Today's run saw Neil hit the massive landmark of

****100 GOOD DEEDS!!!!!

What a great achievement and just for the occasion some angel wings made their way down to him. He wore them well and proudly! Congrats Neil, we're very lucky to have you and the community wouldn't be the same without you! 100 more?? I'll make you a special t-shirt if you manage it!

We welcomed back Grace and Chris after hiking, trekking and running through Europe on some amazing trails with stunning backdrops. Welcome back guys, we missed you!

Great to have Roshana with us again, who's getting stronger and stronger. Her fashion sense was always strong....we need to get some of those shades with GoodGym branding. They're perfect!!!

We also welcomed back Kristina, this time as a newly joined member and also as 1st Female in the Race the Tide 10km Race in Bournemouth!!! What a Legend and she didn't even know she'd won it until the trophy arrived on her doorstep! That's a brilliant achievement. 10km along the sandy beach is no mean feat!

We also have a new member in Sue, and it was great to know that we didn't scare her off with all the hills last week on her first group run. Welcome to the team! We're happy to have you on board. You're a great addition!

This evening Hannah, Marianne and Nicola hit their 10th Good Deed and a starting to make their mark in the community. Three lovely ladies who are everything that Good Gym is about!

Our task this evening was to run to Boscombe and help out at the Secret Garden, a community garden looked after by Grounded Enterprises. They help with raising awareness about sustainability and teach about growing your own. They offer lots of volunteering opportunities on weekends so have a look for them on Instagram and Facebook.

Having been asked to tidy an adjacent garden by a neighbour, Mike had lots of people from Lush come and help clear it of brambles and all that was overgrowing. We needed to move a lot of wood out from a greenhouse into a storage area...as well as move a lot of large roof tiles away from the glass sides of the greenhouse to a more secure area....So in true GoodGym style we made a massive chain and started shifting a ton of tiles....soon we realised that there were soooooo many snails...and of course being wildlife friendly is super important to us the snails had a tray for themselves to help with relocation...

The snails were lovely compared to the MASSIVE and NUMEROUS SPIDERS that were just everywhere. The gang were brave...other less so....and soon we realised that having two people next to each other in the chain who were terrified of spiders wasn't a good strategy!!

Despite all the phobias that threatened to get in the way...the team soon had the tiles nicely piled to one side and soon split into two teams. One to clear out the wood from the greenhouse and the other to stack up some slate shingles away from an area that was going to be used to plant vegetables. Cue more MASSIVE SPIDERS....frogs, which we rehoused in the pond and more snails.....the snails did eventually form a gang and attempted what seemed like a coup....Although they make take a while to make stamp their food down....

With all the jobs done and even time for some photos thanks to Chris and his clicking skills, Mike was kind enough to offer us some Lush products that the gang happily accepted. Man did we smell good on our run back to Flirt!

A full on task, with lots of fun and screams.....and lots of itching....god I hope we didn't carry any of those spiders home with us....they were MASSIVE!!!!

We are at the Foodbank next week and on the 21st of this month it's GoodGym Bournemouth's 3rd Birthday, but also Grace's farewell so we are getting together after that group run for celebrations....No excuses...or Spag Bowls, save the date now! See you all next week!

Another rainy and windy day in Bournemouth was brightened by 8 wonderful souls this evening. On the menu were two tasks in one group run, so we had to be at our best. It was our first time being called in to help out at Shelter Bournemouth, who do so much for the community here, and they kept us busy which was great. After meeting Kate, who let us know what needed doing, the team split up into groups and got going.

Dan, Grace and Lee grabbed buckets and brooms and headed to the front of the offices to clean the ramp and left it spotless. Daryl and Caprice headed to the back and ripped out all the weeds in their staff parking area and left if looking pristine. Daniela and Abi were indoors cleaning windows and wiping down chairs and left everything smelling and looking fantastic!

Then we all headed downstairs and moved some unwanted furniture around and tidied up an area so they could turn in into a winter wonderland for the homeless families they will be looking after this Christmas.

And after all that was done, we still had 45 minutes to run around the neighbourhood...down some dark alleys...up some roads we had never seen to distrubute some leaflets for Autism Wessex, to spread the word about their Christmas Carol service they are holding at Christchurch Priory on the 4th December at 7pm. All for charity, so if you are free please head down and support them.

With the rain holding off all evening for us, and getting back to Flirt in time for Lee and Dan to get their bags before they closed...we felt very lucky and possibly some of the good vibes from our good deeds were coming back to us straight away.

Or maybe it was because Daniela had received her GoodGym shirt....oooorrrr because Caprice was wearing her wings for the first time!!??!

Well done all of you for coming out and doing a double task. See you all next week for our visit to the Foodbank. Sign up here

10 lovely humans gathered at Flirt this evening...briefly, as they would be shutting early for a change. So with Fredrika already signed up as back marker she added to her super hero status by offering her work office as a safe place for some of our bags! Thank you for your help Fredrika !!

