It was nice to finally have a Monday evening where it didn't rain at all!

Sean was taking part in his 1st GoodGym encounter so a big welcome!

Bill and Elizabeth were backrunners.

This evening we were doing our quarterly visit to Eaton Park, a nice little 3km each-way route. This was after we did a little warm-up in The Forum, which consisted of relay runs, lunges and frog jumps (part of the pun!).

The tasks this week were to clean all of the benches around the band stand ahead of a carol concert and to clear the leaves (another part of the pun!) around the lilly pond.

It was a fairly quick task so after 30 minutes we set off back and it still left me with 5 minutes for a fitness session, which included a pairs workout consisting of squats and sit-ups ;-)

This was followed up with a deserved trip to the pub.

**Next week we're visiting Norwich Food Bank.

I'd been looking forward to this evening's task for a while now, providing company and laughter on a larger scale to older people.

With it being another wet and dark evening, these are the times when it's easy to feel lonely and isolated so it felt extra special to organise this evening :-)

Niki was taking part in her 1st GoodGym venture so a big welcome!

Kevin kindly volunteered to be backrunner with Mel on photographer duties.

We set off on the 2.75km each way route and when we arrived, the residents were waiting for us in the communal lounger. The GoodGymers spread themselves out amongst the residents and after a few minutes chatting we went into the 1st game of BINGO with the legendary BINGO caller (me) at the helm, although the residents quickly pulled me up on my lack of BINGO knowledge!

The residents were confident and wanted to play for money... shame we didn't as Janice was victorious in the 1st game.

We had some refreshments and more chat before another game of BINGO, which this time Angela won... a clean sweep for GoodGym!

At this point some were regretting downing a can of Fanta and crisps before the run back haha.

After saying our goodbyes it was time to head back, a shame we weren't able to stay for longer but we shall visit them again!

Next week we have a similar task as we visit Redmayne View, which is a longer 11km run in total.

Running on a wet Monday night appears to be regular thing now... could someone please send some better weather otherwise I'll be writing Santa a letter early this year.

Ben was taking part in his 1st GoodGym experience this evening so a big welcome!

Jonathan was taking part in his 10th good deed and Brad (aka our poster boy) his 50th good deed!*

Another long run this week as we had an 11km round trip to Aslake Community Growers in Sprowston. Mike greeted us with an array of tasks including, planting lettuce, potting up strawberry pots, digging and then some more challenging tasks of putting together some trellises for those with woodwork skills! It gave a nice variety to most of the general gardening tasks that we do. I even witnessed Elliott using a drill.

With it being a long task, we only had 30 minutes there but with over 30 of us a lot got done in a short time and we helped out this great group who supply their produce to the local community.

Just a short report this week and next Monday we're visiting Violet Elvin Court for some games and leaf clearing.

Only two wet Group Runs in over two years and now two in two weeks.

Luckily the task was indoors this week. There was a late change in task as the beer sorting became golf ball sorting... a task I'm sure the team wouldn't have minded.

No new faces this week but Angela completed her 10th good deed at a Community Mission over the weekend.

Bill was backrunner this week.

Katy followed on her bike and positioned herself in various cheering points to encourage us along the 4.5km each-way route.

Helen from Break Charity met us at the task and explained how the masses of golf balls needed to be separated into brands so we had some massive tubs labelled up with each brand and then the team soon got their hands amongst the balls and started sorting them.

As you could imagine, there were plenty of puns going round throughout the night!

Helen had also kindly provided us with some snacks, which went down very well, although made the run back somewhat harder!

We got a lot of ball sorting done in 40 minutes. Break are hoping these will raise over £1k for their charity.

Next week we're on another long run as we visit Grow Your Community Sprowston.

As it was a very short task tonight, we all walked as a group as me and Katy are still recovering from injuries. There would still be time for some running later on though.

We welcomed 3 new GoodGymers this week so a shout out to Marcus, Bryony and Elizabeth!

The main task tonight was to do some cutting back of the overgrown hedges and weeding at The Hamlet Adults Centre. There was also a smaller task opposite at Your Own Place CIC where 3 people were painting, we were sure to do a rendition of Adeles's Hello through out the evening.

Hello from the other side

On arrival, Stephen, Elizabeth H and Bryony went with Rebecca at YOPC to do the painting while the rest of us met Jayne to assemble the team with tools to cut back the overgrown bushes ;-) hedges and do some weeding.

As usual, before the blink of an eye, the team of GoodGymers had organised themselves into the different jobs and the demolition job began. So much so that we ran out of bin bags... twice! Luckily Jayne had a good stock and kept bringing us more out.

You'll have to look at the photos to appreciate the sheer amount of foliage. The place was transformed!

Once the painters had finished they came and joined us to finish off the task.

On the way back we stopped in Chapelfield Gardens for a sprint session before finishing with some stretches at The Forum.

Thank you to Mel for helping with taking photos.

You're probably still wondering what the pun is referring to... could it be related to the giant, albeit intimidating marrow I'm holding during the stretches? Or the size of the space the foliage bags have taken up? Or just the size of the GoodGym Norwich group? You'll never know (but can probably guess) what it refers to.

Next week we're on a much longer run (6km each-way!) as we visit Barley Court Care Home, which will celebrate 10 years of GoodGym!