Christmas is often a really difficult time for families who are homeless, so tonight's task was a very sensitive and emotive one. It was a task that we hope brought aspects of joy to the lives of families during a very challenging time

This evening 38 runners showed up to Big Moose to join in this evening's GoodGym run. Yes, 38!!! 38 is the most runners we have EVER had on a GoodGym Cardiff run. There were 3 new runners tonight too- A huge welcome to Sarah, Abby and Lucy! It was absolutely fantastic having you run with us. Jayne brought along Abby to GoodGym that means she earned herself a red lace #LifesGoals! Jayne will now have one faster leg when she runs until she brings another friend and claims another red lace.

The evening started with Ben leading a warm up. He then gathered everyone together to do the usual introduction and acknowledge any achievements over the past week. They included:

• GoodGym Cardiff and The Vale (That's us!) winning the BBC Sport Wales, Getting Wales Active Award
• Ben (GoodGym Trainer) running the 3 Day Ultra Trail Marathon in Ibiza; running over 105km over 3 days
• Lucy Marsh reaching 200 good deeds - Woo!!!
• A wonderful Community Mission at Herbert Thompson directed by Ms Guy

Runner of GoodGym Cardiff and Global News room journalist, Peter Gillibrand turned up in his star costume this evening. If you didn't know by now, Pete is attempting to break a Guinness World Record by running the 2020 London Marathon dressed as a star - Well done Pete you looked fab!

Arriving at Nightingale House

We've run to Nightingale House twice before yet we always managed to forget which building it is - Running up and down the street gives us a bit of extra exercise though, something that we shouldn't be averse to as GoodGym is about getting fit after all.

The staff at Nightingale House welcomed us in with the warmest of welcomes. They were very shocked to hear that 38 runners had turned up, a jump from the 20 that were signed up a couple of days ago.

Our tasks this evening were to decorate the communal areas with Christmas themed decorations and wrap presents, in secret, in the building at the rear of the garden. Some of the runners also gave the garden some TLC by picking up leaves and doing some weeding.

What an incredible task

Everyone found a role and got stuck in. At least 3 Christmas trees were put up. One of the children had James playing with an inflatable Santa for most of the time. Imogen was also being chased with tinsel by some of the children. There was a baby who was dressed in a VERY cool Christmas outfit, who was amazed by the Christmas tree and kept gazing at it in amazement.

In the back building aka. Santa's workshop, runners were speedily wrapping presents. After wrapping one present they would quickly be on to the next. Every bit of space was made use of for the task. Chloe and Sue spent 30 minutes in the toilet wrapping presents.

Thank you so much for your help

The staff and the residents at Nightingale House were extremely grateful, and we were grateful that they allowed us to celebrate some of Christmas with them. Everyone wished each other a Merry Christmas and then we disappeared into the night.

Dave led the run back to Cardiff City Centre, although he quickly ran back to Nightingale House as he had forgotten his bag (Some more unexpected exercise!).

A task that will definitely make a difference. Well done all!

Next week's GoodGym run is on Wednesday - Make sure you come along!

Next Tuesday we have the BBC Sports Awards so the group run will take place on Wednesday. The plan is to help Samye Foundation. I will also be looking for an additional Christmassy themed task. I would love to see you next week - I will bring the award to show you too. Click here to sign up to next week's run.

---

Tweet Tweet

Gosh that was quick! Megan has claimed another point on the tweet off leaderboard! Well done! ALL points count and there are less and less opportunities to move up the leaderboard as each week goes by.

• LM 13
• MO 9
• EW 5
• MJ 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

Lucy... "Here". Emily... "Here" Darren... No answer Peter..."Here" Stuart... "Here" Nathan...Nathan... "Hi miss, it's Andrew, Nathan told me he was going to miss School today to plan his 2020 challenge."

Tonight's task involved running to Gladstone Primary School. This school is very close to one of our GoodGymmer's hearts, Nathan's. He used to go to this school in his younger years... and rumor has it he wasn't always well behaved! But that's the Nathan we know and love.

So tonight started with a few warm up games. We played, 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' and 'North Pole, South Pole'

We then did a head count and welcomed two new runners to their first ever GoodGym run. A HUGE welcome to GoodGym Grace and Sioned.

Time to get our run on

Tonight we ran as one! Ben led the group and Lewis, the hero that he is, backmarked with a huge smile on his face.

Welcome to School year 9

Okay Okay, we are a bit older than year 9, but we thought by saying that we were year 9 if we displayed any immaturity we might be able to excuse it on this basis.

Donna welcomed us to Gladstone. She told us about the incredible school it is and then explained our task for the evening. Donna tasked us with painting the library. She knows we love a challenge, one could say, she read into us well.

The runners quickly armed themselves with paintbrushes and rollers. Andrew spotted a guitar and it wasn't long before he picked it up and began serenading everyone.

During the task Ben rolled a dice. Roll a 1 and you have to tell a joke; Roll a 2 and you have to state your favorite TV show; Roll a 3 and you have to tell everyone what your favourite book is; Roll a 4 and you have to pull a funny face; Roll a 5 and you have to answer a trivia question; Roll a 6 and you have to Roll again.

Thank you so much GoodGym. Once again you've proved yourselves and the children will be amazed with how much has changed overnight... it's like Christmas has come early!

Mikey then led the run back. Everyone had smiles on their faces and a warmth in their hearts, feeling pretty epic after helping out at an incredible school.

We're now nearing the end of 2019. Hasn't it been an amazing year? I hope you can make it to the final GoodGym runs of 2019 as you make them amazing!

Hope to see you next week!

