Tonight was a run like no other! 23 runners showed up in spite of the rain to get fit, do good, socialise and have an INCREDIBLE time at GoodGym Cardiff

After a day of no rain it was all too coincidental that the rain should start at 5.30pm - This was going to test all those willing to push all limits and run in spite of the rain! We also had TWO new runners with GoodGym this week, Megan and Marie - A warm welcome both of you :D As Marie was brought along to GoodGym by Martin, this means Martin earned himself 1 red lace - Woopeee!!! #LifesGoals ... Martin was holding the red lace for the remainder of the run looking at it at various times saying "my precious."

• Megan is our parkrun star this week. She was the only runner who took part in Parkrun on Saturday... Come on people we need more of you getting involved in parkrun!
• A HUGE well done to trainer Ben who ran a PB marathon on the weekend in Valencia - He definitely practices what he preaches! A sub 3 hour marathon - Blimey!

Our headcount involved saying our name, headcount number and a brilliant suggestion by Ellen got everyone stating what their favourite race is that they have ever done or what they would like to do; Wine lovers said "any race where there is wine." It is safe to say that there will definitely be runners from GoodGym Cardiff heading to compete in the Medoc Marathon next year!

After getting warmed up it was time to run to St Edwards Church by Roath recreational ground... Off we go.....

zoom zoom zoom crossing over roads and after running through Cathays and Roath we had made it...

It's lovely to see you all again GoodGym

Kathie, from the charity Forget-Me-Not greeted us with the loveliest of welcomes. She told us all about the wonderful initiative Forget-Me-Not is and how it tries to help people find comfort who are older and lonely, who have dementia or who have suffered a stroke. Kathie told everyone about the wonderful project we are helping out with and explained that they are trying to start up a therapeutic gardening project at the church that they need our help with.

It was really beautiful to hear about the wonderful charity and the good they are doing and we were all really inspired by what Kathie had told us and this really motivated us to help them out as best as we could. Our task this week was to cut down a big bush that had become overgrown and cut back another bush that was encroaching onto the pavement next to the church. We were also tasked with sweeping the leaves up in the church grounds.

Marie and Megan were both getting stuck into their first GoodGym task, making light work of the branches! Jess was pretty epic holding the portable floodlights with her arms outstretched - This must have been good training for your arm strength (This helped ensure everyone was safe carrying out the task). Matt and Ellen were working as a team tackling one of the bushes that had begun encroaching onto a road and path. Lydia said "leaf this to me", before grabbing a rake and raking the leaves on the grass into a pile. Matt and Welsh Dave were breaking up branches and bagging them up.

After 25 minutes of helping out, making light work of the tree, we had completed the task!

Thank you everyone for coming to help us out tonight - You are amazing, you truly are

Kathie thanked us all for helping out. She also gave us all a biscuit to replenish our energy reserves for the run back. Thank you so much for asking us over to help and giving us an amazing #ReasonToRun

Ben, that's not the way!

Ben began leading everyone in the direction away from town... "Uh Oh" everyone said, "what does he have in store?" Ben led everyone along a route to the bottom of a nearby hill with a steep incline. He explained that everyone was to run up the hill as fast as they could and then jog down at a very slow recovery pace and when they reach the bottom to go again.

You did wonderful everyone! The extra fitness activity this evening was 'well' received. Ben explained the importance of hill training and told everyone that back in 2012 when training for his first ever marathon he would do hill sprints on this very hill!

It is time to run back!

With no time to waste it was time to head back to Big Moose. To get back we crossed roads, ran through student areas and over bridges. When we got back we then did a warm down and gave one another high fives to celebrate a great run!

EXTRA BITS TO MENTION

• Would you like the opportunity to write a run report reflecting on the Tuesday evening run? - Let me know and providing nobody has requested to do it already, then you can have a go at writing the run report :)
• There is a GoodGym run on the 5th December to help put up the Christmas decoration in the Tenovus Charity shop on Clifton Street. Click here to get signed up
• There is a run this friday daytime to help fill shipping containers with donations that will then be shipped off to Sierra Leone. Click here to find out more
• Don't miss out on next week's run!! Click here to sign up to the fun!
• CHANGE OF DATE FOR ICE SKATING - It's now taking place on Thursday 13th December. Click here to get signed up

It’s Tuesday I hear you say? Yes, that’s right! It’s Tuesday and that can only mean one thing… It’s GoodGym day.

A great turnout at GoodGym Cardiff tonight with a whopping 24 runners making an appearance – You are amazing! We started our run with a headcount and by shouting out our favourite fruit. There were plenty of kiwi, banana and mango lovers amongst us... and now the whole of queen street know! Does anyone know why the banana went to the doctors? It wasn’t peeling well – I know, I know, comedy gold – You’ll find me at Glee Club sometime in the future. Feeling warm, ripe (nice inserted reference to fruit) and ready, we had no more time to waste.

This evening we banana split ourselves into two groups to run to the task; Darren, who did his hair especially for this evening’s run was, of course, leading the sexy runners. Ben led the speedy runners. The sexy runners, flaunting their running legs, took a direct route to the task whilst the speedy runners, not flaunting their legs as much, stopped to do press-ups, star jumps and squat jumps – Martin said he was tired so this was the plan to wake him up! He claimed it didn't work but we didn't see another yawn out of him!

Welcome to the YMCA you amazing GoodGym lot

Tony invited us into the store and greeted us with a warm welcome. There was no messing around with Tony and he was quick to let us know what our task would be that evening. He said we had to put small cubes that corresponded with the size of the clothes onto the correct hangers…. “No problem” we all said and quickly everyone got stuck straight in... Weeeeeee.

