Welcome

We welcomed two new runners to GoodGym Crewe tonight! It was awesome to meet you Daisy and Jim. Daisy came with the lovely Ginnie and Jim came all the way from Stoke with Phil!! We hope you both had a great night and will come and join us again soon for another task.

Kudos

Huge kudos goes to Claire this week who did the Knighton 20!! A huge race in an incredible time. Well done Claire. Marathon next stop!! And to Phil who completed his 250th Parkrun. 250! Wow!!! Well done Phil. Also, to Emma who smashed the Chester 10K this weekend. Question is, will you go for the Chester triple Emma?! Well done everyone, you’re all awesome! Oh, and extra huge kudos to Claire who was the only one brave enough to tackle the spiders in the toilet this evening (read more in the report)!!

Thank You

Huge thanks to Sophie, Taskforce member and backmarker for our runners this evening. Thanks for looking after everyone and ensuring nobody was left behind. And as our latest TaskForce recruit (thank you Barry), Barry oversaw the walking group. Thanks Barry. Thanks also, to Catherine and Alan at St. Andrews church this evening who welcomed us and directed us in our cleaning duties.

Tonight’s Task

It was great to see so many people join us on our task again tonight. Our evening commenced in the usual manner – with biscuits – but on this occasion, eaten to the musical accompaniment of Y Viva Espana in honour of Pam and Barry’s forthcoming trip to Spain! ;)

Once again, the weather was kind to us as we headed over to the memorial square for our warmup, which tonight, had a bit of an 80’s theme to it. I dug out the old Twister game for a slightly different take on the classic 80’s floor flexibility challenge (which is still going strong into the noughties – or are we back in the twenties again?!) Anyway, I digress. We had four coloured cones (that almost matched the twister board), each with a warmup written on it and spread across the square. With the spin of the spinner, we had to run to the corresponding cone and do the warm up for 30 seconds or until the whistle blew (when Nicola had got the obligatory photos/videos - whichever came first!!). We did toe taps, heel flicks, high knees and leg swings. We did it to the tunes of Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! Suitably warmed up, we headed off to our task for the evening. At just over a mile, it wasn’t too far to run and we arrived at St. Andrews church fairly quickly (and the distance always feels quicker when you’re having a good old natter along the way!).

We were greeted by the lovely Catherine and Alan who told us what jobs needed doing and where to find all our cleaning materials. St. Andrews is quite a big church, so there were plenty of jobs to keep us all busy. Claire was the only one brave enough to tackle the spiders in the toilet (see photographic evidence of said spiders). Between us, we cleared the church of all the hard to reach cobwebs (and spiders – most of which were dead btw - sorry, I'm over using the word 'spiders' in this paragraph!), we hoovered, we swept the floor, we buffed the brass and we polished the pews. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the task and especially the well-received brew at the end. Catherine and Alan were very grateful for our help and said the church had never looked or smelt so good!! It was looking Bright and Brew-tiful! ;-)) Mission accomplished!!

We set off on our way back to base, doing a short workout on the way home. We utilised the benches and railings on Nantwich road to do some tricep dips, standing oblique bends and squats. On the way back, the unthinkable happened…… it started to rain!!!!!!! This is a new concept for us and I was a little put out…. but it’s ok…. Jordan said it doesn’t count if it rains on the way back, so we’re all good (and anyway, it must have only lasted for about a minute - phew!!) ;-)))))

Thanks for another awesome night everyone. Have a great trip Pam & Barry and we’ll see you back in June!!! Hope to see you all on Saturday at Parkrun!!

Stay safe,

Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

HERE'S THE LOWDOWN ON LAST NIGHT'S TASK

Kudos

It was great to see so many of you with us again this week. Huge kudos to everyone for coming out and giving up your evening to do good in your community. You really are awesome and each week, you make me so proud (hope that doesn’t sound patronising, but you really do!). Well done to everyone who is clocking up amazing mileage with their marathon training. You’re totally killing it!! And to those of you who are getting moving – whether you’re walking, cycling, swimming, or pole fitting – you’re keeping fit and active, hat’s off!!

