To complement our parkrun super Sticker Saturday, GoodGym Liverpool has taken to the occasional "Parkrun on Holiday". This time, we were ticking off "C" on the Parkrun alphabet and heading to the coast for the Crosby Parkrun.

This extra run was arranged by Clara, and Clara's phenomenal organisational skills soothe my soul. She'd ascertained attendees, sorted a WhatsApp group so we could stay in touch without spamming the main group, and shared all the important information including public transport options, parking, amenities, and event schedule in advance so we all knew exactly what we were doing. As a fairly organised person myself, it's an absolute pleasure to attend a session Clara has arranged so thank you Clara for all your hard work in keeping us all together ♥️

The weather forecast was looking, shall we say temperamental, and Clara and I met early at the leisure centre and sheltered under the cover. We were soon joined by Liam and Aatefa and headed to the briefing point, where we were given the first-timers brief including the turnaround point at the iron man statue the Parkrun Crosby team have affectionately named Bing (get it?).

We were soon joined by Amina and got the all important group photo. Liam was nearly in hot water for not sporting his GoodGym t-shirt, but when it transpired he'd recently completed his 25th Parkrun, and was debuting the much sought after 25th purple t shirt on this, his 26th parkrun, all was forgiven.

It was then time for the general brief and GoodGym got a shout out welcome as parkrun tourists. One of the volunteers was celebrating her 400th time volunteering, a phenomenal achievement.

And off we went! The weather was kinder to us than expected, there was a little light drizzle mid-run but nowhere near the expected downpours ⛈️. It's quite a challenging course, running first on the sand (the 'out' was fine as the sand was quite firm, the 'back' much harder as the sand was more clay-like and sticky). We were all glad to reach solid ground for the section along the prom, up to the lifeguard station and back. Along the prom, one of the friendly volunteers was high-fiving us with Sweep, a beloved puppet from the children's show Sooty & Sweep. Then came the most challenging section of all - grass!

We all regrouped at the finish line, 25km completed between us. Amina had done well to make the run and had to get back for her bank holiday weekend plans, the rest of us headed for a Goodgym-style breakfast at a local cafe 🍳

Somehow despite the super challenging course, Aatefa had STILL managed to maintain her new sub-30 minute streak with an amazing time of 29:18. And I learnt it had actually been my 25th Parkrun! Might look into that purple t-shirt...

I certainly wouldn't have so many under my belt without the Goodgym Sticker Saturdays, so thank you GG Liverpool for endless motivation to get out running on a Saturday morning, and thank you Clara, Aatefa, Amina and Liam for a lovely morning of seaside fresh air, exercise, and a lovely cafe (particularly one that serves an iced matcha latte with coconut milk 💚).

We said goodbye and Aatefa and Liam made their way back to the city centre for ANOTHER Goodgym session, this time volunteering at the Savera march and festival. Well done guys what an amazing effort 🌟 But that's another report...

I spotted Miriam en route to the task and we walked up together catching up. We then met Tsitsi. It was so lovely to all be able to do a mission together as we have often done missions as pairs but never altogether and as it would turn out, this task really needed the three of us. We then headed for the task. Miss M welcomed us and showed us what needed to be done which was to dismantle a very tall metal bed frame. Miss M asked us to first take down the mattress and we were so eager to get going - we all forgot to take a before photo! We took the mattress down and put it into another room so we could start to work on taking the bed apart. We then assessed the best plan and best tools to use which in the end proved to be the simple, humble Allen key. After guidance from Miss M, Miriam first unscrewed the wall fixture and then quickly worked out to take down the bedframe we had to loosen the screws and then press in to release each bed segment. Tsitsi and I helped to hold the bed frame steady while Miriam started to loosen the screws. I felt all my gym training and all those shoulder presses had finally come in handy as I held the bed frame up on one side while Miriam and Tsitsi released the other side. After a bit of sheer force pulling out the side, we managed to get the top bit of the bedframe down safely on the ground. This meant we could then work quickly to take down the sides. We then moved at pace and showed Miss M the dismantled frame. Miss M wanted the slats also removing to ease with removal. Here Tsitsi and Miriam managed to quickly take off the grey covers so we could then start to pull out the metal slats. These proved trickier than we first thought as both sides had to be pushed down together and the absolute right angle was needed to then pull them out. After a bit, we managed to release all of these and put them to one side. It is always on missions that you find out some hidden talents and I learned that Miriam and Tsitsi clearly had excellently knot-tying skills - I have no idea what knots they did but it was impressive and held the slats securely together. We then put each bit of the bed securely against the wall and brought back the mattress into the room. Miss M seemed delighted and really grateful for all of our efforts. We said goodbye to Tsitsi after a selfie. I was walking the same way as Miriam and luckily so as Miriam gave me the all important update I crave which is whether pea fritters had been on the menu (something we share if we've gone to a fish and chip shop or been back down South) and started to sing "Right" said Fred, "Both of us together, one each end and steady as we go." which was the perfect pun for today's task. However this task definitely needed the three of us! As always catching up with Tsitsi and Miriam and completing a mission together certainly brought my week much joy!

Goodgym met up this Monday to help once again with the friendly team at Friends of Princes Park. After a round of introductions, we also decided to celebrate some less commonly marked milestones including 85 and 15 tasks with goodgym. Some might say it's important to celebrate achievements at any stage.

We split into two groups. One group went off to water some young trees much in need of a drink in this drought. Princes Park has recently planted hundreds of new trees, including several cherry trees which were a gift from the Japanese embassy. Our efforts today will hopefully transform Princes Park into a beautiful Oasis!

Group two set off to weed a wall which was overgrown with grass and brambles. Little by little we managed to cut back the growth on top and pull our the weeds in the wall which made it much tidier for passers by. In supersonic speed, we cleared the path on both sides and transformed a weedy wall into Wonderwall!

Afterwards Goodgym slid away into the evening until next time.