Hanging about at the YMCA. Swept away by Count Mikey

This evening 14 GoodGym runners ran to help out at the YMCA retail store on Colchester Avenue.

14 runners showed up at GoodGym tonight, excited to get the mileage under their belts and enjoy a GoodGym run when it isn't raining! Didn't we have a nice bank holiday weekend too? 3 days of scorching weather is often unheard of in Wales! Anyway, everyone turned up promptly between 6.15pm and 6.30pm with their beautiful GoodGym t-shirts on display - everyone looked so fine and dandy! At 6.30pm everyone went outside to warm up. Jogging, lunging and high knees... Nice dynamic exercises to prepare for exercise! No new faces this week, but it was good to see Emyr, Louise and Rhian again who haven't run with us for a while... keep coming back y'all!

Feeling warm we were ready to role

We decided to run as a group to the YMCA, being mindful of our running form on the way there. Lifting up our knees, holding our head up to make sure we maximize oxygen intake, trying to land on the mid-foot or front of our foot rather than heel striking, keeping our arms at a 90 degree angles and trying to relax our breathing.

Our run to the YMCA involved crossing a number of roads. This broke up the run which allowed us to catch our breath. We also seized the opportunity to do some squat jumps - by popular request!

Welcome to the YMCA

We were greeted with a warm welcome by Matt who works at the YMCA. Unfortunately he wasn't singing like the Village People when they sung the YMCA but he may surprise us in the future and serenade us as we enter. Matt told us all about the YMCA and then gave us our tasks for the evening which included hanging clothes, sweeping outside the shop and hoovering the store:

• 10 runners hung up clothes (Lowri, Louise, Rhian, Emma, Mikey, Emyr, Aimee, Andie, Su)
• 3 Runners swept outside (Darren, Ellen and Martin)
• 1 Runner hoovered the shop (Lucy)

Everyone got stuck straight in. Darren began posing and dancing with the broom. Martin was running around the car park pretending he was on a broom that could make him fly and Ellen tried her best to keep them both in line.

After 10 minutes of good deeding, Mikey began thinking he was Count Dracula (excited about Bucharest - I think!) and Martin tried his hand at being a ventriloquist... Martin, it was a very... original impression!

Andie and Lowri took the opportunity to have a look around the shop, their eyes wide open to potential bargains!

Riddle of the run

No run would be the same without a riddle, so here it is;

I AM A SEED, THREE LETTERS IN THE NAME. TAKE AWAY TWO AND I SOUND QUITE THE SAME. WHAT AM I?

Think you know? Comment below!

Click here for the answer

After 30 minutes of hanging, sweeping, hoovering, and the best blooming banter in town, we were finished! Matt was amazed by our efforts. He thank us and bid us a safe run back...

We all then begun running back to Yr Hen Lyfrgell at top speed. Louise tested out gravity on the run back and quickly realised that Earth's gravity is still as powerful as ever! Fortunately though Louise was okay and she assures me that she will be back at GoodGym next week or the week after.

Click here to sign up to next weeks run - Do it now :)!