On the first warm and sunny evening of 2018, a crazy large group of 51 GG Yorkies ran to a fabulous new project in York

We gave a big round of applause to our new runners and screamed wildly for Tim, who ran outstandingly well at Brighton Marathon yesterday. Not only did he run a marathon but it was also his 50th good deed so make sure you go and give him a massive cheer. Now, I was Bad Egg this week and had completely forgotten the Cape of Good Deeds (Leanne said it must be to do with being a new mum, having 'puppy brain') so I sent an emergency message to have the cape delivered to the pub for afterwards - more on that later.

We had three groups running to Spark: York this evening. A long run group lead by Paul and back-marked by Leanne, a short group run led by me and back-marked by Tim, and a power walking group led by Ellie and back-marked by Christine.

The Spark: York project is a fabulous enterprise using containers to enable small business, charities and community groups to have a space they can use (and afford). One of these brilliant projects is York Nurturing Community, whose café will provide allergy-aware, hot meals prepared with intercepted surplus and donated food on a Pay-As-You-Feel basis. Emily from YNC was the person who asked us along to help out and she had a big old job list for us!

It's my first GoodGym run and I'm the first at the task! - Rosie

The short run and walk group arrived almost together, and once we were hi-vised up we set about the following:

• Clearing a ditch of rubble into a skip
• Painting the ceiling of the YNC container
• Wire brushing pipes ready for painting
• Clearing wood from one container to another
• Sanding down some upcycled furniture
• Clearing out all the rubbish from another container
• Varnishing a mosaic which had been lovingly made by children with disabilities

Phew. Whilst everyone was getting on with those jobs, the second run group turned up and were tasked with cleaning every window and glass door, as well as sweeping everywhere. We also had to move lots of various items to different locations. If you took a moment and just watched the action from above, it was quite a sight. Hi-vis scurrying all over the place like little ants.

Leanne and Tim managed to baggsy the job of fireproofing one of the containers. It involved wearing one rubber glove each, donning a mask and hand-spraying clear liquid all over the wooden surface. Unfortunately, Tim's mask broke so he had to keep going to the door, taking a deep breath and running back in.

It's basically like diving - Tim

The final massive job was to shift two tonne sacks of sand across the site where it would form the foundations of another area. With only one wheelbarrow, people were grabbing buckets, cardboard boxes, pots and pretty much any recepticle they could find to fill with sand and take across. Once the bags were half empty, big teams of super strong GoodGymers were dragging them over and tipping them in. It was a spectacle.

We finished up with a thank you from the team, and I was delighted that they joined in with our workout - a GoodGym version of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.. which - you guessed it - included squats and lunges.

Mel, Ellie and Rob did an amazing job of repacking the hi-vis vests into size order and the heroic Ellie carried them back to base with the walkers.

I'm like hi-vis Santa! - Ellie B

After a team stretch out, some of us headed to the pub and Tim finally got to wear his cape with pride. There was some excellent posing with a pint and he shall run victoriously next week, with the cape blowing in the breeze. Don't miss out on that.. you can sign up here.

I leave you with a terrifying (but real) quote from our own GG Danger Man, Tim.

So, I think I'm probably fireproof too now, after all the spraying. Who's got a lighter?

T'was a cold winters night

It was also an early start for our final task of the year cooking for the guests of a Worthing Churches homeless shelter. This task was the one I had been looking forward to for weeks but also the one I was most nervous about . I'm not sure why after all what could possibly go wrong? Cooking for 15 people with 8 of us in a kitchen and no idea what we were going to cook!

All was calm all was bright

The fabulous 5 of us set off all sporting eye catching hats on a freezing cold but beautiful winters night ( post run endorphins have already blocked out the cold memories! ) Michelle, Gill , Belinda, Roxy and I breezed through the 1 km warm up to a warmly decorated and cosy house in Byron Road where we were welcomed by Luke and Martin who pointed us in the direction of the kitchen.

Causing a stir in Byron Road

It really did feel like Chrismas with a huge box of fresh food ready for our ready steady cook task of turkey stir fry with an oriental kick ! The 5 of us set about chopping vegetables ( Makes a nice change from pruning ) and planning the running order of events We were quickly joined by Paul ( fresh from his travels) Tamsin and Anne.

A recipe for ..........success

A range cooker ,two big frying pans, a large saucepan , a huge deep baking tray , a selection of utensils plus an amazing team of cooks were all the ingredients we needed and 30 (ish) minutes later we were serving up our gastronomic delight onto individual plates ready for the taste testing by the residents.

Tree - mendous

It seems that our cooking skills went down very well and it was thumbs up and thanks all round form our hosts. After the usual photos we togged up with our warm weather gear and headed off for the mystery run with a few surprises in store!

