Following a fabulous weekend filled with GoodGym Community Missions and Parties, the vibe was positive and upbeat last night with lots of chatting and laughter amongst GG'ers. Good friendships are starting to form now, with some GG'ers finishing off conversations that they had started the previous week. Considering that we only launched 4 months ago, with many GG'ers not knowing each other, it just shows you how welcoming the group is; that anyone of any ability is welcome at GoodGym Swindon, as long as they can run a little bit and chat at the same time! A big Christmas thank you must go to the Volunteer Run Leaders for making this all happen; for their continued enthusiasm and commitment to GG. There are three Run Leaders; The Scientist, Crazy Legs and currently injured but back in the New Year, Back Marker Bird, who I very much look forward to working with again in 2019, to make GG Swindon bigger and better (if that's possible?!). My aim for the New Year is to establish a Task Force; to support the Run Leaders and ease the pressure . There is lots to do and think about when organising a Group Run, so if you're keen to help out and you have completed 10 Good Deeds, then please do consider joining the Task Force. It is guaranteed to be rewarding and FUN of course! A little bird told me last night that Mike is part-way through the Task Force online 'training'...! I do hope so!

So, what happened last night? Well, we had a big turn out, with 17 GG'ers helping out at Pinetrees Community Centre to help wrap and pack Christmas Giving Boxes. It was good to see a new face; Lynette who is a friend of Sharon, the owner of four horses and has recently finished couch to 5K. It was also good to see Lily again, who hasn't been seen since October. Lily has been missed! And it was good to hear that the lovely Helen is now Mission Verified. Wonderful! Let's bring on those Mission and Coach Runs in 2019?

I have to say that the Icebreaker during the pre-run briefing was fun last; GG'ers were asked what their first jobs were? Sam ate a lot of cake; Andrew had a paper round; Richard worked in a shoe shop in Stevenage; and, Stuart (number 13) was paid less than 50p per hour to read 'adult' magazines all day (!) What a mix!

When we arrived at Pinetrees, we were met by the lovely Bernice Mack, Community Assets Manager for Central Swindon North Parish Council. She had our cardboard boxes made up ready to be wrapped and filled by GG Swindon! Birthday Girl Alethia, Jenny (who had been child minding all day and was keen to join us last night for 'a break') and head cold Tracey all decided to meet us at the task, not able to run for various reasons. It was good to have the extra pairs of hands as there were a lot of boxes to be wrapped and filled; the only dilemma was the lack of 'sticky back plastic', but this was soon overcome thanks to a 'sticky back plastic station' on the top of the cafe counter (thanks Stuart!). With GG'ers working in small teams to wrap the boxes in Christmas paper, it soon became apparent who was more skilled at this job (Kay) and who needed some extra guidance (I'm not naming any names here)! Some great team work meant that this job was finished in no time at all, giving us an opportunity to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Alethia while we waited for Bernice to deliver the food items. By this stage, everyone started to feel hungry, particularly as there was a discussion about the Lemon Drizzle cake that Alethia had made that day. I could see Crazy Legs eyes WIDEN with thoughts of CAKE! Unfortunately there was no cake on offer when the food was brought from upstairs to downstairs, but...

...a mountain of mackerel, boxes of biscuits and packets of pasta instead!

There was a production line going on with Tracy and I at the end deciding on which box deserved the luxury chocolates?! What a decision! And what fun we had that evening. A very rewarding task knowing that we have helped so many in the local community receive a hamper this Christmas. But the night was not yet over; we had to run back to the Oasis of course. And we had one of Crazy Leg's drills to look forward to in the BMX park! And what a workout that was! Charles did mention that Crazy Legs likes to do this with her Run Along Gang, that she likes 'breaking' people! We will all feel it tomorrow that's for sure!

So, what's happening in the next few weeks?

• Christmas and New Year! There will be NO GROUP RUN on Tuesday 25th December or Tuesday 1st January. Still feel like running on New Years Day? Then why not pop along to Swindon parkrun at Lydiard Park at 10:30am that day for your running fix followed by a post-run coffee in the Forest Cafe? New to parkrun? It's a free, timed 5km sociable run; you just need to register and print out a barcode beforehand. For more information, please visit the Swindon parkrun website

• Our last Community Mission before Christmas is tomorrow at 6pm, Darkroom Espresso. The Scientist needs your help to set up a Christmas Party for the City of Sanctuary. Don't forget that you don't need a DBS check and you don't have to run to a Community Mission, although running at any time is recommended! Interested? Click here for more info and to sign up!

• Our final Group Run before Christmas is next Tuesday at the usual time and place. We will be running to the Gateway Church in Westlea to help sort toys; what a great task to look forward to ahead of the Big Day?! Christmas fancy dress is highly recommended next week so don't forget your santa hats (Helen?), your fat Santa suits (Emily?) or your Christmas jumper (Richard?!). It's going to be FUN so make sure you don't miss out by signing up today!

• Our first Group Run of 2019 will be on Tuesday 8th January; we will be heading to Swindon Advocacy Movement (SAM) to help with their office move. Why not bring a friend, perhaps someone whose New Years Resolution is to 'get fit', 'lose weight' or to simply 'have fun at GoodGym?!' Don't delay; click here to sign up today! We want 2019 to be a spectacular year for GoodGym Swindon!

