Whatever the weather... we shall attend GoodGym together!

The weather at the moment is VERY Welsh. Within the past 2 weeks we have had 2 storms, Ciara and Dennis, and it feels as though the rain has been non stop! Today Cardiff had more rain but, undeterred by this, 34 runners showed up to GoodGym ready to walk/run to do good!

Welsh Dave started the warm up this week. He got everyone doing high knees, butt kicks, side steps, you name it he did it. We had 4 new runners this week! A HUGE welcome to Sylvie, Beatrice, Bethan and Helene :D It was so lovely having you join this week and we really hope you come back!

Achievements this week

• A HUGE well done to Nathan who has reached the 100 good deed milestone!
• Congratulations to Ted who earned himself a red lace for bringing a friend to GG this week #LifesGoals
• Welsh Dave and Matt got engaged - Congratulations :D
• Darren turned 40 - but he doesn't look it!

Let's head to the task!

This week we planned to meet Ash Wales, our task organisers, at Cardiff Castle. To get warmed up, we had a 10 minute run before meeting there.

Hello GoodGym, we are the Charity 'Ash Wales'. It is lovely to meet you!

Kimberly greeted us at Cardiff's iconic landmark, Cardiff Castle. She was there with her team from Ash Wales. They had warm smiles on their faces which warmed us all up in the cold weather conditions. Kimberly then told us about Ash Wales and explained to us that the Ash Wales charity aims to increase awareness of the health, social and economic effects of smoking in Wales - The mission of Ash Wales is to achieve a smokefree Wales!

Did you know? 83% of the population of Wales is smoke free and, of those who smoke, 60% want to quit.

The Ash Wales team then kitted us up with gloves, bags and cigarette butt picker uppers. It was safe to say we looked like a force to be reckoned with.

Before heading off we had a quick group photo... Smiles! And, of course, HANDS IN THE AIR! hahaha

Off we go!

Continuing in the 4 teams, each group still led by Ben, Aimee, Welsh Dave and Ellen, we began picking the cigarette butts off the streets of Cardiff. Each group targeted different areas of Cardiff city centre. Ben's group went down Womanby Street. Nathan, with his wings, was flying around from butt to butt, just like when he plays his Pokemon Go, he was collecting them all!

"I couldn't believe how many cigarette butts there were. We could have spent the whole of the time on just one street" One of the runners said.

Thank you GoodGym

The whole of the Ash Wales team thanked us for our efforts. They said they couldn't wait to team up with us again in hopefully warmer and less wet weather conditions.

After we stretched to cool down, Nathan reminded everyone that we go for "drinkypoos" at the Glassworks to celebrate doing good in the community, Peter and Nathan both brought delicious treats this week which we subsequently devoured at the pub... Nom Nom Nom!

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2020 Tweet Off

Jiminy cricket - Marie is a fighter! Well done Marie for retweeting quickest this week. Let's see if next week someone else can get their name on the leaderboard.

• MJ - 4
• MOH - 3
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

A triple whammy! The combined efforts of Ben, Andrew and Martin made this weeks pun possible, a point for each of you!

• BA - 4
• EW - 2
• AS - 3
• MG - 1
• GD -1

All hail GoodGym Cardiff

Being prepared is about expecting the unexpected. And today, unexpectedly, the unexpected that we expected happened, Unfortunately the YMCA couldn't have us help there this evening.

Let's get warmed up

Runners ran up and down the street outside Big Moose, touching the wall by Trespass and then Prince Harry. Runners then did butt kicks, high knees and some old style 90's dance moves to get warmed up.

We run as one!

We headed to the Samye Foundation as a group, Ben led the way and Emma backmarked. Seconds after we started running it started hailing.

The good deeds this week

This week Mikey and Welsh Dave were leading plogs. 'Litter'ally the best people for the job! Ben looked after the runners helping at the Samye Foundation.

A message from Lorraine

Unfortunately Lorraine couldn't be at the Samye Foundation this evening to give us our tasks, however Lorraine had wrote out a list of tasks for us to complete. There is a picture of the tasks she had for us in the slide show above. Unfortunately, due to mother nature, we were unable to do much of the painting tasks.

Our tasks this evening included:

• Hoovering the office and stairwell in the first building
• Installing tarpaulin on the shed in the back garden
• Weeding
• Tidying the side of the building and more!

