Shuttle up and run!

On a blossom-filled April evening, twelve GoodGym runners headed to the wonderful Living Well food bank to help out.

As much as I love a family holiday, it was great to be back with my GoodGym Bromley family this week (even if I was feeling slightly fuzzy around the edges, having had no sleep!). A big thank you to Kim for leading the way last week (and to all the group for making her feel so at home), it looked like a really fun evening and such great work done at Gmax.

We had an absolute first-time GoodGymmer with us tonight! A very big welcome to Chloe, embarking on her first ever task and run - give her a cheer!

Don't forget!

The Dino Dash Relay is coming up (and no doubt filling up) on June 12th, a crazy, fun, speedy, silly, energising way to spend an evening with your friends. I have created a race page here, so sign up, but do keep an eye out for announcements about the race entry opening (in the next few days). If you don't have a team of three, don't worry, we will match you up and mix it up, with runners from other areas joining in too. Maybe we can invite everyone 'back to ours' after?!

The GoodGym Life

Tonight's task is a favourite, with Living Well doing such amazing work locally. They are always open to inviting in new helpers, so have a look at their page to see when might be helpful, if it's something you can fit in. The stocks at the food bank come and go, so our tasks vary each visit, depending on how full the container and cupboard are. Tonight was to be a pull-everything-out-and-clean-it day, with one team shifting the heavy crates of food into the open space, while the others got to work with the spray and kitchen roll. Other jobs that captured our pernickety side included arranging the deodorant, shampoo and shower gel so that it stood up neatly in the boxes, strangely satisfying it seems (not so the bag of random small stuff, that offered no joyful sorting experience).

Once everything was placed back into the cupboard exactly where it had come from, everyone stepped back to admire the handiwork (and then to step right in for the group photo). Jane thanked us and commented that this just wouldn't get done otherwise. We were joined at this point by Tony, on a flying visit. Some of us remember Tony from the early days at GoodGym Bromley, so it was lovely to see him briefly.

I probably repeated about twenty times this evening the words 'I love these lighter evenings!', but really, I do! What do lighter evenings make? Fun fitness sessions! We got going with some cone action of the competitive flipping variety...so tense, but so definitely won by the 'cups', then onto some partner shuttle runs and strength work. I like this kind of activity because it makes everyone cheer for their partner, if only to get them to hurry up!

Goal digger

I was quite touched this evening, by everyone's kindness and generosity. This was supposed to be my last run for a little while, as I head off to get my leg mended, but a turn of events means I will be around a little bit longer. This didn't stop everyone making our post-run social extra special, with delicious ginger cake from Hannah, some reading material from Ian (and Tony) and an awesome t-shirt from Nicole and Kerry, to motivate me back to full strength. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Next week we will be doing something a little bit different, as we spread the word about the St Christopher's Hospice Fun Walk. Sign up here to join in.