We had the lovely John back from his travels as well as Janet. Great to have you guys back!

Fredrika and Daryl overcame the White Star Halfish Marathon this weekend. 23km of gruelling hills with stunning views and sunshine to distract them. Amazing effort guys and well done for still making it to the group run! Anyone have another run coming up?

We had gardening on the agenda this evening and Mike from Grounded Enterprises came up with a great task for us. Shoveling loads of shingles and soil.

We went the scenic route along the beach front to Boscombe Pier, then did some stair work to the top of the over cliff then ran back on ourselves to the eco hotel The Green House. There they had three large elevated flowerbeds that needed to be filled up with soil...however, first a layer of shingles had to be put down on one side, then covered with regular soil (also donated). Once this was done, we had to shift the compost soil on the other half of the flower bed onto the regular soil.....then shovel lots of shingle onto the now empty half....then shovel regular soil back onto the layer of shingles....then slide across half of the compost soil.......pheeewwwwww....managed to follow any of that? Well, the gang made it look easy.

Two large flower beds filled to the top in 40 minutes. Covered with sheets and netting to stop all the pine needles from covering it all.

Great teamwork to take turns at shoveling from one bag to the wheelbarrow, to raking soil, so spreading shingle and also in coming up with the title for the run report. Thanks to Phil to originally coming up with it and to Daryl for being our navigator! We'd be in Ferndown without one and I'd be up all night without the help of the other!

Next week we are doing a leaflet drop for the YMCA as well as our very own GoodGym, to help spread the word! Come and join us!!

Well done everyone, new location tonight and new route back too! Have a great week!

Today we didn't make a fire....but we did get to use the hose and have a bit of a water fight...perfect day for it. BOILING HOT!!!

So Sean arrived early and cleared out a lot of vegetation so when I arrived I was washing down an old wheely plant stand ready for it to go near the pond.

Then we scrubbed down some old plastic chairs and had them looking brand new in no time!!

Jobs done we had some food and caught up and then hung around and shot the breeze before the heat got the best of us and slithered home!

Grounded Community have volunteering mornings Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. I know other Goodgymers have been before and Mike asked if we could get some people down to help load the van for a tip run.

So I headed down all by myself....and it was lovely. Lovely people, creating a sustainable community and network to help and support each other.

Made lots of new friends...and will be heading back next week.

Great vibes!

A beautifully sunny evening for a GoodGym group run, and the complete opposite of what last week's run was! And last week was a little gross due to the muggy weather and constant drizzle....this week it REALLY warm!

12 of us met up at Flirt and hung out at our friendly meet-up location where we get asked to not consume water not bought from the cafe....super welcoming place! So we've been thinking of finding another place that may be more convenient. Start putting on your thinking caps. Fredrika did suggest Chaplins in Boscombe which I thought was a great idea....somewhere nearer to Boscombe and open past 8pm are the main criteria....the other important one being: that they actually like us!

Enough of that and onto somehot and sticky running along the Overcliff with the most amazing views of the Purbecks behind us and the Isle of Wight and Hengistbury Head ahead of us.

We welcomed back Roshana, Janet and Abi after a few weeks off and were also lucky to have Amber back from her sunny Holiday sporting a fresh, golden tan!

With Grace back marking we regrouped at crossing caught our breath and sweat about a liter a minute....

Mike was there to welcome us with his two beautiful daughters and lots of chickens...we even had some doggy cuddles too!

Mike needed us to do a few jobs so the gang split up into teams of 4 and got to it. Neil, Phil and Fredrika headed to the front of the garden entrance to spread out lots of soil, I mean woodchip and did a great job of it too!

Chris, Janet, Hannah and Amber had the glamorous job of bringing out a lot of planting pots from behind the shed and putting them to the side so that Mike had an idea of what he had and could take over to the other lot. They did a great job and managed to get LOADS of pots and planters out!

The other team made up of Andrea, Abi, Grace and Roshana were

MURDERING SLUGS

....peacefully of course...it is slug season so they were setting beer traps made up of jars dug into the ground, so that the slugs, attracted by the scent of beer, drop into the jar and drown their sorrows in beer. Dream ending for many I'm sure!

After a 30 minute blitz and not getting nibbled on by any chickens we said our good byes, did our best impression of Fame or West Sides Story with a re warm up and headed back the same way we came!

Congrats to Grace on running the stunning and hilly Lulworth Cove 10km on the weekend. A massive cheer to Phil and Fredrika who reached the milestone of 10 good deeds with this run today! Keep them coming you two!

Hope nobody got sunburned this evening, have a great end to the week and see you next week for our trip to the Foodbank. It feels like forever since we've been!