Whilst some of the walkers/runners were doing this at Mindfulness centre, Mikey and Welsh Dave both set off leading 2 separate groups to litterpick the streets of Riverside and Pontcanna. They managed to collect over 5 bags of litter combined - What a superb effort!

That's a wrap!

After helping out for 25 minutes the time had come for us to run off and back to Big Moose. After arriving back the time had come to warm back.

After the run, as per usual, walkers/runners headed to the Glassworks pubs for drinkypoos.

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2020 Tweet Off

WAHOO! Megan you have won the tweet off FOUR consecutive times and are extending your lead. Marie is going to have to up her game. It looks like we are going to have a new winner this year!

• MJ - 4
• MOH - 2
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

Woopahhhhhh Ben,yes that's me, came up with the pun for the run this week!

• BA - 3
• EW - 2
• AS - 2
• GD -1

What a turnout, 40 runners came to GoodGym this evening and for 7 runners it was their first time ever GoodGym run! It's amazing that nearly the whole population of Cardiff came tonight, okay, not literally, it was actually 0.011% of Cardiff's population, however that is a good number and the most we've had to date.

The new runners to GoodGym this week were: Rosey, Ben, Clare, Emma, Skye, Vicky, Lawrence and Lauren! It was ABSOLUTELY LOVELY to have you come along. I really hope you come again as you already feel part of the GoodGym family. I know we are quite a lively bunch and the warm up activities aren't the most 'serious' warm up drills, however I really believe it's important to have fun whilst we get fit and do good in our community!

Achievements

• A huge well done to our two red lace winners. Well done Sara and Alice! #LifesGoals. Alice and Sara both brought friends to GoodGym this week and therefore earned themselves a single red lace. It is a fact* that wearing a red lace makes you run faster.
• Adam, one of our lovely regular GoodGym runners has had a baby (Not Adam himself, but his wife) - Congratulations Adam x
• Awesome that some of you volunteered at junior parkrun on Sunday - You are helping the athletes of the future.

Warm up

To warm up before the evening's run we played 3 different games. We played the game 'Fish and Chips', 'Captains Coming' and 'Marmite, Digestive and Staycation or Vacation'.

Let's get our walk/run on

Mali led the walking group. She had a contingent of 4 walkers! Ellen led the more relaxed paced runners to the Tenovus Charity Shop. Ben led those runners who wanted to run a bit further this evening. They went plogging and leafletting.

*Welcome to the Tenovus Charity Shop *

As runners arrived to Tenovus, Carl explained the mission of the Tenovus Cancer Care charity. If you have cancer or you’re close to someone who has cancer, it can be frightening and stressful. Tenvous tries to help. They bring expert advice, emotional support and life-saving treatment to the heart of communities. They help cancer patients and their loved ones cope, and our their vital research gives hope.

After Carl explained about Tenovus charity and the tasks. 24 runners jumped into action and helped get the shop ready for spring. They sprung into action, steaming clothes and tagging them up ready to be hung out on the shop floor. Some of the runners helped to tidy up the racks of clothes, and dusted down the shelves. Others put price stickers on the cds, dvds and lps. We dressed mannequins and sorted sizes. Others looked like they were having story time around a pile of books - but they were just pricing them up 😀 All in all, they carried out tasks that would have taken the staff and volunteers all morning to do.

*Litter picking and leafleting runners *

9 bags of litter were collected in total in approximately 20 minutes! 4 streets were leafleted with flyers about GoodGym.

We then played Bring Sally up and Bring Sally Down - It's not something any of us will forget in a hurry.

Time to head back

After returning to Big Moose it was time to stretch out and reflect on the evening's run. Ben led the warm down and everyone clapped runners as they returned.

After the walk/run everyone headed to the Glassworks for post run drinkypoos.

2020 Tweet Off

WAHOO! Megan you have won the tweet off THREE consecutive times and have overtaken Marie. Marie will be nervous now. Lucy, last year's winner hasn't made the leaderboard yet - but there are still 11 months to go and a lot can happen between now and the end of the year.

• MJ - 3
• MOH - 2
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

. Ding Ding Ding. Gareth came up with this weeks pun for the title of the run report - You, my friend, get a point!

• EW - 2
• BA - 2
• AS - 2

• GD -1

• May not actually be a fact