's just me, myshelf and I

Towards the end of the task, everyone was chilling on the floor chatting away and cleaning the smaller toys. GoodGym is as much about the social side as the fitness and volunteering, so it was nice to see everyone getting chance to chat!

We finished the night with a quick fitness session in the churches carpark. Much to the groups delight, I had brought along my new bag of goodies/fitness props and set up a course using the ladder, cones and hurdles. The session combined 'Paarlauf', literally meaning 'pair run' with elements of agility, balance and coordination. We were limited by the size of the space we had, but in pairs, runner A's ran round half the course, tagged their partner to run their part of the course, whilst runner A then cut across the middle via the ladder. I threw a few hurdles in the course too for some extra fun! It worked really well and I'm looking forward to trying it in a bigger space! We finished off with a quick boomerang on the ladders, which I added the Benny Hill soundtrack to - see that on our Instagram or Twitter pages here:

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Great to have everyone along tonight, putting in lots of effort! Speacial thanks to Sharon for leading the run tonight!

See you next week for ToyStory 2 at H.O.P.E in the Community - sign up here if you can make it.