Celebrating GoodGym turning 10 years old by running to help our friends at the Global Gardens Project and St. John's Gardens, and then heading over The Stables for Pizza and a pint!

Another GoodGym run which means another good deed for everyone who attended tonight's run! First and foremost, give applause, salute, cheer, clap, scream, do whatever you feel like doing to celebrate MIKEY OWENS REACHING 200 GOOD DEEDS. Mikey said "I have been dreaming of this moment since coming along to my first ever GoodGym run, and now it really is a dream come true. I encourage everyone else to reach 200 good deeds so you can as awesome as I feel." To celebrate this milestone, Mikey was presented with a balloon and a cape to run in with #GG10Hero written on the back... It's safe to say, not all heroes wear capes... but tonight Mikey does!

We also gave a HUGE CHEER TO JAYNE. Jayne was attended GoodGym for the first time. It was so lovely to meet you Jayne and we would love for you to come back again for a run and become part of the GG family :)

A huge welcome back to Mali who has returned returned to GoodGym Cardiff following the summer break. Mali recently broke 45 minutes at the Cardiff 10K!

Two Task Tuesday - WOOP WOOP

This Tuesday runners were given the option of joining Welsh Dave on a run to St. John's Park which would be a shorter run OR running to the Global Gardens Project which Ben was leading that would be a longer and probably quicker paced run - Offering these two different tasks helps make our runs accessible to individuals of all abilities, something we are extremely proud of doing and want to continue long into the future.

Let's go!

Our warm up consisted of a run to Cardiff Castle. GoodGym is turning 10 years old and to mark this occasion we thought it would be fitting to get a photo of our new flag in front of Wales' most iconic landmarks, Cardiff Castle!

After having a group photo and seeing Mikey's celebratory 200 balloon float off into the heavens, we split off and went our separate ways, the direction we went in depended on the task we planned to help.

Helping Poppy at the Global Gardens Project

Ben led runners to the Global Gardens Project, planking and doing sprint drills so that everyone could stick together. When we arrived at the allotment Poppy was waiting there for us with the tools laid out ready and a large bottle of water on the table so we can rehydrate.

Poppy split us into teams.

• The weeders - A strong team of professional GoodGym weeders.
• The waterers - watered the plants to make sure they could still thrive even in hot temperatures. Those watering the plants and holding their jugs to do this were Ellen, Lucy and Peter.
• The soil tuners - Mr 200 good deeds and Lewis who loves to pose with a gardening tool took on this challenge
• Woodchip movers - Martin and Meg worked as a team to shift woodchip into wheelbarrows and empty them by where the weeders were, guess what... weeding!

It was a fantastic, tiring and fun 30 minutes that we spent helping out. Poppy was so pleased with what we managed to achieve in this time. Fortunately though, we completed the tasks we were set and nobody was hurt despite the spontaneous falling apples from the apple tree.

A Welsh Dave run to help out at St John's Gardens which are managed by For Cardiff

A task which would not have been possible without the assistance of fellow runner, Emily - Thank you so much! Emily is a keyholder that enabled us to access the gardens located in central Cardiff. Welsh Dave led the run to the gardens where runners litter picked and cleaned the public benches. They absolutely smashed the task, getting the gardens cleaned in record time and then went to do sprint drills by the Millennium Stadium! They even found the time to plog around Cardiff Centre - Wow - You're definitely going to sleep well tonight!

Well done everyone who attended the GoodGym run this evening and attended the 10 years of GoodGym Party afterwards too

After the run we headed over to The Stables where we celebrated 10 years of GoodGym in style, with a drink and a pizza... Nom Nom Nom! There was a wonderful thought provoking quiz made by Emma, Nathan and Sophie. Thank you for arranging this guys.

Don't forget... Emma Wilkins is collecting the £5 deposits for the GoodGym Cardiff Christmas Party taking place on the 14th December 2019- Click here for all the info Over 15 people have given their deposits in so far!