Lowri caught sign of the card game ‘Stare’. She took the name of the game quite literally and was captivated by it, staring at the box for what must have been 10 minutes. Darren began riding on a child’s rocking horse… living the dream. Matt from Let’s Make Good Happen had his picture taken with a teenage mutant ninja turtle - New profile photo? Mike was back for his second run with GoodGym and he appeared to love this week’s task, really relishing in the opportunity to do good! Both Molly and Katy tried out the sofa, their verdict was that it was so comfortable that they struggled to get up from it... Unfortunately for the sofa has already been sold. There is also a photo of Owen with a new friend he met at the YMCA and Lewis with Peppa pig!

After 30 minutes of helping out Tony was pleased with everyone’s efforts. He said “you’ve done exactly what we wanted and it’s great all the clothes now have sizing cubes on their hangers”. Tony then invited us to stay an extra 5 minutes to have mince pies and a group photo before we headed back.... Oh go on then, if you insist ;) Aware that it isn’t long until Christmas and that it is unlikely we will be visiting the YMCA before then, we all said Nadolig Llawen to Tony when we left and thanked him for giving us an AWESOME reason to run.

The time has come to run back

We began the run back to town as one group and then split into smaller sub groups, regrouping at the Big Moose Café at the end of the run. Whilst doing our warm down exercises we reflected on evening's run which we all agreed was absolutely great fun! A successful #GivingTuesday run if I do say so myself!

Unsure about getting involved? Just come along :) Everyone is friendly and we make sure nobody gets left behind!!

Don’t forget folks…

• Sign up to get involved in putting up the Christmas decorations at Herbert Thompson Primary School on Thursday 29th December by clicking here
• Help set up the Grangetown Christmas market on Saturday 1st December by clicking here
• Celebrate Christmas with residents of the Vale who rarely able to get involved in events in their community. This is taking place on the Monday 1st December. Click here to get signed up
• Don’t forget to join in next week’s group run by clicking here. We will be running to help out our friends at the Forget-Me-Not charity again.

So in summary, there is lots of stuff going on that you can get involved with!

Demonstrating defiance of the rain, 20 Goodgym runners showed up this evening to do good in their community.

This evening the weather was taking no prisoners, and 1 hour before GoodGym the heavens opened. We half expected a cruise liner to float down Queen Street, however fortunately this was not the case. As soon as 6.30pm arrived it was time to go outside to warm up in the rain – I get how this sounds a bit like an oxymoron but I’m no moron and we found a way to get warm!

We all got jogging on the spot to stay warm whilst we did our headcount. We welcomed Katy to GoodGym who was running with us for the first time – A humongous welcome to you and we hope you come back next week! As Molly had brought Katy along to GoodGym Molly earned herself 1 red shoe lace; It was at this point Molly really was living the dream and I acknowledged that she could check earning 1 red lace off her bucket list. Aimee told us about her mission weekend bonanza - She did a whopping TWO missions over the weekend - is this a record? I think so! Well done to Fiona (who wasn't on tonight's run) who managed to run her QUICKEST EVER 10K - You superstar!

Let’s not waste anymore time, it’s wet out here and we’ve got a task to do!

Feeling motivated by the challenge John had waiting for us at the Centre we began our run to the Llanover Arts. We actually felt like we were galloping to save the world, which I guess to some extent we kind of were but on a much smaller scale.

After crossing roads, puddles that could otherwise be described as lakes, turning corners and squat jumping between lampposts we made it to Llanover Arts Centre where John stood waiting.

GoodGym! It’s great to see you again! Come on into the warmth and let me show you what I need some help with

John is lovely. He manages Llanover Arts Centre and knows ‘how we role’. He told us a bit about the wonderful activities they have going on at the centre and how invested they are to make it a sustainable project. John said that in 1 weeks’ time they would be having an Arts and Crafts fair at the centre and so to prepare for it they need to take down the stage and paint the radiators. And this was where we came in. We only had 35 minutes to complete the task, so the challenge was on!

Runners split into groups with some diving into paint pots with their brushes and began painting the radiators. The majority of runners took to the stage to remove all of the chairs from the stage, followed by the stage platforms and then the metal support structure. The stage was taken into bits and moved to the other end of the hall. There is also another level in the hall, hidden at the back of the room. John climbed up to the level and asked runners to lift up objects and pass them to him so he could store them out of sight. There was so much going on all at once and everyone was really making light work of it!

You can check out some of the photos from the run above; Look at Andrew hiding under the metal stage structure, Matin lifting Lucy and Emma up on a pump truck, check out Katy and Molly painting the radiators, look at Matt from We Make Good Happen making light work of some challenging work and look at Andrew posing with part of the stage.

Thank you so much for your help!

John explained that what we managed to get done in those 35 minutes would have taken him all day. He was so grateful for our help and we were only too pleased to be able to help.

It was now time for us to go. We thank John for giving us a #ReasonToRun this evening, motivating us to use our fitness to do good! On the way back Emma and Aimme both back marked. The back markers make sure nobody gets left behind and they did a fantastic job of this as nobody got lost – Thank you ladies!

Lets warm down

Adam led the warm down. The warm down is important as helps the muscles wind down after a good workout.

Announcements

• This weeks RunPunStiltSkin Award goes to Ellen – A lovely ingenious rhyme Ellen, you made it look easy!
• Well done to Matt who won the Tweet Off – Showing everyone how it’s done! (There is a photo of the intense tweet off stand off too)
• Join in the next group run. Sign up to it by clicking here