This evening 22 GoodGym runners ran to the STAR hub in Tremorfa to litter pick the surrounding area and clean the windows!

5 days after St. Davids Day we are still being reminded of what Wales is notorious for... blooming rain! Yes, this evening it was like all of the water in the world was being unleashed on Cardiff... In fact, I am surprised we weren't running alongside dolphins, crocodiles and sea turtles down Queen Street. Anyway! Spring is fast approaching and we are keeping our fingers crossed for some better weather, that's for sure.

Let's get warmed up!

• Fish and Chips - Ahh yes, that game when you actually burn more calories contrary to what you'd expect from the name; Runners would jog around and then when I said Go they would find a partner and say either "fish" or "chips". If they said the same they would do squat jumps and if they said different they would do star jumps.
• In the Race / Over the line - A metal grill in the middle of the road divided one side from the other. One side was ' In the race' and the other was 'Over the line'. When I shouted Over the line runners had to be on the Over the line side and when I said In the race they had to be the other side. If they were last or made an error then they were out and had to do star jumps until 2 were left in.

Headcount and HUGE welcomes!

Goodness gracious Grandmpa Gerome! Would you believe it? We had TWO amazing new runners come along to GoodGym tonight - A MASSIVE welcome (Shwmare!) to Claire and Mali. You were both absolutely fabulous company to run with this evening and we hope you enjoyed yourselves. It was also beyond lovely to have Lorena back running with us. Lorena ran with us until the end of last year before she moved away from Cardiff and she is now back visiting and seeing her was such a treat.

Influential Women of the World

This week our run marked International Women's Day (It is this Friday!). First and foremost, i'd like to take this opportunity to say that ALL of the women who attend GoodGym are incredible and I am proud to run alongside everyone of you every week. Part of the headcount also comprised of naming other influential women in the world, here were a few that were mentioned;

• Mother Theresa
• Michelle Obama
• Marie Curie
• Princess Diana
• The Queen
• Jo Pavey
• Runner's mums/grandmothers

Click here to read about other influential women in the world

Time to run to the STAR hub in Tremorfa

Time was against us as the clock was ticking so we had to get a move on. Mikey led the run to the STAR hub and the amazing Aimee G backmarked the crew. Trainer B (Ben), still resting his injured leg, led the walking group this evening.

"Welcome GoodGym to the STAR Hub!" The staff at the STAR Hub welcomed us all in. We armed ourselves with litter pickers and cleaning implements to clean the windows! It felt like we were going into battle, it was us vs. the litter and windows and they didn't stand a chance!

The most common piece of litter found was laughing gas! Honestly... you don't need that stuff when you run with GoodGym, our jokes and humour is so good that laughs just come naturally!

Influential Women Quiz - Created by Emma!

Before running back to Cardiff City Centre we couldn't leave the hub without doing a quick quiz ... The quiz highlighted women's achievements in the sporting world to date. Everyone was given two options, either A or B. If they thought it was A they had to squat, and if they thought it was B they had to lunge - Even the staff working at the Hub got involved!!

It's now time to run back... :(

Sadly our time helping at the Hub had come to an end. Mikey led the run back whilst Martin backmarked.

Thank you everyone who came to GoodGym this evening, especially all of the women as research has found that women are less likely to engage in sport and you are counting for the numbers that do!

After the run we all headed to 'The Stable' for food and drinks... and no it wasn't a horses stable or the stable in Bethlehem where Jesus was allegedly born... We went to the restaurant in Cardiff called The Stable!

Getting fit and doing good. GoodGym Cardiff shows their artistic skills painting at St Alban’s Primary School

What a fantastic run we had tonight, and here is the low down

With Big Moose still closed we met at the Run and Become store on St Mary’s Street. Chitika is the manager at the Run and Become store and every week she welcomes us in with a smile. She asks what good deeds we are going to carry out and wishes us all an enjoyable run - It's so nice that we are made to feel welcome.

Tonight’s run was kind of special, why? Because we had 4 new runners come along to GoodGym this evening! Nabeel, Louise, Caterina and Sarah. It was fantastic to have you come along and we hope you run with us again (As Yoga was taking place downstairs, we hope you appreciated our silent theatrical cheers that welcomed you to your first GoodGym run).

We headed outside for a quick warm up, jogging, doing high knees and butt kicks at different paces. We then split into two groups to run to the evening's task. Ellen led the sexy runners and Ben led the speedy runners (I still like to think of ourselves as sexy runners too, though :))

Ben put the speedy runners through their paces. The run there consisted of interval sprints (to everyone’s delight… or maybe no ones… muahahah). Ben also then spoke about the energy system that was being worked on by the sprints and demonstrated correct running form to maximise efficiency. Then, after a few sprints and a few wrong turns, we finally made it to St Alban’s Primary School!