The Tweet Off

One of the most fierce competitions since Twitter began continued this evening, the Tweet Off. Marie destroyed the competition, retweeting first and leaving everyone in the dust. There are approximately 12 tweet offs left until the Christmas Party when the winner will be announced - Good luck!

• LM 10
• EW 5
• MO 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

In the words of Alan Partridge, "AHA!" Tonight there were a whopping 25 runners at GoodGym

We're getting an amazing number of runners now every week - Isn't it great? Tonight we had 3 new runners! A HUMONGOUS welcome to GoodGym Daisy, Lauren and Karin. It was so lovely to meet you and we hope to see you at another GoodGym run soon. AND, before I forget, Karin was brought along to GoodGym by Sara and Lauren was brought along by Nathan. This means Nathan and Sara both got a red lace #LIFE GOALS #RunFasterWithARedLace #MakeSureYouGetItInsured

To warm up we played a game of Stuck in the dance. This game evolves busting some moves like you would on Mill Lane on a Saturday night, or like Mrs Doubtfire. We then played a game of In The River, On The Shore. Lewis was in charge of spotting whether people didn't make it to the shore / in the river in time.

What else is worth of a mention?

• A huge round of applause to Lowri and Adam who both took part in Barry 10k - They wore their GoodGym tops and boy did they look good!
• Ellen and Mikey completed a mission run to help an older person - You are A-MAZ-ING!
• A number of you took part in Parkrun this week too - Great work!

Get into your group peeps

We ran to the task in 3 groups tonight;

1.) The Speedy Group - Led by Mikey, this group runs at the speed of light (factually incorrect, but it sounds cool - they actually run pretty quickly though)

2.) The Sexy Group - Led by Ben, this group runs whilst being mindful to their running form. A more graceful pace.

3.) The Pacer Group - Led by Ellen, running at a slower speed to appreciate Cardiff's views and to have a good ol' chin wag .

Before setting off everyone was reminded to set their Strava's and Run Keepers so that the distance they run is captured on their running app (Not everyone has running apps though, so no pressure if you want to come to GoodGym and don't track your running).

We've made it to Grangetown Gardens

It wasn't long before we all arrived at the Gardens. Lorna from Keep Wales Tidy was there ready to welcome us surrounded by litter picking equipment. With all of the equipment Lorna had ready for us it looked like we were about to go for war against the litter... It was, GoodGym Cardiff vs. The litter of Grangetown... and we were notgoing to lose.

Ben challenged everyone to find the most interesting pieces of litter during the litter pick. With the challenge set, the competition had begun. Who on earth found what?! Well...

• Ellen found a Dora the Explorer game
• Emily found half a shopping trolley, a piece of bread and pink laughing gas - haha very funny... no, she really did!
• Emma found an empty energy can
• Lucy found a magnum stick
• Darren collected 107 cigarette butts - Well done butt!
• Marie found a Gregs coffee cup

After 25 minutes collecting litter and making ground breaking discoveries like the ones listed above, the task was over. Everyone began making their way back to where Lorna was waiting for us for our weekly group photo - obviously 1 of these photos includes having our hands in the air - Daisy, Karin and Lauren appeared proud with their litter picking performance on their first ever GoodGym run. Nathan did look very proud of Lauren too, and at the fact he now owns a red lace!

Thank you GoodGym for coming to help out Keep Wales Tidy this evening - It was lovely to see you all again and I look forward to seeing you in the not too distant future.

13 bags of litter! Who would've thought it. It really shows what can be achieved when a group of awesome GoodGym runners get stuck in.

We headed back as one group. We did step ups to allow runners to catch up who were further behind and we also had a go at bounding.

Click here to see a video of bounding in action

When we arrived at Big Moose we spent time stretching to warm down and reflected on the evening's run.

We then headed over to the Glassworks for drinkypoos and for the weekly tweet off.

The Tweet Off

Marie's incessant reading of 'How to win a tweet off' is paying off. She now has 4 points on the tweet off leader board over 4 consecutive weeks - They are going to be writing books about this someday. Tune in next week to see whether she makes it 5 weeks in a row.

• LM 9
• MO 4
• MG 3
• DRN 3
• EW 3
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1