After so many weeks in lockdown, it was absolutely awesome to be back at the Lighthouse Centre with so many familiar faces - and to meet some new faces for the first time too (a huge welcome to Megan & Victoria). 17 runners made our way from home to the centre - some walked and some ran but we all made our own way there using some form of exercise.

Social distancing rules were observed with some members working on the inside taking boxes down from the loft and another group working outside clearing out two sheds - all tasks that needed doing in order to get the building COVID ready for the people visiting the church again. It really was a team effort and with 17 of us, we really did make a big impact in a short space of time.

As always, we were warmly welcomed by Pastor David and colleague Paul. It was very humbling to hear David tell us that the impact of our help meant that they can now open their doors to serve meals to the homeless sooner than anticipated.

At the end of the evening, we received lovely refreshments (Chocolate is always a winner!) and had a good 'socially distanced' natter. I think we all enjoyed catching up so much that many of us were reluctant to go home!

When we did eventually manage to part company, we all made our way home for a well earned rest.

It really was a fab night and lovely to see everyone again. Here's to many more community missions!! XXX

Kudos

Great to see Heather back tonight after a few weeks away and wow Heather, you made light work of our run this evening – well done!! And well done to everyone for coming out on a cold, dark and damp night. You are all heroes!

Thank You

Huge thanks to Suzanne for becoming the 5th member of the Taskforce. Thanks so much Suzanne! Big thanks tonight to Maurice for being our walk leader once again (which is fabulous as I think he knows the streets of Crewe better than anyone!) and to Nigel and Rose for taking on the role of back markers this evening. And Nigel, thank you for returning the abandoned shopping trolley with me -2 good deeds in one night!!! Thank you to Catherine Cleghorn - Vicar of St. Andrew’s and John the Baptist churches in Crewe – for the hospitality and very warm welcome ;-)

Tonight’s Task

Next week is Shrove Tuesday and not being one to let an occasion pass us by, this week's warm up obviously had to involve pancakes!! Sadly there was no eating of said pancakes, just racing with them in a pan and flipping them!!! A totally normal way to warm up for a run – well in Crewe at least!! It turns out that we have some pretty awesome pancake flippers in our midst (me not being one of them!!!). Roll on next Tuesday when you can put your freshly honed skills to good use again with the real deal!!

We set off on our task, winding our way through some of the busiest streets in Crewe. Our walkers had set off a little earlier – could we beat them?!! Once again, we were super blessed with dry weather – although Lauren didn’t manage to stay dry for long after stepping in a big puddle and totally submerging her foot!! Oops!!

Tonight, our task was delivering leaflets for a newly launched youth club – something that the area is desperately crying out for and has been organised by the local churches and members of our community. Upon our arrival at the church, it was clear that the walkers must have stormed rather than ambled because they looked like they’d been there for hours! Juice and biscuits had been generously laid on for us but my personal highlight of the evening was when Sophie asked if it would be ok use the loo and was greeted by a response of ‘are you scared of spiders?’, to which Sophie replied, ‘No’. And a truly good job that Sophie ISN’T afraid, as there was a whole congregation of spiders hanging out in the church loos apparently!!

We left the church, armed with leaflets and good spirits, sometimes running, sometimes walking and covering many more streets and roads of Crewe and managing to deliver every single leaflet!! Yep, every single one!! A brilliant achievement. Well done everyone!! Awesome team work.

We headed back to base and ended our evening with GoodGym Crewe’s very own attempt at a human shaped heart – I think it’s fair to say that it needs work!!!

I know I said it last week but I’m going to say it again - Thank you for making my Wednesday evenings so wonderful and for making Crewe a better place to live. It's always an absolute pleasure.

Hope to see you all next week! Have a fab weekend everyone!

Stay safe, Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

*** Welcome ***

We welcomed 3 new GoodGym runners this evening -** Emma S, Sophie and Emma T**. It was really lovely to meet you all. We hope you had a great time on your first run and hope to see you back again soon (complete with red t-shirt of course!).

