Gosh, that was a blustery one!!

In slightly different running conditions from last week's heatwave, four of us headed off from Hilsea Lido before collecting the rest of the crew at the Mountbatten Centre. We welcomed Paul to his very first session - epic commitment to come to a beach task when it's blowing a hooly!

Judy's recommendation to bring smaller bags was certainly a good idea, as bin bags would probably have doubled as parachutes with the additional sea "breeze". Weighed down with a few large stones (and a random shellsuit), we got to work filling our bags.

The more interesting finds included a drill picked up by Katie, Andy's mysterious 6 / 9 / g and most fun of all, a message in a bottle!! Sinéad messaged the number on the note, I'll keep you posted if we find out from where and when it came.

Epic work in challenging conditions, folks, well done! I think my favourite photos might be the ones featuring Andy in a t-shirt and shorts whilst Louisa looks ready for an Arctic Expedition 🥶

Sadly, Dave logged his first ever DNS after falling victim to a particularly nasty case of vertigo the day before the Lisbon Half Marathon - absolutely gutted for you, Dave!

Andy had a great run, despite picking up a calf injury a few weeks ago, and our eagle-eyed cheerleader Lou managed to spot GG Birmingham's Rauul whilst we were crossing a road bridge. Both were looking super strong when they passed us - well done!

Well done to everyone who improved “Blue Monday” by getting out and moving, from early morning pie drawing to lunch time dog walks, plenty of Kms have been added to the January challenge total.

Another dog photo wins the front page award for this week!!

Welcome to 2026, GoodGymers!! We had an impressive 10 GGers for our first Group Run of the year, with Abby debuting as our Walking Group Leader.

As with our previous visits to the Community Kettle, Nicole had prepared a list of tasks for us to work through. Crossing them out as they were completed was incredibly satisfying.

Katie, Katie and Sammy made light work of unloading, moving and reorganising a book shelf. Katie's attempted additional good deed of watering some plants did go slightly awry when she realised there was a hole in the bottom of the pot!

Louisa had the tricky job of supervising Dave and Andy with moving a fridge. Lou was able to convince them to find a tape measure to ensure the fridge would fit in it's new home, and with some wriggling and jiggling, it was successfully relocated.

After sorting out the toy cupboard with Sinéad, Abby discovered a new talent - being able to separate the double-sided tape where others had tried, failed and sworn a lot before. Lou provided excellent ballast for me, as our resident climber, to mount some felt boards on a slightly sad looking wall.

Ness proved to be a one-woman power-house, single handedly lifting a desk that was bigger than her! And it was shifted so quickly and efficiently I didn't get a chance to snap a photo. Incredibly impressive work!

We got to enjoy a Community Kettle special Hot Blackcurrant whilst we worked, and were rewarded with some sweeties and biscuits before running back to the Lido. Andy's life may have flashed before his eyes after nearly being mowed down by Lucy, logging some kms on her bike ride home from work.