This evening 20 runners showed up, eager to get fit do good and have an awesome time at the best place to be in Cardiff on a Tuesday evening, GoodGym!!

With the weather looking quite unpredictable in the days leading up to our GoodGym run we weren’t sure whether or not to expect an influx of rain, fortunately though the good weather held out! – Woopee!

To start the evening, Marina from Run 4 Wales kindly came along and informed us of all the different volunteering opportunities at the Cardiff Half Marathon – Thank you for coming! We then heard from Ellen, Mikey, Lowri and Emma about the missions they took part in over the week – The missions sounded amazing and they really made a difference to the lives of older people, fantastic efforts! Click here and here to read about the missions they took part in. Ben then spoke about his experience running the Bacchus Marathon (which consisted of drinking wine and eating cheese!). We also congratulated runners who took part in parkruns clap clap clap ! Important to mention, we had a new runner this evening too, WELCOME DAVID to GoodGym Cardiff; We love new people running with us, so if you are reading this and haven’t been to GoodGym yet, come along!! Hannah also came along (she last came running with us in 2017), it is so nice to see you again! At the same time as introducing ourselves in the warm up we also had an icebreaker where we all stated our favourite shop; Poundland, Waitrose, Lidl, ASOS and Madame Fromage were all shops that got mentioned (to name a few!). Sean, thank you for the interesting favourite shop suggestion!

This evening there were 2 different tasks… oooo exciting times!

• Ellen led one group of runners to the Samye Foundation (Team consisted of: Lucy, Emma, Darren, Hannah, Adam, Marion, El, Emma, Charlotte, Sue and Peter (In his patriotic Welsh shorts!))
• Ben led the other group of runners plogging around Cathays and Roath (Ploggers included: Mikey, David, Welsh Dave, Lowri, Amy, Keira and Sean)

Group led by Ben: Ploggers of the world unite!

The ploggers set off, with Ben leading and Welsh Dave back marking. As soon as runners made it to Cathays, Ben said “Ploggers, get the gloves, get the bin bags and let’s do this!”. Feeling motivated, plogging got off to an incredible start with runners lunging to pick up litter and shouting ”PLOG!” to warn one another when they were about to stop to pick up litter (to avoid running into one another and knocking each other over). A lot of interesting pieces of litter was found; A Christmas bauble, lots of plastic bottles, cigarette packets, an empty box of cough medicine, fast food containers and more! - Check out some of the runners posing with litter - new profile pic material!

After putting all the bags of rubbish by the bin, runners formed a circle and each put one of their hands in the centre, “Once a plogger, always a plogger” everyone shouted for the whole of Roath to hear!... It was safe to say, the task was now complete!

Before heading back there had time for a fitness session! Leaving everything to chance, Ben grabbed a leaf and identified a top and bottom part to the leaf. If it landed top up then runners had to run up Pen-Y-Lan hill, however if it landed top down then runners would do a time trial of the wreck. Ben let the leaf go, silence was in the air as the leaf tumbled and spun to the ground. It landed… top up! Immediately runners began running up the hill. Pen-Y-Lan hill is a few hundred metres in length and if you run up it too fast then you’ll burn out halfway, however run to slow and you won’t achieve a good time and reap the benefits from the exercise. With good form and powerful strides, everyone conquered Pen-Y-Lan hill! Feeling pushed and good in ourselves knowing that we had done good in our community, we made our way back to Big Moose, passing by a council truck collecting rubbish on Bangor Street. We informed the council workers that we had collected 6 bags of rubbish plogging and that we had left the bags by Pen Y Lan community centre. Great job guys, we’ll go and get them now they said, giving us a thumbs up and a smile.

Group led by Ellen: We moved everything - AND the kitchen sink!

We twelve "sexy runners" headed off to Canton, to help out at the Samye Foundation. We've been there quite a few times before and have been lucky enough to see the transformation they've been through to get their centre and environs in shape. Tonight, Lorraine at the centre was fantastic at responding to Ben's call for a last minute task - and what a task it was! We dismantled a 'shrine' to Buddha in the corner and rebuilt it in a better place (according to feng shui!). This involved taking the buddha statue off the top, moving the plinth it stood on, slab by slab, and rebuilding it about 10 feet away. This will become a lovely Tuscan area, surrounded terracotta pots and more appropriate plants such as lavender and rosemary.

