A perfect sunny evening to spend running up and down hills and steps, how ELSE would you want to spend a Friday?

We met in the early evening sunshine at our local "hill" - it's VERY flat on Portsea Island but to the East of Henry VIII's Southsea Castle, is a hill overlooking the sea to the south and Castle Field to the north.

Unfortunately, due to injury, Rachel couldn't take part but she kindly offered her photography skills for the session.

After being taken on a tour around the route to demonstrate my "up and down" route on a Castle Hill that featured a number of ramps and steps, we set off. It wasn't going to be an easy session as everyone had to take every single up or down route on the hill they could find and see how many laps they could get in at max effort over 20-30 minutes.

Maxine had found herself in a Bake Off mood and kindly brought us a home baked Pineapple Upside Down Cake to celebrate our efforts before we headed off into the sunset for bubble tea and noodles.

Thanks to everyone who came and joined in the session! It was definitely a challenge and everyone did great!

4 of us were up in North End bright and early on a not so bright (but extremely windy) morning.

This was Lucie's first experience of GoodGym, she's on an internship in Portsmouth from France and she is missing the hot weather! We worked alongside a group of volunteers from the Samaritans taking bags and boxes from storage upstairs and loading up the van ready for the donations to be delivered to the new shop. It was hard work, lots of lifting and stair climbing but we were all amazed by how much we managed to get into the van. We even managed to chase a couple of bags down the road after they were caught by the wind.

Lucie, Maxine and I then ran down to Southsea with Maura battling the wind on her bike and arriving just before us. We didn't quite manage to beat the van to the shop but luckily Tony was there to help unload and we were also joined by Rachel, they had both braved the gale force winds on the seafront and done parkrun first! Well done guys.

After we'd unloaded the van and filled the shop floor Anne kindly made us all a cup of tea which was accompanied by biscuits! Always a winner! She's also booked us in for a group run task on 18th September so pop it in your diary! Donation sorting - a favourite :)

We also got to meet a 3 month old puppy who was staying in one of the houses at the back of the shop... Very cute! Sadly she was only there for the weekend so won't be making an appearance every time we lend a hand here!

We welcomed Anne to her first GoodGym run tonight with a "Captain's Table" warm up game including some impressive pirate impressions from Rosie. Maxine showed us her new watch (thanks Primeday!) and Sarah, having the same watch and an IT background, was unable to answer the syncing question! Alex was modeling her nice new red T-shirt.

After plenty of deck scrubbing we headed up the road to the Naomi House shop. We arrived at the exact same time as the walkers, it's almost like we plan these things!

We haven't been up to the shop on a Wednesday for two whole months and the donations pen was full so we had plenty to get on with. There were some lovely fancy dress outfits this evening as well as a vintage St Micheal carrier bag with an outfit that wouldn't have looked out of place in Dallas or Dynasty. Sam unearthed a mankini among the donations - I wonder who will buy that!

Angela found some wings but that wasn't how she broke the ceiling... that was when we were filling up the "sorted" pen and it went very high, not knowing her own strength she threw a bag on top of the pile and cracked a ceiling tile in the process! Oops.

We stayed a bit over our time tonight so it was a quick run back, stretch outside the centre and then room emptying!

Don't forget there's an opportunity for good deeds on Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon this weekend. Next week we're off to St Swithun's school - could be painting or gardening so don't wear your best kit!