Welcome back GoodGym!

Rachel greeted us with a warm smile. She thanked us for coming back again to help out and told us about the wonderful primary school that she is headteacher at, St Alban’s Primary School. Rachel told us that our task tonight would be to paint the portacabin inside walls cream. The portacabin will be used as a wellbeing/nurture space to help support children at the school. A select few runners also took on a separate task which consisted of moving tyres to make an outdoor racing track for the school children to use on their bikes - How exciting!

After hearing about the school and the tasks we would be carrying out this evening we couldn’t wait to get stuck in. Andrew became lead photographer and began taking photos of runners carrying out the task. Ellen got immersed into painting (Very glad you didn't try to lick the paint brush this time!). Caterina got some paint on her running leggings... talk about getting stuck in!... We hope it comes out in the wash.

There was silence… A rare moment in GoodGym history was made. Everyone was concentrating so hard at the task at hand that they forgot that could talk with one another! Ben then set them all a challenge. He said…

There is a rule in English Grammer, I before E except after C, however this is not always the case, can you think of any words that break this rule?

Immediately Rosie bellowed “Concierge” – An epic input from Rosie. “Science” followed Peter… It was now neck and neck… No further suggestions were made so Peter and Rosie both won the evening’s challenge!! Well done both!!

With only minutes to spare, and in a last ditch attempt to get the task near completion, everyone's painting speed sped up! Peter set the sand timer to 1 minute and before we knew it the task was over.

Thank you all so much for your help

We had a quick group photo and said our goodbyes. Ellen then led the run back with Emma backmarking. We had to get back quickly as the run finishes at 8... On the way back we spoke to one another about how good we felt for helping out at the school.

Well done everyone who came running tonight! I can imagine the children’s faces tomorrow when they see their new racing track and their nurture classroom freshly painted; they will definitely think it is really cool that a group of runners came along to help at their school overnight.

This evening 20 GoodGym runners ran in defiance of the challenging weather conditions to make a positive difference in the Cardiff Community… Keep reading to find out how they got on.

Intro!

This run report could not begin without giving a HUGE thank you to Run and Become. Run and Become have allowed us, whilst Big Moose is temporarily closed, to meet in the shop and store bags there whilst we are out running. The shop is a specialist running store, with friendly staff who are able to provide expert advice about running gear and able to help point you in the right direction when you are looking for your next pair of running shoes. Click here to be go to the Run and Become Cardiff website

Time for the headcount

We did our headcount at 6.25pm in the shop and some of the runners also spoke about missions they had taken part in over the weekend. Well done Emma, Mikey, Amy and Aimee who all helped out older people in Cardiff with tasks they are no longer able to do themselves. See photos of them doing the tasks by clicking here. We also welcomed Sophie along to GoodGym. It was her first time running with us – we hope we made you feel super welcome. Click here to support Sophie on the GoodGym website.

Let’s get going!

This evening runners had the option of two distances. They could either opt for a 5 mile round trip to Colchester Avenue to help at the YMCA led by Ben or they could opt to run the streets of Pontcanna with a spot of plogging (which is litter picking and running), led by Ellen.

We had an even split!

10 runners opted to go to the YMCA and 10 opted to go plogging. First to recap the run to the YMCA. The run there was fun, fast and exciting! We began running up St Mary’s Street, passing by the Glassworks (where we go for drinkypoos after our runs), down St Mary’s Street and then along Newport Road pretty much the remainder of the way. This run took about 25 minutes... of course we would have run it MUCH faster if we didn't have to cross all the roads that slowed us down --- Thank you roads! When we arrived to the YMCA, Matt who works at the YMCA welcomed us in with a big smile on his face. As we had a few new runners with us he told us about the YMCA and how they create a positive difference in the community by helping people who are homeless find housing. Matt then told us the tasks he had for us this evening. He explained that two beds still hadn’t been built after arriving into the store a week ago, and so it would be a massive help if we could help build them. He also asked whether we minded polishing and hoovering the store. “Not at all” we said gleefully… “this is why we are here!” And so with our superhero costumes on (Our GoodGym T-shirts) we got straight to it.

• Lowri, Mikey and Adam opted to make a babies bed.
• Darren, Matt and Welsh Dave opted to make the double bed.
• Lucy and Paige got stuck into hoovering.
• Katie got stuck into some serious polishing!