There were stars in their eyes and lights fantastic

We ran along to Goring and in particular a house which has been beautifully decorated at the top of Sea Lane in aid of The Chestnut Tree House. After the obligatory 'oohs' and 'aahs' and a few photos we then set off for our homeward journey.

Surprise Surprise Carol singing

We couldn't resist a bit of doorbell ringing and a GG rendition of 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' outside my house . Wow we were good ! So good Nick went running upstairs to get money before he opened the door !

Running home for Christmas

We headed for the seafront where the group did some extended efforts along the seafront before heading back via Byron road where we waved an 'adios' to Tamsin and Paul before heading back to Splashpoint and, for some of us, the pub for Christmas drinks with our park run buddies featuring the debut appearance of Belinda's home made amazing park run mascot ( yet to be named ) but you saw it first here !

Although this is our last task of 'term' and we are officially broken up for the holidays we are, in fact meeting up next Monday at 6 pm for a pre Christmas social run followed by food ! Watch out for the weekly fitness email for the final arrangements.

Festive wishes and lots of GG cheers

Julia :)

17 GG Yorkies ran to Changing Lives to paint three pink rooms magnolia!

Whilst a team of 7 went on a special Christmas mission in Woodthorpe, the rest of us ran to do some very challenging decorating. We welcomed along Shelley, who only moved to York yesterday, so we showed her all the best bits of York on our run like err.. the front of the train station and Marygate car park. Make sure you give her a big cheer!

Cara was armed and ready when we arrived, her paintbrush never left her hand. Our challenge was to cover the bright pink walls in three rooms with a much more soothing magnolia. Leanne quickly realised that her running jacket blended perfectly with the wall and if she could just stay very still, nobody would even know she was there.. but she's too much of a good'un to miss out on some hard graft.

We split into three teams and I cranked up the Christmas tunes to bring a bit of festive cheer to the task. Over in room three, Cem was already causing carnage just by finding somewhere to put the lid of the paint tub without dropping it on the carpet. Having already experienced GoodGym paint mishaps, Tim was supervising closely.

Room two was the first to get a GG logo painted on the wall, but had also managed to pull some of the wallpaper off. Lizzie was handed a scraper to perform her best surgical work and remove a tidy square, it was like it never happened.

Just paint over it! - Cara

The previous colour of the wall was vibrant to say the least. We quickly discovered that several coats would be required and were trying to paint over dry bits as soon as we could but the pink just kept shining back through.

If you just look out of the corner of your eye, it doesn't really look pink anymore! - A very optimistic Shelley

50 minutes down and we'd done the best we could without waiting for it to dry completely. At this point were were just spreading wet paint around and not really making progress so we vowed to return to paint more on another day.

The look we've gone for is patchy and rustic - Babs

It was time to clear up, rinsing was happening in every available sink and Nikki was absolutely determined to minimise cleaning by using up every single bit of paint from her tray.

Nikki is never going to stop

With Nikki and Becky finishing the rinsing, everybody else was holding the pose ready for a group photo. There was a rumour going around that they were taking their time to save everyone minutes from the impending fitness session but I was sure that couldn't be true. They even did sink squats to prove their dedication to the fitness cause.

We ran back for a partnered up fitness session with all sorts of exercises in pairs, including:

• Explosive jacks
• Jumping squats
• Plank and squat hold
• The sit-up and punch challenge
• Walk-out relays

Next week is our last run of 2017 so get signed up for a 5km to St Nicks!

Windsor Gardens has a right royal makeover

On a cold and damp evening in Sunny Worthing we gave a sunny and warm welcome to tourist Juliet from Brighton GG and also to Roxy on her second task with us which was enabled by a week off work. It was also a lovely surprise to see Roisin joining us again and I must also mention my regulars Belinda, Gill and Nick.

For the first time we were Beth 'less after the warm up

It was a sad evening for us without Beth who has moved to London and she will be much missed. However she will be joining us again in a few short weeks and we will look forward to seeing her.
Tonight we had a cracking 2.5 warm up through the town , onto the pier with a full tide roaring under our feet then continuing along the seafront arriving at Windsor Lawns to a big smile and welcome from Keith , our King of the park rangers this evening.

Harry and Meghan tied a Windsor knot tonight whilst GoodGym tidied a Windsor plot

Despite Keith being worried about there not being enough work for us to do we found plenty to do with a hefty dose of raking , pruning and hoeing filling up 2 huge garden bags with debris. There was still loads left to do and we will return early next year to complete the task.

It was great to get to know Juliet during the task .We hope that you will join us again one evening soon.

Make a run for it

We headed off for a steady sociable run with one group naturally evolving into the front runners with Nick, Gill , Roisin and Roxy heading straight back to Splashpoint and Belinda ,Juliet and diverting off to check out the Salsa Viva restaurant where we are planning to have our Christmas shin dig before finishing off with some home straight sprints along the seafront.

Some nice long stretches finished off another GG Worthing evening.

Looking forward to next week already :)

Julia