Thrilled at the prospect of it being LIGHT OUTSIDE since the clocks went back, we enjoyed a sunny (but still chilly) evening in Hanover.

With plenty of new faces at the meeting point, we started with introductions and congratulated Pippa on 50k last weekend, and wished Olivia good luck for the London marathon on Sunday. Then it was straight into some hill workouts, with a long slow hill to endure at the start, then a wee speedy one up to the Pepper Pot at the top of Queen's Park.

Arriving at the task, we were met by fellow Goodgymer Michelle, who has a side gig as a primary teacher. She showed us the half-built monsters being prepared for the Children's Parade, which kicks off Brighton Festival in May. The theme is Where the Wild Things Are, and we were wildly excited to get stuck in! Whether it was constructing leaves from willow sticks, adding a layer of papier mache to a giant monster, stripping colourful ribbons off sticks, or blowing up rugby balls, we all channeled our inner 8-year-old and had a great time.

We were sad to wrap up when the bell rang, but playtime wasn't over! We braved the chill wind to complete an 8 minute interval workout, and discovered that some playground equipment is a lot more challenging than it looks. Finally it was home time, and we ran our separate ways, with some of us making a detour to take in a fab view of the setting sun 🌞

Thanks everyone for a great task, looking forward to more sunny and (hopefully) warm sessions in the coming months 😎

A group of Good-Gymers jogged two miles up an incline to Cardinal Newman School. Meeting the rest of the group there! After we found the entrance we were met by the care taker Pedro who showed us the school gym which needed cleaning. We welcomed two new members Olivia and Hannah and welcomed back Daniela who quickly got stuck in.

Looking at the school website we were in the St Augustine Building which also has a climbing wall - a nice one to discover next time!

We donned gloves and got to wiping and dusting the pretty dusty gym equipment. Some of us who were good at multi tasking managed to use the running machines and clean! We had fun on the balance board. We were impressed with their moto use your muscles not your mouth although we definitely used both!

After we finished up we jogged up a hill to The Dyke Alehouse to enjoy a drink and some chips. Nice meeting here Lucia too!

9 shorter goodgymers, and 1 tall goodgymer jogged to the new premises of Brighton Youth Centre which is in a building that used to house an entertainment venue based around optical illusions- cue a migrane inducing spotted carpet and deep purple walls!

The GoodGym-ers got to work clearing a back storage room of fun games such as table football and space invader machines. We took the job very seriously, ensuring the table football worked after being reassembled by having a quick kick about! ;-)

We then donned our 'people at work' overalls and transformed the back room from dark purple, adding the first coat of white paint, and the office area from blood red to clean white. The one tall GoodGym-er amongst us (thanks Rob!) was designated ceiling cutter inner.

An awful lot was accomplished in a short time, leaving time for the more hardened amongst us to join Pippa for a quick fitness session around the Queen Victoria Gardens.

We always have a great fun at the Brighton Youth Centre and we will be soon back!

Brighthelm Centre is a well-established community venue situated in the heart of Brighton. Our first ever beneficiary charitable organisation, a short run from our meeting point at the Victoria Statue in Brighton.

GoodGym’s call today was to make the space much nicer for its community groups and tenants, and so we did by tuning our GoodGym steps with the Zumba choreography of ZumbaWithMon Class, which is on here every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday!

We tackled the centre’s stairwells with a double GoodGym action: by deep cleaning the steps and making the windows shined top down and bottom up, and vice versa.

Nice bumping in the musicians from Water Bear College of Music and other community groups who were busy in the rooms upstairs. This gave me a sense of belonging to all those organisations that we serve with our active GoodGym volunteering work. And, it just keeps resonating a mutual devotion for each other community charitable mission, and enduring respect for all the diversity, time and energy that we all donate while contributing towards a greater Good in our city. This is Active Kindness, among each other and all.

Today we kept our running short to rest (a bit) our legs prior a busy four sessions on this weekend, 24-25th February. Click here to sign up on what’s on in Brighton area.

Brighton GoodGym-ers will be volunteering and/or running at our local parkruns and at the Brighton Half to embrace our cause while engaging our hearts in memory of some fellow GoodGym-ers. We are also fundraising for Mind.