• Finally, please consider using Strava when you're exercising; you can connect whether you are running, walking, cycling or even 'working out' in the gym. We can then all give you a great big cheer after your workout and it will also help you to earn some GoodGym badges!

Today 24 GoodGymers ran 2k to the Swindon NightShelter where we sorted food donations for distribution across Swindon’s charities. GoodGym Swindon’s 10th task and the largest turn out since the GG launch! The group was a great mix of regulars and first timers, the GoodGym word is still spreading!

A vegetable themed intro now means at least one GoodGymer has a new nickname; Mr Potato 😂

Not a long run today and in a flash we were at the NightShelter! Steve taking in back marker duties. Karen met us and gave us a run down of the tasks; supermarket crate sorting, food sorting, van loading and van driving.

In a supermarket sweep the empty crates were sorted, loaded and trolled off to the van. Mr Van Can Stuart took on driving duties. Pump Trolly Daniel on angry loading duties 😂

O crate I now need to find a pun for the food sorting....! It turniped out we were wheely good at it!! All the tasks were wrapped up and done in record time - a perfect example of why GoodGym is so effective and brilliant at this sort of thing!

A big thank you from Karen and back to the Oasis! Plenty of time in hand, what to do? Maybe an early finish and home for dinner? O no! It was time for a beasting and Crazy Legs’ 10 x 10 celebratory 10th task work out 😂

If someone had told you, you’d be blasting out 550 exercise reps today, would you have believed that?! Well you totally did - awesome work (and good luck with walking). Tomorrow everyone will be wobbly Mr Potato 😂

We don’t need Hippo-crates or So-crates to think we did a good task - we totally know we GoodGym smashed it ❤

Next week we will be plogging in Pinehurst with Paul (!); litter picking around Pinetrees Community Centre and the Circle. Please come and join us! Click here for all the details and to sign up.

GoodGym Swindon welcomed four fabulous new runners last night; Dan (from Oxford), Darren, Jenny and Jon. Thank you for joining us; it was great to chat to you all (I just hope the run up THAT hill didn't put you off at all)?! I promise our runs won't always include such a steep incline, but everyone knows that the only way to get into Old Town is up some sort of hill?! And we must also remember that the task was at Christ Church, kindly nicknamed by locals as the 'Old Lady on the Hill'. On the plus side, where there's an up there a down, and everyone seemed to enjoy running down THAT hill after the task.

So we started the evening gathered together in a circle outside the front doors of the Oasis Leisure Centre, sharing our names and favourite subjects at school as a mini icebreaker and headcount (I'm really keen to speak with those of you who loved English at school; how about writing these Run Reports occasionally?!) There were 18 of us. We were going to get a lot of weeding done tonight! Keen to get going, everyone waited patiently for me to work out where the Strava App was on my watch and thankfully after a minor delay (!) we were away!

With myself as Run Leader and Lewis 'Backmarker' Bird (please note the recent change in nickname) at the rear, we ensured that no one was left behind on the journey from the Oasis to Christ Church. I was impressed with Richard's ability to talk AND run up THAT hill. I asked him afterwards how he manages to keep a decent conversation going while under such physical pressure. Apparently it's not just about fitness; it's part of his job. He loves talking to people; Richard will talk to anyone at any time anywhere! This is what we love about GoodGym; it's fun and social and not just about running. We get to have a bit of a laugh, while getting a little bit fitter. It's great!

It had been pre-arranged that Gareth Bailey from BBC Wiltshire was going to join us that night and that we were to meet him outside the radio station, which also happens to be at the top of THAT hill (also named as Victoria Road by local residents). What we didn't realise was that he was going to film us trying to run up it. Now, that was funny. A few of us did try and smile, wave and make the whole thing seem a breeze (when in reality it wasn't), before turning left onto Union Row welcoming the short downward incline to the front gates of Christ Church. We then gathered together on the driveway (I did notice at that point how many of you are now wearing red GoodGym t-shirts, which is absolutely brilliant) and after a short recovery, the wonderful Rev'd Simon Stevenette (Vicar of Christ Church and ultra keen runner) met us with open arms and led us to the beauty of the Rose Garden.

We spent 45-minutes in the rose garden, weeding, clearing, chatting and laughing while being interviewed and filmed by multi-tasking Gareth. We were lucky enough to be there for the bellringing as well and apparently Christ Church has some of the finest bells in the country with ten bells in total. I was told this last week while litter picking with the wonderful Teresa who unfortunately couldn't make it to Christ Church last night, but whose local knowledge was greatly received. Once our time was up, we had a group photo, cleared away our tools, thanked Simon for hosting us, and then set off down THAT hill to Queens Park (with Gareth somehow managing to film us while running backwards?!) for a short exercise session on the grass (set the previous week by Drill Master Emily 'Crazy Legs'. Pyramid training is apparently the way to go in terms of improving stamina and fitness? I hope you all enjoyed it?!

Once the exercise was over, we sped off, past the geese and swans and interesting smell (?!) through the park to the streets of Swindon Town Centre. We reached the Oasis in no time at all ending with a little bit of stretching and a cuppa in Coffee Corner. What a fabulous evening. Please join us again next week. We will be heading to Toothill Farmhouse for some much-needed painting and gardening with super friendly Paul Bonner.