Before this, though we had to clear the area of building rubbish and debris. Pipes, pots, rubble - everything And the kitchen sink! - were moved or piled into Lorraine's car, to be taken by her to the dump the next morning. 4 of us got stuck in at the front of the centre, weeding a small strip of garden along the front ofhte parking lot, as well as between the cracks and crevises amongst the paving stones. This feels like a never ending chore, as I'm sure we've done that 2-3 times before - those pesky weeds! (Although some weeds are just another person's wildlife-haven, in a parking lot it can make the place look a bit untidy and unloved).

Finally, we planted up a lovely holly bush in a garden bed, which is native and will help attract birds and other wildlife to the garden, in due course. Incredible work by all who participated in such a short amount of time! The runners who went to Samye were then kindly offered sandwiches, crisps and humus - yum! And because it was dark and drizzling by then, we headed straight back into town to meet up with the others. A great last minute task that made a realy difference.

WELL DONE!

Awesome efforts by everyone tonight. Don't forget to invest in a head torch and some winter attire so you can stay warm in the colder seasons :) Amy was the official tweet off winner this week Clap clap clap

Runpunstiltskim award goes to me! Come on guys, I wanted you to be extremely punny next week.

Join in next week's group run by clicking here

This evening we hit large numbers again with 20 people showing up to GoodGym, eager to combine their running with doing good (and most importantly, having fun too!)

Who remembers that boiling hot month of heatwave we had back in June? It sure does feel like ages ago now and the temperature is dropping a bit, sadly. The good news is though is that we are really settling in well into our meeting point; we have a place to store bags, coats, bikes and other stuff whilst we are out on our runs - It really does make life easier (Many of the runners have also been popping into Big Moose for coffees too - Nice one folks!).

Tonight's run took us to the Global Garden’s allotment by Gabalfa. Despite us all being full of excitement and raring to go, we couldn’t leave without warming up so our run this evening started with an ever-so-graceful warm up.

The warm up drills this evening consisted of; walking on tip toes, walking on our heels, lunges, jumping high knee skips and exaggerated long strides. We then did our headcount whilst jogging on the spot, introduced ourselves and announced our favourite flavour of ice cream! Salted caramel was a popular choice - 🍦 🍦 Feel free to offer us ice cream if you ever bump into a GoodGym runner! 🍦🍦

🏃The journey there🏃

Over roads and far away, we began our run to the allotment. The speedy Gonzalez group, led by Ben, set off at a rate of knots whilst the pacer group, led by Ellen, ran at a more graceful pace,focusing on their technique and taking in the atmosphere... the pedestrians on Queen street wondered what on earth was going on when 20 runners started running down the centre of Cardiff - and with a quick google of 'GoodGym' they will be able to find out all about us! 🤷

🌺Welcome GoodGym to the Global Gardens Allotment!🌺

Poppy welcomed us to the allotment, offering us water upon arrival. After the speed at which everyone ran to the allotment the offer of water made everyone’s ears perk up and Cheshire cat smiles appear on faces. The vision of the Global Gardens Project is to create a growing space that supports community-based sharing of food and cultures - They do loads of incredible stuff and you can visit their website by clicking here

Once we were all hydrated Poppy then announced the tasks for tonight... The tasks for tonight were as follows (the names of the runners who completed the tasks are alongside):

• Moving compost and digging a trench – Peter, Lucy Mikey, Stuart, Jess, Martin, Adam, Andrew and Sean
• Pulling up roots where a new plantation bed is to be situated – Aimee, Ellen, Sue, Marion, Su, Gweni and Jess
• Sorting out the bad apples from the good apples and putting them into separate buckets – El, Sophie and Andie
• Pulling up weeds from around the blueberry bushes – El, Sophie and Andie

After 30 minutes of digging, weed pulling and fighting with roots the tasks were complete! As the great man himself Winston Churchill once said (an adapted version);

”We shall fight roots, we shall fight weeds, we shall dig trenches; we shall never surrender!”~

In addition to Poppy, Churchill would’ve been proud of us too with how much we got done.

Notable goings on during/after the task; During the task Ben told everyone about how he once pulled up a weed with alcohol attached to it... It was root beer! After the task Poppy showed everyone the largest Butternut Squash the world has ever seen. She said the butternut squash is as a result of being given some 'magic' beans by the Chilli man in Cardiff market.

It’s time to run back now folks

With Poppy waving to us a fond farewell and saying thank you to us all as we left the allotment,, it was now time to run back. Andie was back marking and Ellen led the runners back - we were in safe hands.

Well done everyone who came running tonight – You ran AWESOMELY! Many of you are now training for 10k races, half marathons, even marathons… You are putting the effort in and it will pay off. Remember with running it is TMYPITMYGO – The More You Put In The More You Get Out!

