Goddess Gracious Me - That's the longest ever GoodGym Mission run!

It is rare arriving to at a mission location to have your breath taken away, but the 200 year old ornate Bath stone surroundings of Ms M, did just that to me.

Then Lady Bath and Mary Queen of Scotch arrived, looking very much out of place in the salubrious surroundings, and it was time to start sizing up the challenge. Relevant context: Todays mission was in Bath, for those not aware this is a city between London and Bristol (1).

Ms M shares her elaborate surroundings with 30 other ladies all of whom have Faith and attend the adjoined church on a Sunday, which meant that coffee and cake was but 90 minutes away.
This probably had nice similarities with all of the GG Race Team who were competing in the First Big six of the year (2) with 90ish minutes of effort then cake.
Speaking of Races we also discussed both joining the Race Team and the upcoming trip to Bucharest, so if you are reading this and want to know more, ask/pester your trainer or GG HQ (3).

The main tasks for the day were to cut down the raspberries and then weed everywhere, so after grabbing suitable cutting devices we set to work. It is always nice to actually see a Trainer do some work and earn a Good Deed, so I can report that Lady B for once did actually do some meaningful work (Billy Elliot take note!) More context: Well done to Lady Bath on her 200 t-shirt and Ms Quite Contrary on her 100 Wings t-shirt, also well done to Bath taskforce for organising the 200 t-shirt.

After the raspberries were shortened we grabbed forks and hoes and set about removing the weeds, or seemingly any plant the ladies could reach, and then throwing it onto the path for myself to put in the compost and green bin. At one point I had to fetch a rake to assist/expedite them in moving the weeds, to the correct place.
To be honest comparing the work rate of the Bristol and Bath GG members at the task, it was easy to see why Bristol won the GoodGym January Challenge and Bath didn't. But in fairness Bath GG are very more modest about their successes and they have much to be modest about.

Other context, we spotted a flag and played the what flag is that game, after a bit of research we realised we were next door to the Rastafarian embassy and it was an Ethiopian Flag - clearly been watching lots of running on tele lately. Anyway, the reason I am telling you this dear reader is because some Ethiopians like running long distances.

Anyway enough about architecture and flags, lets talk cake.
Victoria sponge, with Jam and a dollop of Vegan cream (4), served with a lovely silver plated cake fork and a cup of proper coffee, delightful, look at the joy on Lady Bath's face! We also had a bit of chat about the amazing venue and it's history.

We only accomplished one of the two gardens, so we will need to go back to finish the other one shortly, but with the quality of cake and coffee provided I am sure there will be plenty of volunteers.

After the 'Do Good' element of the mission was finished, some of the runners headed home to troublesome daughters: some of the runners decided to complete a circuit of the Green Goddess route around Bath first. This should have added 26 miles, however navigation decisions made this into a 29 mile run, over glorious and beautiful albeit occasionally muddy and hilly scenery.

This was a GoodGym record for the longest Mission run in the History of GoodGym ever! so well done all, especially Ms M for providing the cake for sustenance.

Click here for the Relive '

What a lovely day, it was nice that Spring had finally arrived, and we got to enjoy it. (5)

Footnotes
1 - In honour of Lady Bath description of Peasedown.
2 - Some people may have taken more than 90 minutes!
3 - Most of the GG trainers are lovely of course, so you'll only need pester them if you attend GG West.
4 - May not have been vegan...
5 - No offence is meant to Mary in this report.