**** Kudos*** Huge kudos to Phil who ran his second half marathon in just two weeks - all part of his challenge to himself to run a half marathon every month. Good luck Phil! Also, huge Kudos to Louise, Karl and Emma T who are doing the parkrun alphabet challenge and this week visited Jersey! That's some commitment! Well done guys!

*** The Task *** Well, the weather gods were on our side once again (how lucky are we?!!!). Tonight it was cool but dry and the perfect weather for a run. We started our night with a cone relay! Team 2 just pipped Team 1 to the post by a whisker - which was quite an achievement considering Phil on team 2 tried to turn over the opposition's cones!!! With our heart rates raised, we set off on our run to the Lighthouse Centre where our task was to help to sort a new batch of clothes for the homeless. Some eager volunteers (who clearly have a head for heights) climbed into the attic without hesitation where they began passing down the contents to be sorted. We spent the evening sorting through bags and boxes and redistributing other items to various places. Once we'd done all the sorting, we passed everything back up into the attic. I think the pictures show how much we achieved tonight. As they say, many hands make light work! David from the Lighthouse Centre was extremely grateful for the work we did and said that it would have taken them at least a day to do what we did in just 40 minutes!.

Once our work was done, we were offered a nice warm cup of tea. That went down a treat - especially on such a cool night - although I'm not sure how well received it was during the run home!

Huge thanks go to Barry & Pam for once again volunteering to be back-markers and ensuring nobody was left behind. You're superstars, thank you!

Not only did we do an awesome task tonight but we learnt something too! What rhymes with silver guys? Can you remember? Greg, you are the oracle! Thank you!

*** Dates*** Next week's task is to be confirmed - watch this space.

Parkrun Takeover this coming Saturday (9th November). Meet you near the finish funnel at 8.30 am. Don't forget to wear your GoodGym T-shirts! And if you haven't got your name down yet, you can do that by signing up to the event on the GoodGym website - www.goodgm.org

Have a great week everyone and keep being awesome!

Oodles of love,

23 Volunteers (including one slightly nervous Trainer) were super excited for the launch of GoodGym Crewe tonight!!

Runners & Walkers gathered at the (lovely & warm) Town Council offices in the Town Centre in anticipation of the very first run for GoodGym Crewe. We were extremely lucky to have the Mayor of Cheshire East, Barry Burkhill in attendance, along with Mayor of Crewe Town Council, Benn Minshall and Councillor Jill Rhodes. We really appreciate you taking the time to join us on this very special evening.

Wall of Honour

• A huge shout out to John Putt who completed the Berlin Marathon on Sunday in spite of an ongoing injury. John, you are an inspiration!
• Mega Kudos to everyone who came and completed their first GoodGym run tonight (which was pretty much everyone!!) and in particular, to those who really pushed themselves out of their running comfort zones.

And We're Off We started the evening with a warm up on the green of the lovely Christchurch right next to our start location. Everyone had a laugh at Nicola's expense when she realised she couldn't work out which way was clockwise!! We then headed off to our task with John & Rich leading the walkers and Nicola & Ed leading and back marking the runners. We were blessed with wonderful weather and were lucky enough to see a beautiful sunset as we ran through the streets.

The task in hand was to clean up the front of Ruskin Community High School as well as the pavements along the road outside the school. With all hands to the pump, shovels and rakes at the ready, we cleared the moss, swept the leaves, unblocked the drains and picked litter. The greatest haul of all on the litter pick was a pair of trainers found by Jazz - we left those on the wall with the hope of sparing a student a stern telling off from his or her parents!!! Everyone did a sterling job and the team work and camaraderie was a delight to see. When it came to clearing away the rubbish, John pulled it out of the bag with his Spiderman impression ;-)

We finished the task with a short fitness session (counting in 3 different languages while we did - you're impressed, I can tell!) before we headed back to base for our cool down. I think it's fair to say that a great night was had by all.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone that has made GoodGym Crewe Possible. We are thrilled to be at the start of this incredible journey and look forward to many more successful and fun Group Runs.

Next Week We hope you can join us for next week's task when we will be working with the Lighthouse Centre sorting clothes for the homeless. Many hands make light work......

Have a great weekend everyone.

Nicola X