Thank You

Huge thanks to Phil for acting as back marker this evening and ensuring that nobody was left behind. And as our latest TaskForce recruit, Amanda oversaw the walking group (even though she may not have been aware she was overseeing it – note to self for future reference! ;-)). You’re both stars!! Thank you to Kate at Motherwell for having us this evening and giving us a nice warm indoor task!!

Tonight’s Task

We were graced with another dry evening and a lovely clear sky. Perfect running weather. We kicked off our evening with biscuits – as always – followed by our warm-up. Tonight we warmed up by doing various sports. We tried our hand at boxing, swimming, running (obvs), canoeing, skipping and fencing. Poor Jordan took some ribbing from his lovely sister Sasha about his fencing technique (lunges). I didn’t think you looked THAT bad Jordan!! ;-))

Our red army set off along the streets of Crewe once again, having to take particular care around lots of tree roots this week – pesky things!! There were no broken-down cars to rescue this week though, so we just headed merrily on our way, chatting as we went. We had a large walking group this evening who had set off before us and were waiting for us on our arrival – possibly feeling quite smug that they’d beaten us ;-))

Our task this evening was to help sort leaflets into bundles. Motherwell is a local charity that offers support, counselling, therapy groups and well being days for women. They needed some help sorting leaflets into bundles to go out to local schools to promote their forthcoming women’s days. There were 20 of us and it took us 45 minutes. Imagine how long it would have taken for just two people do the same task?! It was a lovely night – we were in cosy, warm surroundings (there was even a bit of background music!) and even though there was lots of counting and concentrating, there was also a lot of laughter – especially when Sasha exposed a minor mix up with the leaflets and we had to go through them all again. We’re not entirely sure what happened but I will take one for the team! You can blame me!! ;0)

We put all the bundled leaflets into a very grateful Kate’s car and headed back to base. We took a slightly different route home which took us via clutch bite hill (renowned driving test route for the dreaded hill start!). Everyone flew up it with no trouble at all.

It was another fantastic night with the GoodGym Crewe Gang. I always come home on a high. Roll on next week. Can’t wait to see you all then!!

Stay safe, Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

PS – Pam and Barry are off to Spain shortly so won’t be with us for a while from mid-March. Thought I’d just let you know in case you weren’t already aware….. ;-)))))

Welcome GoodGym Crewe welcomed another new recruit this evening – the lovely Emily It was great to welcome you to GoodGym Emily – we hope you enjoyed your very first group task and we hope to see you back next week (and the week after, and the week after that and the week after that and………….. ;-)

Kudos Well done to everyone who took part in the Alsager 5 last weekend. Great to see so many of you pop up on my Strava having achieved cracking times and PBs. Well done everyone! And again, thank you to John, Dan and Chris for putting themselves forwards to be Taskforce members. This is something that anyone who has completed 10 or more deeds for GG Crewe can be part of if they wish (with no commitment).

Thank You Thank you to Chris who took on the role of back-marker again and to Maurice who lead the walk this evening and thank you to the weather gods once again for giving us another great evening to run and walk in! ;0)

Tonight’s Task For our warm-up tonight we did a slightly mind bending game – I really don’t know how else to describe it other than, the in, out, left, right game. You need to see it to understand it! Lol! It warmed us up and confused us in equal measure!

With our brains slightly addled, we set off on our walk and run. Once again blessed with good weather, we ran through the streets of Crewe with our sea of red t-shirts our for their weekly airing!

Our task tonight was filling Goody Bags for a local charity called Motherwell who do great work within our local community to support women. They are such a great charity and alongside their services, do many fabulous events, including Women’s Day which is the event we were filling the goody bags for.

