On an overcast evening in Bath, 12 fantastic runners ran a total 6km to improve Alice Park Community Garden.

The garden is a volunteer-lead community space where anyone can get involved growing and enjoying fruit and veg. We did some essential weeding, watering, pruning and tidying to keep this wonderful community space welcoming and usable.

Welcome Moira!

We welcomed Moira along for her first run with GoodGym and presented Pascale with some wings to wear to mark the massive achievement of completing 100 good deeds! After a brisk warmup and a group headcount, we got underway on a route that took us along the beautiful canal path in Bath. Always keen to be even more active, we paused at a few points and did some squats as a group. Right on schedule, we met our wonderful host Kathy at the gardens and she outlined our tasks for evening.

Digging deep

Emily and Pascale did a great job using their spades to turn some compost. We learnt how this helps the compost break down faster as it gets more air to the soil. They also found some nasturium plants and had a light refreshment of a few petals to keep their energy up!

A dam(so)n good job

Catrin, Emma and Bee did a wonderful job picking a big basket of damsons from the trees. The damson trees were ripe for plucking and we made sure we got a good bunch of them (and tried a sample or two!). The group also gave some other trees and bushes a well-needed watering.

No rakegrets

Rob and Moira were kept busy clearing the pathways by raking up some recently cut hedge trimmings. There was a lot to clear up, but awesome teamwork and GoodGym spirit helped them power through.

A weedy good job

Joe, Oliver, Steve were busy cleaning away some pesky bindweed from the beds where the damson trees live. They did a great job removing the weeds and giving the plants a thorough watering.

Where there's a willow there's a way!

Dan used his legs of steel to help deadlift a grill that covered the surface of a pond so we could turn the willow reeds that have been soaking in it. By turning it, the willow can properly absorb more water and soon it can be used at a 'willow weaving' class held at the garden.

Kathy was impressed by the work that the GoodGym group accomplished and rewarded us with some freshly-grown raspberries and plums. We kept our energy levels high for the run back with these sugary treats.

Thank you to Emma for being our back-marker this week and for Joe, the pun master, for this week's pun.

Next week we are heading out to Action On Hearing Loss in Twerton. We have lots of tasks planned to help keep the grounds tidy, clean and safe. Sign up now to let us know you will be there!

Welcome to Sandy and Katie, who joined us for their very first GoodGym runs this evening!

After a quick headcount and a run through of everyone's favourite food (Dan's mixed grill seemed to garner the most murmurs of approval) we warmed up and made our way down to the river. We had a lovely short, flat run to St. John's Court, where our host, Chris, was waiting to greet us.

St. John's Court are in the middle of an upgrade to their outdoor area in order to make it a safer and more pleasant space for their residents. This evening we were tasked with giving the outdoor furniture a new lease of life with some sanding and painting. There were plenty of chairs, tables and paintbrushes for everyone to get stuck straight in. Chris kindly provided squash for everyone - what a treat!

The chairs and tables looked so great when we were done that some of the residents came out to thank us for our hard work. But our work doesn't stop here! Join us again next week when we'll be going back to do a second coat.

Given the short run and cooler evening air, we took the opportunity to do some fitness exercises in the beautiful Sydney Gardens on our way back to the ranch.

Thank you everyone for your amazing painting efforts tonight, and to Mary for some stellar back-marking!

This was my last group run as trainer at Goodgym Bath. A great turn out with 29 runners coming along from Bath and Bristol to send me on my way but first we have some flyers to pop through letter boxes  for Bathscape promoting the Bath Walking Festival taking place in September, maybe you would like to get involved http://www.bathscapewalkingfestival.co.uk/

Welcome to John tonight and Valeria who came all the way from Mexico to be with us, they certainly picked a crazy night to come along.

Thanks to GG Brizzle for coming along this evening, love you guys ❤️

I was instructed by Steve to head outside first and wait by the river and was soon joined by lots more Steph’s....Hahaha!! Now that was a sight for sore eyes 👀 The chuckle brothers arrived in their matching Bucharest vests now that’s the Steph nightmares are made of. I'm sure Steve enjoyed gouging out my eyes 

All masked up so off we go into the deepest darkest depths of Widcombe armed with 200 flyers, this wasn’t going to take long so it seemed only fair to spread those letter boxes out in places giving those who wanted chance for a little sprint with Matt being chief torch bearer, Pascale was herding everyone in from the rear making sure there was no escaping. The next task was to find a box to put Jack in and there just happened to be one at the bottom of Widcombe hill although he needed a little Gary style tuition to master the jump, poor guy must dread seeing me in the vicinity of a Box of any description or he secretly enjoys every moment.

