Greater than good - Our hero

On this epic night I epically forgot to mention and celebrate our very own John who completed his 50th good deed this evening. I would like to say a massive thank you to John for all his energy, time, good humour and well meaning grumpiness over 50 weeks of Monday evenings. John's incredible talent and generosity with his craft making has made many of our GG team very happy. He also acts as my grammar police on a Tuesday morning .Thank goodness he has given up his day job !!

John is also a serial volunteer for parkrun having volunteered an amazing 72 times and also run multiple parkrun's 142 times. He is a perfect example of how well GG and parkrun work in perfect synergy together . In the words of his partner in crime and trouble and strife Belinda 'not bad for someone who doesn't like volunteering or running'

I'm working hard on the love of running. Watch this space.......

Date for your diary

We will be having an official celebration for John's 50th once dry January has finished as we all know how much John loves drinking beer. So this special event will be on Monday 3rd Feb at Chipwick and will involve beer drinking. However drinking beer is not a mandatory requirement to come along and raise a glass in celebration.

Eating humble pie - will there be light at the end of the tunnel ?

Now that over half the run report has been dedicated to John I'm hoping he may, one day in the dim and distant future, forgive me for (temporarily) forgetting his 50th. Knowing John this is likely to be a source of banter for evermore!

RED January week 2

I hope you are still with me....

It was wonderful to have another record turn out tonight ( anyone would think its January! ) 18 Goodgymers convened at Worthing Leisure Centre. It was great that we had such a well balanced group of walkers and runners who could support each other at whatever pace they chose. Well this was my ideal theory and it worked well in part 1.....

Drum roll and special mention to Tara,Jess and Alice who came back for week 2. Hurrah and thank you! We hope you had fun tonight. You certainly looked as if you all worked hard!

With a target of 8000 tasks and 100,000kms over 57 areas we have our work cut out in Worthing to stay on the all important GG gold leader board ! Currently we are in 17th position and in the bottom 3. If we don't increase our good deeds and mileage we are likely to be chucked off onto the silver board. To be honest for the size of our area we are doing absolutely brilliantly but hey, its a pride thing right ?

Taking one for the team

Usually all my kilometer's would significantly contribute to our total but with 2 fractured ribs ( how careless) I really do need you all to step up your mileage to cover me please. If you all do around 10 km extra during January this would cover me and get you fitter too. Thank you all in advance. I will buy you all a drink after dry Jan:)

Back to tonight - A splash and dash

With typed up route instructions and a clear as mud verbal briefing surely nothing could go wrong tonight?! Walkers and runners set off together on varying routes but all carefully planned to arrive at Field Place within a minute or two of each other. Guess what ? It worked !! Phew part one complete and intact. We even picked up a stray Jay on the way.

Tonight we were on week 2 and coat 2 of painting at Field Place. The team immediately got stuck in to the task. With a large turn out and not enough brushes and rollers we improvised and I took 4 willing participants downstairs for an impromptu fun HIIT session.

GGrelay'able as ever- Quack quack

With some pumping tunes courtesy of my recent spin class play list I split the 4 willing participants into 2 teams with 2 of them running laps whilst the other 2 did functional bodyweight moves such as squats, squat jumps , burpees, duck walks, ladder runs, russian twists and cross crawls. This was a continuously moving exercise so fairly challenging but done with good spirits.

After all these exercises and laps were completed we rotated the team and 4 more willing (?) participants entered the fun chamber. This continued for a few more rounds ( take a look at the photos) before time was up and it was tools down for everyone. painting was almost complated and the team turned a green room into a more neutral modern magnolia colour. With one more visit this could not only be completed but add to our RED January total. Keep an eye on the website for further details.

Thanks to storm Bernard I decided to spare the team the joys of fitness on the track in the wind and rain and instead we stayed inside for a PE session.

Everyone who was fit, able and willing completed the HIIT relay session in teams of 2 before we embarked on some fun games in 4 teams of 4 people . This involved jumping with a green pilates ball between the knees followed by hopping and running. Considering that I did emphasise that it was for fun and definitely not competitive, the noise, effort and uproar that followed seemed to suggest otherwise!

Despite this part two safely completed :) YAY!

All's well that ends well

With the rain briefly stopping we took the opportunity to go out on part 3 = the final run. With another clear as mud briefing and very strict instructions about no one being left on their own 3 groups set out.... and thats where it all went slightly wrong.

However on such a happy night lets not dwell on the details! Somehow, no one got lost and everyone got home safely !

Red January week 2

COMPLETE ( phew )

See you all next week. stay strong with those new years resolutions :)

Julia xx