After all the beds were built, half the shop had been hoovered and most of the tables and cupboards had been polished it was time for our group photo. We all positioned ourselves in the shop window for the group photo before we made the journey back to Cardiff City Centre. Our run back was quicker than our run there – I think – and everyone displayed some seriously good running form too! NICE WORK ALL! :D

The Ploggers!

Ellen led the runners who fancied a 'litter'ally amazing fun ourdoorsy run! But first, the runners did a fitness session that had everyone doing high knees, skipping, sashays, sprints and even running backwards. Top Sashay award went to Aimee, who used her dancing skills to impress the judge (Ellen)! They then jogged on to Pontcanna (upper Riverside, really), and went off in groups of 3 to plog through the neighbourhood. They covered good area - so much so that Ellen couldn't find two of the groups to take more pics! And they managed to pick up enough litter to fill 3 rubbish bags. Sue was tempted by a dropped t-shirt with a great Welsh slogan on it, but the group managed to persuade her that it probably wasn't a good idea - so she binned it (both the idea and the t-shirt). Off they jogged back to the meeting spot at Run and Become - Super dooper peeps :D

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I won the RunPunStilkSkin award tonight - the RunPunStiltskin award for 2019 is up for grabs again next week!... Who can suggest the best puns that will be good enough to make the title for the run report?

Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Tonight was our first group run of 2019 and, although it was a pretty cold evening, 24 runners turned up to get fit and do good.

Welcome to GoodGym Cardiff!

We all met in the Big Moose Cafe. The Big Moose Cafe is our fantastic meeting point, and like us, their mission is to make the world a better place!

When the clock struck 6.30 we made our way outside to here the pre-run briefing and to warm up. No red laces were earned tonight as nobody brought a friend along, however we had Paige join us for the first time - WELCOME PAIGE :D We hope you come running with us again! We congratulated mission runners, parkrunners and coach runners. Emma and Ellen told us about their wonderful mission to help clean an older persons windows and Ben and Nathan told us about their mission to help clear Mrs R's driveway of leaves and moss - Both tasks made a huge difference! We then did a headcount. Part of the headcount included everyone stating their running goal/new years resolution for 2019. The list included;

• Running a 100 mile race
• Completing an ultra-marathon
• Running a sub 4 hour marathon
• Doing 4 half marathons in 1 year
• Coming up with at least 1 pun that gets used as a title for a run report
• Winning the tweet-off at least once
• Making the most of every weekend.

Really fantastic goals everyone - Make sure you stick at them!

Okay guys, let's get warmed up with a game of Stuck in the Mud - The Dance version!

This game is very similar to stuck in the mud, however there is a twist. Instead of standing legs apart and arms stretched when you get tagged, you have to do a dance move continuously until you are saved. You can only be saved if somebody copies your dance move for 5 seconds.... It was a fantastic game and it was a huge hit. There were some questionable dance moves, some tango, and maybe even some slow Marvin Gaye style of dancing!

Welcome to the Samye Foundation - Who's not been here before?

Lorraine and Yin greeted us like old friends. With smiles on their faces, they invited us in from the cold, offering us water to hydrate ourselves. Lorraine asked if anyone hadn't been to Samye before; she provided them with some information about the centre and told them about the fantastic work they do there.

We didn't want you being disappointed... so we have LOADS of tasks for you lot tonight :D... Again, music to our ears. Our tasks included:

• The furthest building on the left needed the walls painting inside it
• Cupboard shelves needed stuff moving off them
• The furthest building on the right, the top flat required a trampoline putting away and doors painting.
• Tiles needed to be moves from the front of the building to the back.
• A shower basin and glass needed to be moves from the furthest left hand side building to the flat that was at the top of the building on the right.
• The ceiling needed painting in the kitchen.

Everyone got stuck straight into all of the tasks tonight... it was clear that people had missed GoodGym after a 2 week break! Some antics included;

• Aimee and Emma spent some time figuring out how to get a trampoline under a bed...
• Sophie and Paige shouted warnings to one another when the door they were painting needed to be opened
• Welsh Dave had spontaneous laughter that continued for the whole time he was carrying a shower
• Welsh Dave and Darren began having a conversation with Henry the Hoover
• Mikey managed to collude with Emma and put his hand in front of Emma in the group photo.

Thank you so much for your help... Now have some sandwiches

As a thank you, Lorraine and Yin had kindly prepared us an array of sandwiches, there was even a gluten free option too!

After saying our goodbyes we then began our run back to Big Moose.