It was a scorcher at Milton Country parkrun this morning with the shelter of the trees very welcome.

Two of us joined the 26 strong volunteer team and both took on post-event roles so that we could run too. Scott arrived on foot from central Cambridge with parkrun making part of a 10 miler - extra impressive in the heat 🙌

I was on post-event close down, doing an extra lap of he course to sweep up signs and cones. It was lovely to enjoy a lighter jog around the beautiful grounds and have a good chat with the tail walker. I came back to find Scott making easy work of organising tokens with the parkrun's bespoke (fancy) 3D printed token sorting boxes. I got busy packing the kit into the storage bin with some very helpful guidance from the run director to make sure it was all organised correctly.

Before heading off, we stopped at the Phoenix pop-up cafe for some delicious post-run refreshments and discussed some training ideas.

Congratulations to all 416 finishers 🎉

Meanwhile, up in Scotland, Caroline was continuing to work her way through the alphabet, collecting an 'O' at Oriam parkrun. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This week's task saw the return of our monthly Cambridge City Foodbank donation run on behalf of Greens Organise 🥫☕️🧃🍼🍫

Joining us for the first time was Alex (welcome! 🙌), meeting regulars Catherine and Kate for a social run from Parkside Pools. I joined them at Stir, having already run that morning and using the time instead for a much-needed bike clean! We jogged to the collection point, and after a (too) brief interaction with a coned dog, bag tetris commenced... 🟩🟨🟦🟥🟪🟧

Between us, we managed to pack nearly all of the items, only leaving behind half a crate. With our bags full and our spirits high, we set off 2 km walk to the foodbank. The time flew by and the conversation flowed, discussing the benefits of strength training and enjoying the novelty of the evening's weighted exercise 🏋‍♀️

After the usual friendly greeting from the team there, we unpacked all the items into crates for redistribution - but not before weighing our bags! Between the four of us, we'd carried an impressive 53 kg of donations! The unofficial prize for Heaviest Bag went to... 🥁 ... Catherine, with a whopping 17 kg in hers 💪

Enjoying an evening stroll and discussing the benefits of social missions/visits, they dropped me back at Stir and continued their run back to the pool. Thank you for another fabulous mission!

P.S. Anyone else's legs feeling the effects of our unconventional weight training today? 😅

Making the most of another sunny Sunday, GoodGym Cambridge headed out in force to Fox Den Community Allotment 🦊

Coming straight from a Social Mission, Catherine and I cycled over the together, and waiting for us were Daiana and Andrew. Soon after came Sandra and our two newest GGers, Anakha and Princy - welcome, both! 🙌

With Fox Den first timers getting the grand tour and introduction, we put on our gloves and picked up our tools to get stuck in! Daiana, Sandra and I had fun navigating the allotment paths with wheelbarrows full of woodchip to cover exposed areas, before assembling the Royal Cambridge Bug Hotel 🪲🐞🐛

A few rows across from us, Catherine helped the tomatoes get the support they needed, guiding the plants upwards and saving them from getting trampled 🍅

Pride of place in the middle of the allotment, Andrew, Princy and Anakha made impressive work of clearing the pond. A fantastic effort for their first visit and all should be really proud of what they accomplished! 💪

Excitingly, we even made a new friend in the form of a very friendly and cuddly cat. We all downed tools for a brief fuss! Now to decide on GG cat accessories for our latest recruit... 🐈‍⬛️

Before we left, the group gathered to congratulate Daiana on reaching 10 good deeds 🥳 We love having you as part of our team, and we look forward to seeing what you do with your next 10 deeds! As is traditional now, we celebrated with some delicious cake, and reflected on another lovely afternoon. A few even stayed on to harvest potatoes, so I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all! 😊

Arriving at Mr T's we had a warm welcome, but found the lawn had already been mown. Spotting an opportunity, we flipped the mission and tackled a large area of the patio that had been completely overrun by bindweed. It was the densest we'd seen, and once we got going we uncovered a sizeable amount of bramble and plenty of thistles too. It was prickly work!

We had a very satisfying hour pulling up the bind weed and chopping back brambles. The bindweed was so prolific, some had even worked its way through the back of a discarded fridge! Eventually, we had to stop as the bin was full. The area was completely transformed, as were our legs, which were now sporting some minor lacerations. 🩹

We had a lovely cuppa and a biscuit with Mr T whilst exploring the fruit trees in his garden. Apples, figs and even a grape vine 🍇 He seemed very pleased with all the new space and we left him enjoying some evening sunshine.

No rest for keen GoodGymers...as soon as we'd closed the lid on the green bin, we were back on our bikes to head to our community mission at the allotment (cue more weeding!).

Congratulations Caroline on a very productive first mission 🙌

It was an early start at Coldham's Common parkrun where I was course checking ahead of the 333rd event.

Notorious for rabbit holes this morning was no exception with barely any of the course rabbit hole free. Some of the worst were being filled and avoiding the rest was left to fate (all obligatory H&S warnings were given)🐰 🕳️

Slightly underestimating how long it takes to get round the course with extra checks, I ended up jogging most of it, getting an extra mile in before we'd even started.

With the exception of rabbit holes, all was looking good and I arrived back at the start for a brief briefing before we were off!

Unfortunately, there were not enough volunteers to have Pacers, so instead I took it steady in the heat.

It was a great surprise to see Alexandra on tail walking duties and I met Chris at the end who had incorporated parkrun into a longer run. Very impressive!

Well done to all 445 finishers 🙌

GoodGym Cambridge was back at SIN Cru this week, once again combining a group run with a community mission 💪

Scott, Christopher, Kate, Beth, Catherine and I met at Parkside Pools to lock up our bikes and set off on the 3.6 km jog to our destination (at least my watch recorded the whole distance! 😛). Along the way, we chatted about recent holidays, restaurant visits, parkrun tourism/obsession and how much we need some rain in Cambridge. Little did we know...

Sandra and Alan were waiting for us at SIN Cru, with Sandra ready to capture our majestic "Baywatch" moment after being too in awe to do so last time. Following the obligatory dog-petting, we got to work in the garden space. Today, Alan and Chris quickly got a handle on some very active shovel action, clearing rather compacted soil and leveling the ground ready for a patio space which Kate and Beth gathered bricks for. Sandra and Catherine cleared an impressive amount of ivy from a wall, whilst Scott and I enjoyed the more sedate task of dead-heading the plants. Once we'd filled the compost area (and scritched the dogs some more), we gave the refreshed plants a much needed watering with some collected rainwater. Oh, how naive we were...

Then, we were off: it was party time! Sandra and Alan led the way by bike, meeting Ilse at Jesus Green for our July social. Beth and Kate joined on foot, while the rest of us legged it back to collect our bikes and grab more party food. Only mildly questioning the dark clouds, we gathered for a picnic. Amongst the MANY tasty treats were some homemade pastry wheels, courtesy of Ilse - a firm favourite amongst the snacks! We look forward to sampling your future recipe experimentation 🤤

It turns out I really do like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain: not long after we'd sat down and set up the picnic, the sky opened and gave us ALL the rain we'd been missing these past few weeks! We stood our ground until we feared for the structural integrity of the snacks, eventually taking shelter and laughing at how unfortunate our timing was. A key moment of the night was celebrating Beth's 10 deed milestone - congratulations!! Sorry we temporarily blinded you, but hope the Colin made up for it 📸

Once the rain had eased up enough, we escaped to a nearby pub to warm up and dry out for the rest of our social. We didn't let a bit of water spoil our fun, but fingers crossed next month's is a little drier! 🤞