Tweet Tweet

Ring a ding ding ding. Lucy loo has claimed another point on the tweet off leaderboard! Well done! ALL points count and there are less and less opportunities to move up the leaderboard as each week goes by.

• LM 13
• MO 9
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• MJ 4
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

This evening, 26 GoodGym runners turned up to help the Samye Foundation

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is fast approaching and there is no getting away from the fact I simply LOVE Christmas. I apologise for all the times I am going to be making referencing it over the next months... how I make the most of Christmas is by enjoying the lead up to the 25th December as much as I can - Be prepared for lots of Christmas themed tasks and social events over the next month! Anyway...

26 runners showed up to GoodGym tonight. Another awesome turnout. Ms Sue Fernandez spent over an hour queuing in traffic in order to be able to get to GG this evening - More kudos for your perseverance . We had 2 new faces at GoodGym this week too - WELCOME CURTIS AND FLO! We hope you loved this evening's run and we encourage you to come back... every run IS so different.

To warm up we can a quick game of stuck in the dance... Everyone is certainly 'upping their game' now it's getting closer and closer to the Christmas party.

Let's get our run on!

Mikey led the sexy runners; there were definitely some heads turning by members of the public... we our running form was THAT good! Welsh Dave led the speedy runners; he took them through Bute park. Fortunately they all made it out despite the darkness.

Welcome to the Samye Foundation!

Lorraine was tonight's task organiser. She welcomed us in like she always does; with a big smile that makes you feel warm to the core! She explained to us what the centre needs our help with. We were tasked with;

• Distributing 200 leaflets to all of the homes on Clive Street, Canton
• Litter picking the streets of Canton
• Weeding and collecting all of the leaves in the centre's car park

Afterwards runners were invited to dig into some nibbles. The selection consisted of great grapes, delicious vegan cakes, the most scrumptious avocado dip to go with crackers and raw coconut cake... Nom nom Nom! I was almost having to drag runners away from the nibbles... Lewis was a HUGE fan of the raw cake.

Thank you so much, now hundreds of people know about the events we have coming up at the centre because of your help

We then ran back, stopping outside Cardiff Castle for a photo by the Christmas tree. After arriving back at Big Moose we warmed down whilst reflecting on the evening.

After the run everyone headed to the Glassworks pub for drinkypoos and a chinwag.

---

The Tweet off

Ring a ding ding ding. Meg has claimed another point on the tweet off leaderboard! Well done! ALL points count and there are less and less opportunities to move up the leaderboard as each week goes by.

• LM 12
• MO 9
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• MJ 4
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

Did you know that GoodGym is more talked about than the general election? ............ Talked about by me anyway! And I was especially chatty about GoodGym this week as we got to help the wonderful Charity called 'Forget-Me-Not!'

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good. It really is amazing how much we've grown and flourished over the past two and a half years into a club that welcomes individuals of all abilities. Over the past couple of months we have consistently had high numbers, between 25-30 runners every week, and this is testament to how fun each and every run is, and why we ABSOLUTELY LOVE to come to GoodGym every week... Anyway, now onto tonight!

As soon as the city hall's clock struck 6pm people kept turning up to GoodGym with smiles on their faces. Greeting each other with the friendliest of welcomes. We had two new runners to GoodGym this week; a GARGANTUOUS WELCOME TO GOODGYM MEGHAN & ALAN! Alan is Marie's friend which means, Marie claims her FREE red lace for bringing a friend to GoodGym #LifesGoals.

Let's get our run on! Mikey and Ben at the ready...

Mikey led the sexy runners this evening; those runners that wanted to run more gracefully, concentrating on their technique and form whilst talking about how cold the weather is getting

Ben led the speedy group; the runners who want to run that little bit harder and be pushed beyond the limits of conversation! They took a slightly longer route and did some hill sprints before arriving at the task.

Welcome to St. Edward's Chruch, the home of Forget-Me-Not

Kathie, the task organiser and a volunteer at the Forget-Me-Not Charity, welcomed us into the warmth of the church and told us about the wonderful charity. Kathie then wasted no more time and explained to us how we were going to be superheroes this evening (the tasks that needed doing).

Our mission was to:

• Move all of the chairs onto the raised area at the church, clean the lower area by mopping and drying the floors and hoovering the carpets, and then move all the chairs back.
• Cut back the buddleia tree that was becoming overgrown (imagine Jumanji but to a much less extent)
• Litter pick the streets of Roath

We had 30 minutes to complete the above tasks, and boy did we do good! Runners dried the floor using towels under their feet, except for Mike who ran up and down the hall pushing the towel as part of his training. Mikey used his profession as a manager to manage the team of buddleia cutters. The team of litter pickers had the most difficult challenge it seemed, to find litter on the streets of Roath. The streets surrounding the church were all pretty clean, however they did find some empty drinks cans, drinks cups and plastic bags.

Peter created a timelapse footage of everyone moving the chairs back at the end which looks pretty cool!

Thank you so much for all of your help

Kathie and her team of volunteers were all grateful that we ran to help there this evening. Kathie invited us all to have some scrumptious biscuits she had laid out so that we were adequately fueled before running back to Big Moose.

Ben led those runners wanting a speedy run and Mikey led the sexy runners!... It wasn't long after that when we arrived back at Big Moose and did our warm down, reflecting on our run and discussing all the exciting listings there are on the GoodGym website.

---

The Tweet off

Lucy added another point to the tweet off leaderboard tonight. Marie retweeted second but that doesn't get you any points unfortunately. Great work Lucy and awesome job everyone who has made it on the leaderboard to date.

• LM 12
• MO 9
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• MJ 3
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1