The winner of this week’s RunPunStiltskin award is Andie and Ben. Come on guys! More of you need to get thinking of Puns during next week’s task.

Sign up to next week’s run now! Click here to get signed up

WOW, a whopping 27 runners turned up to Big Moose Café tonight! A remarkable number and best of all, everyone was ready to run and do some good in Cardiff - 12 First time runners this week - Well done all... do come again!

Our new meeting point is working well and everybody loves it. The staff at Big Moose always greet us with a warm welcome and many of us pop in there during the week to enjoy a coffee and their friendly hospitality. If you haven't been there yet then you moose try it out!

Our run started this week with a GoodGym intro led by Ben. He let everyone know about the three ways there are to get involved with GoodGym; 1.) Group Runs 2.) Mission Runs 3.) Coach Runs - These are the 3 fantastic ways of combining your running with doing good in the community! 😃 We then did a head count which included our name, our head count number and our favourite animal – With the amount of animals mentioned I am surprised nobody burst out into a rendition of the Lion King singing the Circle of Life... A wumba way... A wumba way! 🦁

There were LOADS of new runners this week… A HUGE welcome to Sophie, Eleanor, Katherine, Nicola, Cheng, Rhodri, Andrew, Peter, Wendi, Marion, Amanda and Sean. All new runners to GoodGym were greeted with a HUGE applause and cheers (Oh I remember the day of my first GoodGym run… nostalgia!)

A few of the runners brought friends/family members along and earned themselves ONE RED LACE (Dreams really do come true!). Well done Sean, Nicola, Cheng and Gwenni. - If I missed anyone, let me know and i'll get you a red lace!

We then played a quick warm up game of Fish and Chips before allocating back markers and then beginning our evening run.

We took the route through Bute Park, AKA Jurassic Park to get to the Samye Foundation. We saw a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Stegosaurus and a Diplodocus. We didn’t hang about though as those animals can be feisty sometimes! Ben also began playing John William’s orchestral music and it began to seem very real. 🦖🦕 Click here to listen to the Jurassic Park theme tune

We then continued our journey to the task for that evening…(Still with 27 runners, nobody got eaten by the T-Rex)

Welcome to the Samye Foundation.

Lorraine greeted all of the runners as they arrived through the gates of the Samye Foundation, directing everyone to much desired water. Lorraine then told everyone about the awesome work they try and do at the centre to help individuals who struggle with challenges to their mental health – This really motivated us to do the best we could in the allotted time.

Lorraine then informed us of our tasks for the evening. The tasks included clearing out a shed and re-organising it, pulling up weeds, breaking up old fencing, digging up soil and planting flowers, painting the outside walls and more! Are you ready for this?!? Lorraine asked. To which we replied we just fended off dinosaurs, we can do this!

• The shed-sorter-outers were: Katherine, Mikey, Tom and Jess
• The Picasso-painters were: Lucy, Peter, Lydia, Cheng, Marion and Gwenno
• The dig-a-planters were: Sean, Rhodri and Andrew
• The fence destroyers were: Aimee, Adam and Emma.
• The fence installers were: Sean and Rhodri.
• The weed-exterminators were: Lowri, Wendi and Sophie.
• If I missed you out or you were doing something different then comment below and let me know!

Lowri chanced her luck with the weeding and correctly identified the weeds! Marion and Cheng both managed to get covered in paint... oh dear. Sean, Rhodri and Andrew did well working together planting a rose bush! The shed team tidied the shed beautifully! A new fence was installed behind the buddha statue, 3 outside walls got painted and loads of weeds got pulled up.

All in all the task was a huge success. Everyone ‘rose’ to the challenge and ‘dug’ deep. After we had finished Lorraine and friends at the Samye Foundation invited us in for some scrumptious snacks as a thank you for us running to help out; It was very thoughtful and many of us who couldn’t resist temptation may have suffered a stitch on the run back.

This week's pun for the run winner/s! Well done Darren and Rosie for coming up with this week’s PUN FOR THE RUN! You can take home the virtual ‘RunPunstiltskin’ award this week. Take it home, spend time with it, go to the cinema with it if you want, but just make sure you return it next week when the RunPunStiltskin award is up for grabs again.

This week's Tweet off winner is! Nathan Swain

Well done to everyone who ran with us for the first time! Llongyfarchiadau to everyone who ran with us this evening, especially those who ran with us for the first time! Davina McCall retweeted our tweet on Twitter too!

Other info:

• Click here to find out about the Chrismtas party! It is taking place on the 15th December.
• Click here to find out about the upcoming paddleboarding

Click here to sign up to next week - It's good exercise! :)