When Goodgym Poole first did a task in Summer 2019, we all met at Daveena's Cafe in Parkstone for what would become our base for a year! It still holds a special place for us despite it no longer being Daveenas cafe, so Nicola and Esther met here for 6pm to run up to the church, again one of our earlier task locations! We reminisced about coming to St Aldhelms when there had been only 2 of us show up and we had a lovely evening with a church volunteer helping in the front garden, chatting away, enjoying just being outside and working the land.

Tonight was the same as we headed to the church garden to meet Carey, a volunteer from the church and two other helpers. Christine and Nicola set to work on the bushes by the scout hall, using their finest hairdressing skills!

In the newly worked on back garden, there was now an area for the scout children to use. Then bedded plant areas looking pretty and plans for the garden to be opened up to others to use as well.

Becky and Esther headed into the garden section off the main road, given the task of pulling brambles out and clearing the beds. This wasn't an easy task with nettles deep tangled inside big plants and the ground! Lisa joined us, joining in the attempts to name if it was a flower potentially in future or definitely a weed! It wasn't long before it was 45 mins up and we tidied up - having chatted over races, current house affairs and how to live well amongst other things! The bushes were certainly trimmer, the brambles attacked and things put to rights in conversation!

Christine had walked up having brought tools so took a wonder back down. Becky is preparing for a race this weekend so being careful to not overdo it so walked home. Lisa missed the run but made a sterling effort to come along tonight so a big kudos!

Nicola and Esther grateful for a run down the hill this time, the two miles back to Daveena's!

Well done everyone- We will be back there in a month or so!

In true English style I like to start all my reports with a view of the weather on our task.

Tonight is no different and certainly was brass monkeys, baltic, parky!

We met outside what was Daveena's like old times! It is now Club Hub and an anti natal class was underway, run (no pun intended) by a fellow runner no less - queue antics outside the windows!

It was fabulous to welcome along tonight a Goodgym first timer - Laura! Laura is a local club runner and previously has volunteered for local charities that work outside so was more than happy to get stuck in tonight!

We started off with our role call - Catching out any newbies who are unsure what is happening with the numbers! The 5 of us set off just after 6 having yet to see a name on the list - Ian. Ian like magic appeared in Ashley Cross Green less than a mile in. I've still no idea how he got there but we were very happy to see him! Ian completed Couch to 5k last year and has only recently joined Goodgym, completing some missions in Bournemouth already! Delighted to have you both along tonight- We really hope to see more of you!

A few hop, skips and jumps aroumd Ashley Cross fountain befroe the trundle up the hill towards St Aldhelms. Many of the runners tonight was feeling the aches of a few days consecutive running. parkrun Saturday, muddy running Sunday, Plod Monday for Elizabeth for example- A machine Liz!

Jane is day 25 of RED and no let up! Already clocking up 60 miles this year #stravastalker!

Patricia as our Ninja Nana is mixing it up with cycles, runs and a lot of gardening, nearly bailing tonight but thankfully kitted up and got out the door.

Onto St Aldhelms - Our first visit back in a long time and delighted to meet Heather, bags of knowledge about gardening she is working hard volunteering at the church with a few other great people! Heather was already on it with piles of leaves in various places to sweep into the wheel barrows and into the compost heap. It was team work with wheeling up and down, hands, dustpans and brooms all in use! We had our lights so we could ensure the place was left clearer by a long way! Everyone got hands on immediately and 40 mins or so later and we were ready for pics and to go!

Great to have Jason join us again, again a local club runner, Jason was keen to have a steady run and achieve something tonight - Pretty sure we covered all those bases!

We are still on the look out for tasks but will contine doing the great jobs we do from litter picking to sweeping!

To finish up on the weather front - Have you heard of these words for cold weather? Hyperborean, boreal, hibernal, hiemal, gelid, bruma!

Great job everyone!

We finally made it back to Branksome and St Aldhelms Church, one of the first task locations we took on two years ago!

We had expected to meet Carey but due to a mis communication, Carey was not expecting us tonight so we headed over to The Manse next door to see Pip, the minister. We planned to take on the leaves with brushes, wheelbarrows and any other tools we could find in the shed!

Pip also showed us a new addition to the church, a paper cut out picture of Jacobs Ladder, with Angels on a continuous ladder to heaven. St Aldhelms is a church that you walk in the door and you feel warm and welcomed. It has a calm feeling, with its beautiful original stain glass windows, war memorial of names hand written and column hangings. The church is staying open for prayer and this has been welcomed by the community locally.

Back out in the surrounding garden, it was mix of spades, rakes, wheelbarrows and gloves that combined with a bunch of Goodgym runners- resulted in 4 wheelbarrow loads of leaves to pile onto the compost heap!

Elizabeth, Patricia, Jane and Becky were all fresh from there latest adventure- An obstacle race! The pics looked amazing, a few sore arms and shoulders and a blooming great effort at something so different!

Leaves all downloaded, it was a short hop over to Coy Pond where we ran through the gardens in the warm evening. Lisa was back with us for 2nd time and it was her first 5k in about a year, so extra kudos!

Thanks to Elizabeth for loads of pics and Robert for holding his own amongst all the ladies tonight!

Before 9 on a lovely sunny morning a small but enthusiastic Goodgym group gathered in front of St Aldhem’s church to be briefed by David, the volunteer church gardener, and allocated their individual socially distanced tasks. Mike, with the electric clippers, tackled the front hedge, which was looking quite exuberant. Nicky chose shears and set to work on the bushes on the Lindsay road side of the church and Christine trimmed shrubs and tidied outside the Girl Guide hall. Andrew worked sorting out the flower borders. Soon the results of our labours were clear and all the sites were looking much neater. The front hedge was looking immaculate! It had been a satisfying morning’s work. Father Pip came to meet us and thanked us for our efforts and David commented that we had saved him 4 hours work. Afterwards it was inspiring to go into the church and see how they have adapted to operate under strict social distancing restrictions and have been able to safely resume services and also keep the church open during the day for private prayer. As the group had later commitments it was decided not to run on this occasion.

We all met in the darkness, too tired to plot against Westminster so thought we could go for a little run instead!

Andrea and Anne set off 5 minutes before the rest of the pack for a walk / run option up the incline route to the church whilst the rest of us took a spin around Ashley Cross green tonight. In the future we will try and organise any walk / runs in advance, as not all our runners are on Facebook we may look for a special whats app group for walk / runners!

Tonights warm up drills involved a bit of balance! It was a superman move and lunges with a twist to have a go at - lets say we need to work on these a bit more yet but it was a start! Don't forget how important it is to work our trunk area as this holds the rest of our body when we are running and makes us a lot more efficient! A couple of 5 second blasts to keep us warm and then it was up the inclines of Branksome we head!

Onwards to the church and David was busy sweeping away in the church grounds and he was all prepared for us! Three stations with brushes, spades and wheelbarrows it was all ready to go, all we had to do was pile up the barrows high! Or in the words of David, 'Make Safe the way of the Lord' by irreligiously misquoting John the Baptist - His words not mine! But good to ensure all areas are cleared and safe for the church attendees!

The bashing of the spade could be heard clearing as Richard scraped away last few years of leaves and mud into the leaf pile. He made up a team with Elizabeth, Andrea and Katy who all worked there section.

Anne, Robert, Christine (sorry about the damp gloves Christine!) and Sarah worked the side of the church - fortunately there was no frogs founds as it turns out Sarah has a serious phobia of them - ranidaphobia is the correct term according to Dr Google!

Tim, Fiona and Ali worked like troopers however filling 5 huge barrows to the brim!

30 minutes later, all of us were meeting in the mid point so we left David with tools, a giant pile of leaves and a slightly damaged eye sight from all our head torches :)

I hope you all enjoyed the fireworks that I put on for you on route and return!

Happy Birthday to Goodgym!

It has been 10 years for Goodgym but only 13 weeks for Goodgym Poole - Not quite sure what took us so long but the number 13 is certainly not unlucky for us!

Fittingly we had 10 of us in total tonight to join the task, the number of red shirts on show increasing every week!

We had a few aching muscles as Nicki, Rob and Kirsty had tackled the Littledown 5 on Sunday. Kirsty is currently on day 10 (there we go again!) of her run streak as part of her 50 days before 50 - I am sure Kirsty is delighted we have noted that on the reports! Maria had run a whopping 16km - (yes that is 10 miles!) as part of her training on the weekend as well as Aaron who had planned and run 30+ miles, with not even a medal as reward - he certainly sounds like one of those crazy running types!

The task tonight was back at St Aldhelms church to work once again with David in the gardens around the church. He has been working on the gardens for many years and has done a great job, but with 10 pairs of hands extra, all the work has really come on! Once again there was a few inclines on the way up - Ashley Green was a stopping point for a quick drills (mental note for the coach - we need to work on these :)) and photo including the all important flag.

On arrival at the task, we had a team take on the patch of ground that was cleared in part last time - it is full of brambles and all sorts so back breaking work. Liz was back on the fork over there, with Ruth, Aaron, Nicki and Maria all digging deep to get it cleared. Rob and Julie worked on the copious amounts of leaves all around the building, clearing the main pathways. Kirsty and Sarah were on bush cutting duties! Great to be joined by Sarah proudly wearing her black 50 Goodgym T-shirt tonight, visiting from our local Bournemouth group - please do come again Sarah, it was great to have you.

Thanks for Maria for entertaining us despite her spanish slip up (I hope you are less blocked soon Maria ;). As it was a birthday celebration - there was one essential item - CAKE! Lovely to have a slice or two back at Daveena's before heading home, sadly now dark night.

Best of luck to Nicola who this weekend is completing the Disney Land Half Mara in Paris! Goodgym will be at Upton parkrun this Saturday to promote the work we do and we have a community mission coming up on Saturday!