Jess

What a glorious day for a starter run! 14 of us met at the Guildhall, to run 5km and get physical with a great task of clearing the paths at Surbiton Cemetery.

We were very lucky today to welcome 6 new runners - Rush, Zoe, [Nancy]Nancy), Matt, Emily, and John as well as the return of Ruth who we haven't seen in a while - give them all a cheer!

After another groovy warm up guaranteed to get our hands out of our pockets and get us mobilised, we set our stravas and envisaged the hot chocolate we would hunt down on our return into Kingston town centre.

Although cold we ran in the beautiful sunshine , a little different to our regular Tuesday nights in darkness and this made all the difference for the task at hand. When we arrived at the Cemetery we could see what great work had already been achieved by the group a few weeks ago and now we were here to use the light to dig into a overgrown grass verge of the path and clear it so that people can get to the headstones more easily.

We each picked up a shovel or a spade - I'm unsure which is which but which ever one we had they were great at clearing the path. This was some really satisfying work, a great way to get our muscles working and doing a good deed at the same time. Once all the grass and soil were lifted it was time to load up the wheelbarrows with it for a race to get it out of sight to expose a clear and user friendly path.

Great work everyone, such a great team effort!

Hope to see you on a Tuesday night group run - 6.45pm at Main Guildhall or if you cannot make Tuesdays, look out on the website for other runs and good deeds you can get involved in

12 elves met at Guildhall for the final GG Kingston run of the year.

With a ho ho ho and run run reindeer they were off to rock a warm up around the christmas tree

The elves raced santas hat, with Rhian remembering it was Rudolph pulling santas sleigh on a foggy night (much to the delight of everyone else who could finally stop planking!)

Here come's Santa Claus and here comes GG Kingston in their final GoodGym warm up of the year and what a great way to end it! #fitness #running #runninggroup #fun #volunteering #goodgym #kingston #santa #reindeers #christmas pic.twitter.com/yQuAcd8e4o

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) December 18, 2019

After the elves had braved the wintry conditions of Kingston, they arrived at the Grow Baby workshop, where there was just 30 minutes to work their magic.

Growbaby is such a giving charity in our community who since 2003 have been doing so much in the community, donating clothes to families with babies and younger children that are in need. The giving does not stop there as they serve the community in far more ways too so if you would like to know more then check out https://www.kingstonvineyard.co.uk/growbaby/

Spurred on by the glasses of bubbly, they got to work folding mountains of generously donated clothes and sorting into age groups.

As well as sorting baby clothes we were also tasked with cleaning duties and after an initial attempt to clean the windows only made them foggier than a cold december night that not even Rudolph could navigate, we changed our methods leaving them crystal clear.

Armed with brooms, dustpans and henry, we sweeped into action for the final job to leave the hub spick and span.

Back out into the cold we went, with bellies warmed with bubbles and our hearts warmed with the good deed.

We ran, we sorted, we wiped, we swept and we cheered! It was great!

All in all to round off a great year of GoodGym tonight was a thoroughly heart warming task with Grow Baby followed by a good warming drink or two...

On the 12th day of Christmas my goodgym gave to me.... 12 runners running , 1 walker walking and a mince pie dunked in beer!

Ho-ho-hope you all have a very merry Christmas. See you next decade!

Final run of the decade got us rocking around the Christmas tree - Merry Christmas everyone #goodgym #christmas #kingston #market #volunteering #running #runninggroup #doinggood #gooddeeds #elves pic.twitter.com/vaUQLvXrd9

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) December 18, 2019

Report written by everyone, ignore the line below

It’s raining, it’s pouring,

The warm up had us falling.

We ran to Skerne,

And gave the beds a turn,

To stop the weeds from soaring!

It’s raining, it’s pouring,

We wore many a layer for warming.

Picked up some litter,

And got a bit fitter,

It’s always fun Kingston exploring!

It’s raining, it’s pouring

The wind was certainly roaring,

We admired the Xmas lights

And avoided the hill heights,

Tuesdays definitely aren’t boring!

Report written by Martel

and

9 runners were warmed up on the floor planking, walking in and out slapping hands, everything we may have to do painting a floor apparently! Then they were off to SHEDx, project that encompasses a range of activities to activate and engage the local community. At their allotment off the Broadway we were met by the lovely Georgia who gave us the good news that we were allowed to throw some paint on the floor and spread it around - Yippee.

So we started in a line with brushes on the edges and rollers in middle and not one of us got painted in - making it back to the door in good time. A quick wash with festive spirit and a few additional splashes to our running kit will remind us of this great task.

Thanks for having us it was a blast and super to be helping all warm indoors on a chilly night

Thanks too for the lovely treat that awaited us back at base from Councillor Lynne to celebrate all our hard work on tasks done earlier this year - Went down well after all that running this evening!