We welcomed two new runners, Jake and Jaime.

Kay set the record for shortest attendance time, having to leave immediately after getting to the Oasis to go investigate a fire.

At the welcome circle we heard many plans for 2020 running and congratulated Helen for reaching 50 good deeds. GG Swindon itself also reached a milestone with 100 group runs and community missions combined.

At the task, two containers next to the running track, first thing to be aware of was not getting in the way of the track session in progress. Ben met us and explained the job, which half us knew well having started it back in November.

Bin bag fashion was all the rage, with the wind and odd lighting you can see some kind of scary black snowmen painting. We wrapped up the job bang on 40 mins, and the containers were looking great! Paul got a little distracted by the track, trying a 400m effort (training for the GoodGym Games?). Then off back we went with walkers finding a nice little shortcut.

Plenty joined for coffee and a chat. Remember to sign up for the Seven Fields parkrun takeover Community Mission here on Saturday 18th January, letting Sam know what roles you can do.

Having discovered last week that we are far more skilled at chatting and eating cake than playing bowls, we stuck to safe territory as we gathered for our group run and chatted about food. Tracy and Kay had set our gastric juices flowing by talking about their pre-run bacon sandwiches, and it turned out that most of us are pretty partial to a bacon, or in the case of Emma the Trainer and Richard, facon sarnies.

With stomachs rumbling after all this food talk, we headed off towards Swindon’s Athletics Track, the home of Wheels for All. This was the location of our very first group run in August 2018. What a lot has changed since then – we’ve welcomed lots of new runners and walkers, supported our community with hundreds of good deeds at group runs, community missions, and with mission and coach runs, made lots of new friends, eaten lots of cake, drunk lots of coffee, and had a party or three. But, with a chill in the air, unlike that first run, there was no time to reminisce and the walking group headed off with the runners in hot pursuit.

By the time we arrived at the Athletics Track, the rain - or was it sleet? – had started but there was no escaping the outdoor painting task. Wheels for All is a national programme that embraces all children and adults with disabilities and differing needs, to engage in a quality cycling activity providing fun and stimulating cycling across the UK. Our task for the night was paint one of the cycle storage containers – and we’ll be back in January for part 2! Ben had everything set up for us ready to go – a huge vat of “weapons grade” green paint, and an array of brushes, rollers, and gloves. Sam was taking no chances and turned up with the GoodGym painting equivalent of full hazmat – a carefully prepared binbag clothing protector and some fetching pink rubber gloves (her aspiration for full length vet gloves not quite being met by the local supermarket). Once Gaby had fashioned a protective and stylish skirt from a bin bag, we grabbed our rollers and paintbrushes and got stuck in to the task.

This was quite some painting task – a huge container, very smelly and sticky paint, and the distraction of athletics training in the background. But undeterred, we set to work – with Mike putting his recent home decorating skills to good use. We powered through the task – in an attempt to keep warm – and soon we had turned the container from red to green. With our noses and fingers turning blue from the cold, it was time for photos before heading back to the Oasis and a warming cuppa and even more chat!

There’s a lot of GoodGym activity coming up in the next few weeks – here’s the run down:

If you haven’t got a place in the Swindon 10K on Sunday 17th November, why not join the GoodGym cheer squad? Let’s turn Swindon red again! Good luck to everyone taking part!

On Tuesday 19th November we are heading back to Toothill Farmhouse where there’s always a warm welcome and a cuppa and a biscuit too!

Our next Community Mission is on Thursday 21st November – we’ll be at Swindon Tesco Extra handing out FareShare 'shopping lists' with suggested donations. Customers can then buy items from this list to leave at the in-store food collection at the end of their shop. This food is taken to one of 21 FareShare Regional Centres where volunteers sort it to then redistribute it to 3500 charities across the country.

It’s nearly time for our “it’s not Christmas yet” Christmas party on Saturday 23rd November – an afternoon of delicious food and good company awaits! Sign up by Tuesday 19th November to confirm your place!

And looking ahead to December, we’ll be supporting Prospect Hospice with gift wrapping – sign up to get into the festive spirit with Jo and Tracey!

31 runners ran 5.4km to help Wheels for All at the County Ground in Swindon

So welcome everyone to GoodGym Swindon! With much anticipation and excitement our launch night had finally arrived. HOORAY!!! GoodGym was first talked about in Swindon by Paul 'The Scientist' Bonner back in the summer of 2016 and now at last it was here thanks to Paul and a small team of Run Leaders with interesting names:

• Emma 'The Trainer' Sperring
• Paul 'The Scientist' Bonner
• Emily 'Crazy Legs' McManamon
• Lewis 'The Bird' Bird!

Feel free to chat to Emily 'Crazy Legs' as to the meaning of these names! You will know her by sight as she has a reputation for wearing brightly coloured leggings at every opportunity!

With the paparazzi taking photos and people passing by wondering what was going on, the GoodGym Swindon crew gathered outside the the Oasis Leisure Centre ready to get going! Thanks to the Leader of the Council, David Renard, for the opening speech, Emma, 'The Trainer' then continued with some very important announcements, which I'm hoping everyone listened to?! Maybe the parkrun megaphone would be useful in the future?!

Following a headcount, we then made our way to the County Ground, home to Swindon Town Football Club, foregoing the shortest route so that we could go the Scenic Route around the Magic Roundabout, a new experience for our GoodGym visitors from Royal Wootton Bassett (you know who you are!), Bristol and London.

Then at last we turned the corner, ran towards the Athletics Track, and saw 'Bike Mechanic' Lew Lawton and the team from Wheels for All with buckets of soapy water and sponges ready and waiting for us to arrive to clean those dirty bikes! And what fun we all had not only cleaning the bikes but also testing them out around the County Ground Extension with Lewis 'The Bird' one of the first on a tandem! Thanks to Lew for his extensive knowledge of bike maintenance but also Ben, Rich and James from Wheels for All.

We then decided to head back to the Oasis, home of the famous Domebusters(!), with one group going the quickest way and another group taking a detour around Tesco, we all arrived back pretty much safely keen to do some stretching before Coffee Corner closed. And the best bit of the night - relaxing and having a chat while eating mini milks. Heaven!

Please come and join Paul 'The Scientist' next week for a steady run into Penhill. We will be getting those paintbrushes out ready to help Glynis at the Haven. From all of us at GoodGym Swindon we look forward to seeing you all again soon!