We split into 4 groups, each with different tasks. Everyone worked efficiently and quickly, and the job was soon done! Kate from Motherwell said that that task normally falls to her and her daughter and takes them days! Yet again, proof that many hands make light work (team work makes the dream work as they say!). Lots of lovely chatting and getting to know one another better while we were doing the task and I don’t think anyone became victim of a paper cut! :0)

Once all the bags were filled and Kate's car was packed to the rafters, we headed back to base. Our route home took us via the infamous Walthall Street – driving test hill start territory…… and also the perfect place for a few hill reps!! We split into twos and did a few rounds of hill sprints – just to get the heart pumping a little bit more!

Back at base we finished off with our stretches and had a bit of a giggle at Alex’s expense about his lack of balance – sorry Alex!

Another fantastic night with the awesome GoodGym Gang!!

Hope to see you all next week! Have a fab weekend!

Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

Welcome A huge welcome to our newest GoodGym recruit, the lovely Michelle who joined us for her first-time last night. We hope you had a great night and will join us again next week for some more GoodGym antics! You’ve also earned your very own GoodGym T-shirt now that you’ve completed your first run! Super Exciting!

Kudos Huge kudos to Alex who completed the Heaton Park Half Marathon last weekend. Not only did he do it in a cracking time, but he also ran as part of the GoodGym Race Team!!! Well done Alex, mega proud of you! It’s also great to see so many of you hugely improving your fitness levels in the short time I’ve known you - it's awesome to see. So many of you have now got the magic 10 tasks under your belt - well done – time to work towards that all important 50 T-Shirt. Who will get there first?

Thank You Thank you to Chris who took on the role of back-marker once again. Thanks Chris. We really appreciate it. Also, super huge thank you to Dan who has become a Taskforce Member. Really thrilled to have you Dan! If you've done 10 GoodGym tasks and would like to be part of the Taskforce, you can either speak to me or become a member via your profile page on the GoodGym Website (there's no commitment by the way.... ;0))

Tonight’s Task We kicked off the evening with chocolate digestives and chocolate chip cookies (one of these days, I should maybe think about bringing a healthy option instead.......... or maybe not.....lol!!).

For our warm-up we used giant playing cards for a bit of fun. 6 cards in total: 10 of Spades, 10 of Diamonds, 10 of Hearts, 10 of Clubs and 2 Jokers. Pull a suit card and you do 10 of the exercise, pull a joker card and you do 50!!! Much to my disappointment, nobody pulled a joker!!! I’ll get you next time!!

With heart rates up and Strava activated, we set off into the night on a mission to deliver as many flyers as possible promoting a charity event to raise vital funds for a baby bereavement unit at Leighton Hospital. We split the group into two teams so we could execute our mission effectively. We were like the GoodGym SAS as we moved swiftly but stealthily from door to door (with the odd curtain twitcher as we did so – but then is it any wonder when an army of runners in red t-shirts and bright lights are running all around your avenue like worker ants!!!).

Not only were we elite leafleters tonight, but we were also the friendly neighbourhood watch - Amanda knocking on the door of one property to let them know the boot of their car was open (they were very grateful once they decided to open the door to us, lol!). We knew that if we were to get as many leaflets as possible delivered, that time would be tight, so we decided to include our fitness session into our leafleting – so, Dan came up with the great idea of squatting every time we came across one of those ghastly low letterboxes!! And Amanda was feeling extra energetic with some letterbox lunges for every waist height letterbox (which was most to be fair!!).

Our route home took us along Crewe’s version of the Strip – well, perhaps a slight exaggeration but it probably has about 1000 food outlets (again, perhaps a slight exaggeration – maybe 50!) and the perfect opportunity to hand out some flyers as well as share the GoodGym love. Flyers were graciously accepted by many of the stores and lots more people have now seen the GoodGym Gang in action (hopefully they’ll give us a google!). Back at base we did our cool down and dished out the remaining leaflets for people to kindly take into their workplace.

Another fantastic night with The GoodGym Elite leafleting Crew….. MISSION WELL & TRULY ACCOMPLISHED!

I had the BEST time - as always. Same time next week?

Have a great week everyone! Stay Safe! Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx