This week, a hard-as-nails GoodGym contingent made their way to the Brighton Community Workshop in Kemptown, billed on its website as a "collective garden shed", a kind of tool nirvana bursting at the seams with everything from nut drivers to ratchets. An organisational task was on the table, for the team to bring order to chaos, to metaphorically extract the spanners from the works.

The team were welcomed by Pete Ranson, director of the workshop (and also recognised by some as director of the East Brighton parkrun), who quickly mapped out the evening's assignments. One group was to rationalise onto various shelves different lengths of wood so that visitors to the workshop could easily be offered the sweet spot size they would need for their respective DIY projects. The other group were focused on categorising into tupperware containers a impressive variety of screws, nuts and other tighteners/ fasteners, as well as many other miscellaneous items, including alum keys, picture hooks, and a 22cm ruler.

Going at it hammer and tongs, the GoodGym gang soon recognised that the task required mental acuity as well as physical agility, but as usual rose to the challenge and the workshop was duly transformed. There remained plenty of potential for a sequel visit however with much still to sort, and Pete offered some a quick tour down to the cellar, revealing further boxes and vertiginous piles of items to be catalogued.

The Brighton Community Workshop & Tool Library opened in Kemptown in 2022, following a previous iteration as part of Revaluit in Old Steine, and offers a creative space for crafting and building, skills workshops (including regular arts and crafts sessions) plus an expansive tool library that functions like a book library. As the session wound to a close, and the team filtered out to clink glasses at a social at the Sidewinder, Pete outlined the workshop's aims to empower people with skills and to promote a circular economy of sharing, reusing, repairing and recycling. He added that in 2020 man-made mass began to exceed overall biomass in the world. Humans are making a lot of undue waste, he was saying, and that's a point that needs drilling home.

What a great organisation for first comers Ellie and Harry. Welcome to Goodgym Brighton!

Last Tuesday's GoodGym Brighton group run was in safe hands thanks to Task Force member Frannie stepping up to lead— thanks, goodness! From afar, I watched the Brighton crew run and cycle through a mild spring day to FareShare Sussex & Surrey. They tackled a mix of distances for a session that was, mysteriously enough, described as a "Crime Scene."

It was a "very smelly but satisfying" session for “Team Cabbage”! 🥬😊 [GoodGymer Christophe's quote]

The next day, FareShare host Steven reached out to share a huge thank you with the crew. He praised the GoodGym Brighton team for being "splendid and stoic" as they tackled the messy job of decanting rotting cabbages into trays.

Unfortunately, Ben and Ruth had to "hip-out" of this one—missing out on all the smelly fun! 😉

It was a tough, thankless task, but FareShare Sussex & Surrey couldn't be more grateful for the help. Even though everyone’s phones were tucked away to stay clean during action, I managed to track down a group photo of the heroes who solved the Case of the Cabbage Patch.

What else did we miss last week? 😊

Let’s not miss out the opportunity to run and team up together at some of the coming up events.

In case any of you wish to participate with and fundraise for FareShare Sussex & Surrey there are still places on both the Brighton 10K, on the 12th April, and on their new venture covering 48 miles cycling from Guilford to Brighton. You can find more information about both, here.

There is also a last call for our 10K “plogging” (run-walk-litter pick) relay alongside our GoodGym Brighton Marathon runners. Sign up NOW here for this community mission in partnership with Green Runners and Leave No Trace.

So, GoodGym Brighton did its first plogging session on our Brighton seafront!

When Darren from the Green Runners called GoodGym Brighton for some plogging action, I immediately responded with great enthusiasm and, soon after, I had to search for the meaning of the term “plogging” 😊.

*Plogging is an eco-friendly fitness trend that combines jogging or brisk walking with picking up litter. Originating in Sweden around 2016, the term merges "jogging" with the Swedish phrase "plocka upp" (pick up). It is a global movement aimed at improving personal health while cleaning up public spaces and natural environments.

On a beautiful, rescheduled Tuesday morning on the 17th of February, I joined 25 fellow community members and friends from Active Sussex, teaming up with Leave No Trace Brighton and The Green Runners to protect our favourite running routes. This is all part of the London Marathon Events mission to make the Brighton Marathon weekend more sustainable. Let's keep our seafront clean! 🌊🏃‍♂️

We had a fantastic time at this community event! Our high spirits even caught the attention of BBC South East News, which featured our beach clean in their recent coverage.

Now, GoodGym Brighton is assembling a team for the Green Team relay, organized by The Green Runners. We’ll be taking on 10K legs alongside the main marathon runners on April 12, plogging the entire 26.2-mile route to ensure we leave Brighton better than we found it! 🏃‍♂️🧹

To get involved, sign up on the dedicated GoodGym community mission HERE.

Tonight's GoodGym assignment saw a dozen-strong team meet at the Hove Peace statue and, to the backdrop of a welcome and resplendent sunset, were led by Stefania (some via a short run around the Lawns and Hove Plinth) to the doors of Brighton Sailing Club, described on its website as "a spirited community of sailors who share a love for the sea, the wind, and the camaraderie that comes with it". The Club also functions as a base for the Brighton Explorers Club which has a broader remit of outdoor activities, and a follow-up task to use their kayaks to do some testing of local river quality is on the GoodGym schedule.

The mission at the Brighton Explorers Club was to conduct an off-season audit of the Club's Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) stock. A trilogy of tasks included: checking for leaks by applying soapy water round the SUP valve, where a frothy bubbling would signify the presence of an unwelcome leak; squatting energetically using double-action pumps to get the paddleboards to the right air pressure; and running an inventory of the single-blade oars and ensuring that they extended to full length/ retracted correctly. All of this was completed outside the Club with the usual GoodGym gusto, and at the end the SUPs were returned into storage, with one of the team commenting that their imposing height made them look like benevolent gods.

While the jury is still very much at sea on the sentience of paddleboards, the totemic animals on Brighton Sailing Club's flag, (two green) dolphins, have historically been associated with benevolent godliness, symbolising wisdom and protection and considered demi-gods in classical Greece. Though not quite as ancient, the Brighton Sailing Club dates all the way back to 1871 as a hub for sea adventures and sailing races.

Following the task's close the gang looked ahead to races of a different kind, and to participating/ supporting in Sunday's Brighton half marathon, with a plea perhaps to the weather gods, before heading off into the evening and, for those who hadn't eaten yet, a well-deserved supper.

On (yet) another wintry, windswept evening, a doughty team of GoodGymers cruised by trainer or tyre to Brighton's Community Kitchen, a regular on the GoodGym roster, and a key community venue for the Brighton and Hove Community Partnership, the umbrella organisation that also oversees another GoodGym staple task venue Wilding Waterhall, among other initiatives.

The gang were welcomed as usual by Jo, the manager at Community Kitchen, with an efficient checklist of tasks including window washing, pan sloshing and oven scrubbing, ticked off with gusto by the team to the accompaniment of Jo's playlist of upbeat pop classics, including Madonna's 80s Latin-inspired reverie La Isla Bonita.

Offering an oasis of the culinary kind, the Community Kitchen serves up a menu of enticing cookery classes for all, led by local top chefs, with sessions on Goa curries, macarons, and steaks, sauces and stocks on the near horizon. It also delivers a range of community cooking workshops at low/no cost to improve well-being and confidence for people on low incomes, those living with dementia and those with physical/mental health conditions, empowering disadvantaged groups with cooking skills while providing advice on creating money-savvy nutritious meal plans.

The Community Kitchen is also available as a community venue to hire, which GoodGym Brighton made exuberant use of for its most recent Christmas bash, which featured rounds of tricky quizzing and a flotilla of pizzas. As this task fell on Shrove Tuesday, floury treats of a different kind were flipped at the follow-up social, as a contingent energised by Pippa's pancake-themed HIIT session wolfed down stacks at the nearby venue Hope and Ruin, dowsed in maple syrup and ice cream.

A great session to welcome Sam on his first go with GoodGym Brighton!

10 goodgymmers ran, walked and cycle over to the Brighthelm Centre for a indoors, winter, cleaning mission.

We welcomed new goodgymmer Jen for her first mission and visitor Ricky over from Worthing!

The Brighthelm* Centre serves a wide range of charities, public health and local groups. We've had a long term partnership with this centre dating back to our first ever session in 2017. They run regular Zumba classes and tonight we left at the same time the Brighton Men's Gay Chorus arrived, through a very busy reception area!

The focus for the task was to wipe down skirting boards, clean the bathrooms and give the staircase areas a good clean. We were given magic white sponges for using on the skirting to avoid spreading the paint and vast quantities of blue cleaning paper and sponges for everything else.

Swiftly splitting into groups of 2 and 3 we made short work of the grimy skirting boards and toilets. We gathered outside for a quick group photo and a peptalk from Stefania before heading off to the skirting boards of our own.

*Did you know that Brighton is referred to as Brighthelmstone in the Domesday book in 1086. Brighthelm was a name and "tun" was the saxon for "town", so Brighthelm's town.