TIMES UP FOLKS

The pub is calling us for a celebratory drink and GG Bath update........ My Show is Over but the show must go on as Freddie would say after 176 group runs since we launched in Bath. I'm all flyered out, I had a whole lot of loving for a handful of Runners

The Boater seemed like a perfectly located drinking hole for an update, Emma and Pascale will be looking after you all throughout August and it’s hoped GG HQ will come up with a way forward from September, so I truly hope everyone is kept in the loop, we’ve worked hard to get where we are with such a great team in Bath including our community hosts and let’s not forget B&NES Council who made it all possible in the first instance...Thank you!!!

I managed to fight back the tears 😭 during a very unexpected presentation of fine Gin and Crystal drinking vessel engraved with Lady Bath all topped off with a fabulous homemade masterpiece of a cake baked by our very talented vet Nicola...Yummy!! I even got to slice Lydia down the middle and eat her 😂 Clean Mary was definitely missed tonight but someone’s gotta keep the country ticking over.

The pun needed to be the best of the best in the west for my final group run as leader of this wonderful pack of people and GG Bristol’s Jack came up with a paronomasia to top them all.

I would like to Thank Everyone for making the last 3 years so enjoyable from runners to task hosts, I love you all dearly.

With better weather than we've had for the last few runs enticing people back into the great outdoors, we had a whopping 17 runners meeting at Bath Leisure Centre for our two-task Tuesday.

Gin and Tonics all round

We all named our favourite drink during the headcount and, as Steph pointed out, the ladies of the group clearly live much harder lives than the men, as most of them opted for a stiff alcoholic drink, while the gentlemen were happy with a nice cuppa ;)

Welcome to Richard!

With new addition Richard, and a few who were back for their first GG run since Christmas, there was lots of chatting on the first leg of our journey. But the chatter soon turned into heavy breathing when we started our steep ascent up Holloway, followed by an even steeper ascent up Shakespeare Avenue.

It was all worth it for the view

After a quick photo op with the city lights behind us we split into two groups.

The A Team - Lady Bath's team of the fab four - had the job of flyering for Bear Flat Community Market, Send A Cow for Bath Half Marathon, and some GoodGym mission flyers. They left the earth and leaf shifters up at Alexandra Park doing what they do best. The flyer team weaved their way around Junction Road and back to regroup on Bear Flat 35 minutes later and they caught sight of a rather interesting wreath attached to what may have been some student accommodation. It's amazing how many letter boxes you can target in a short space of time whilst having fun on the run.

The rest of the group shifted piles of wet leaves down a slippery hill, and those feeling particularly strong carried a very large, heavy bag from the allottments back to the lovely Virginia's car. There were a few muddy bottoms at the end of it but it's all in day's work! We also got to meet a very cute dog who couldn't quite work out what we were doing so decided to just bark encouragement at us!

It's all downhill from here

A nice downhill run back to the Leisure Centre for some stretching.

Thanks to Mary for back-marking!

See you all next week :)

On a mild but fresh Halloween evening 10 runners took on one of our longest distances to help out at St George’s Hall in Moulescoomb.

Big thanks to Helena for back marking and coming up with the brilliant idea of wearing fairy lights to make herself more visible. It was very useful to be able to look back along the road and see exactly how far away they were, and the ever late Beth (damn those trains!) had a good target to chase down and catch up!

As it was Halloween we chatted about scary situations we’d been in and various fears and phobias as we ran the 4.4km to St George’s hall. Task owner Anke gave us a very warm welcome and we quickly set to work on the task in hand. Martin, Sherman & Helena got stuck in to removing a large, overgrown bush that was making the adjacent alleyway a bit dark and scary. It took a lot of sawing and hacking and cutting & pulling and the job was completed in less than 30 minutes. Elsewhere Juliet & Frances did a grand job of litter picking and everybody else got stuck into reducing the height of the bushes along the front, with Louise going in particularly hard and short!

We saw lots of kids and families out and about wearing Halloween costumes and trick or treating and Anke provided us with some yummy biscuit treats to fuel us for the return run.

We achieved a lot in a short space of time and I’m sure we will be going back in the near future to hack a bit more off those front bushes! On the way back we threw in a few bursts of speed and everybody coped admirably with the longer distance.

Next week our task is right on the doorstep of our start location as we head to the Royal Pavilion Gardens for some tidying and gardening. Expect a nice big fitness session as well!

And as it will be the 1st Tuesday of the month we will be staying on for a drink for our monthly social.