Amy Lovell

Locked down during the coldest UK Winter in 25 years, a card game seemed like a pretty good way to pass the time, so that's what we did....but we did it in GoodGym style of course! So instead of donning our slippers and playing in front of the fire, we donned an extra base layer and woolly hat and and played on the pavements and trails of our lovely borough.

Players dealt eachother cards via WhatsApp and the card determined what training session the player needed to do next. It was all in the luck of the draw! Well done to everyone who took part, and special mention to Lara for dealing even though she wasn't playing.

Had this been a high stakes game, Juli would now be a very rich lady. She ran 14 different cards including lots of Aces (to her favourite coffee places), multiple Kings (of the mountains = hills sessions), a Jack (of all trades = cross-training), multiple runs of between 5km and 10km (some of which were also GoodGym (not)Parkruns where she happens to be the age grade Queen - whoop whoop!!), a 3 ("is me", where she spelled her name with road names) and a 2 (is running with company). She also finished the month on a fabulous 10 (10km), which somehow turned into a 13+km with her partner Nick, because the sun was finally out and the woods are beautiful and why not!?

Oh and Juli ran a joker too! Joker means running in fancy dress. Luckily Amy was also dealt a joker around the same time, so they did the sensible thing and dressed up as the Queen and Ace of hearts and ran a route in the shape of a heart on Valentine's Day. Again, why ever not!? They raised lots of smiles on the way round, although the rain did make the costumes look a bit sad by the end.

Other note-worthy runs included: Claire's awesome 24km walk of Maidenhead Boundary, which could have counted for multiple cards; and Jess and Sophie's fitness session where they showed great solidarity by both doing sprints for Sophie's Queen (of speed = intervals) AND a HIIT work-out for Jess's Jack (of all trades) - epic stuff!

And Tara did her final run today, an Ace (to her favourite place), which also included dropping off bunches of daffodils on friends' doorsteps. Such a lovely thing to do, and all under a stunning moon!

GoodGym Windsor and Maidenhead is 1!

Covid-19 has given us a very different year to what we expected, but we haven't let it stop us from building a community of one-derful people, who have collectively done a whopping 723 good deeds and been motivated to stay fit and active along the way. We certainly weren't about to let Covid-19 stop us from celebrating our first birthday in style!

We had a Zoom quiz and natter, with lots of good sportsmanship and big laughs. Highlights from the evening included:

• Being able to give Jen (VIP guest from Slough!) and Sara a big round of applause for their 100th and 50th good deeds respectively - amazing achievements from these superstars! Also learning about what they have been doing with crisp packets at Terracycle near Slough.
• Lots of us being able to put faces to names and say a proper hello having only 'met' before on WhatsApp or read about each other in run reports.
  
• Tara joining straight from a shift at the Maidenhead Covid-19 vaccination clinic - way to go Tara!
• Big excitement at the news that Parkrun is expected to return from the 5th of June and Junior Parkrun (for 4-10 year olds initially) from the 11th of April. Hurrah! We were particularly honoured to have Parkrun Director Nick B joining our celebration as a VIP guest on the historic day of this announcement.
• A big up to Sani, Rich, Jen, Jess, Sophie, Wendy, and Fran, who were all there at our launch and are still part of the family one year on.
• Matt's demonstration of the running man.
• Everyone doing the twist.
• Attempts at jumping jacks without leaving the sofa.
• Seeing what it would look like if Queen Elizabeth II dressed up as Paul in a Santa hat and went out for a run.
• Seeing what it would look like if Sophie and Elton John had a child and he grew up, joined GoodGym and helped rescue baby toads.
• Nick S's reaction to finding out that Timmy Mallet lives nearby.
• Amy learning how to use breakout rooms (thanks to technical support James)
• Laura, Gareth and Tara of the 'Cool Chefs' being super focussed and nailing every challenge in record time.
• Team 'We are Pants'' innovative choice of team uniform, in particular Sophie's styling of her hair through the leg holes.
• Fran's stamina when it came to keeping her pants on. It did not go un-noticed that Nick S whipped his off at the earliest opportunity.
• Jen's explanation that she was a 'Llama in pyjamas' disguised as a bear. Obvs.
• Claire from the 'Mad Hatters' wearing a child's riding helmet.
• All the celebratory drinks.
• Brilliant efforts to GoodGym-ify the lyrics of Queen's 'Don't stop me now' such as: >(Don't stop us now) We're digging such a big hole We're planting a tree (Wear fancy dress) Goodgym always has a good time So give them a call!
• Re-writes of Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' to make them more relevant to the present day, such as: > Oh covid, trapped like us Bojo, let us out to run Come with me, athletes like us Baby, we’re born to park run
• Adaptations of Bonnie Tyler's 'I need a hero' with Boris in Johnson in mind, such as: >I need a haircut, I’m holding out for a haircut till the end of the spring. It’s got to be short, and it’s got to be blond cos I want be the next king.
• And a second verse: >I need a vaccine I'm holding out for a vaccine by the end of the year It's got to be safe and it's gotta work And it's gotta get me out for a beer
• The group singing/rapping these lyrics in unison.
• The fact that I recorded it so I can watch it back whenever I want to. Bwa ha ha ha...
• Our agreement that next year's celebration will include going out together for a pizza and lots of hugs.

Happy birthday to us!

An extra well done to everyone who also went for a celebratory birthday run, and special mention to Amanda, who brought birthday balloons (and a big smile to lots of people's faces) for her run with Amy around Maidenhead's Parkrun route.