9 Goodgymers gathered this evening for a visit to help Coventry Mind with renovating their outdoor space.

After chatting about our weekends and congratulating Greame on his marriage on Saturday :) we enjoyed a windy jog over to Coopers Lodge where Laura G, the task owner, was waiting for us. Joe walked and Mohammed cycled to meet us there.

The garden is such a lovely space with lots of potential however it has become a little overgrown and the sheds are looking a bit tired. Before the task owner had even finished explaining what jobs needed doing Greame was straight in with a tool scrapping the weeds from in between the paving slabs, loving the enthusiasm!

With a shed to paint and the weeding to do we split up to tackle the different jobs. Georgia, Joe, Mohammad, Chris and James made light work of painting the shed and even managed to paint the smaller one too. Greame, Matt and the trio of Laura's (Laura P, Laura G and Laura D) weeded, swept and raked the paving and flower beds making the area look much more pleasant.

With the nights now drawing in it was getting darker, so we cleared away the tools and made our way into the kitchen where the task owner had kindly left out some goodies for us.

We said goodbye to Joe and Mohammad who were cycling and walking home and then ran back to CBGC. With time for a fitness sessions we used the maze at Starley Gardens. Taking it in turns, ran around the maze while the rest of the group did an exercise of the runners choice.

Super work tonight all!

Shouts outs...

A big welcome to Chris and Matt on their first good deed. Love it that you already have the T-shirt Chris! Great to see you again Mohammad

Good luck to Joe who will be doing the memory walk for the Alzheimer's Society on Sunday and James who is volunteering for Myton this weekend.

More painting to be done next week at Coventry Boys and Girls club, hope to see you there!

9 Goodgymers braved the rain this eve to help out at the Food Union allotments. After it had chucked it down all day we were actually quite lucky and only really had to put up with a light drizzle for some of the session.

We welcomed Mohammad tonight and had the pleasure of Dale, Chloe and Dani returning to join in on another good deed :)

With us all running tonight we ran as a group to the allotments, looping back as and when we needed to and we met Jackie and Mohammed at the task. Greg let us in and explained the job in hand, he was a bit unsure if we were going to get it done in the time but we were well up for giving it a good go. Tools at the ready, everyone got cracking and with the help of Greg and Mark we got it cleared in no time. It was a fairly tight space for 11 of us to be working with sharp tools but you all managed it really well, fab work you lot! At the end, we enjoyed the fruits of our labour by trying out the plums on the plum tree above the space we cleared, loving all the free food recently.

The space can now be used for storage and to add logs for another little area for wildlife to thrive.

Hope you approve of the before and after photo's 😉 Dani

This week, eight Goodgymers ran, walked and cycled to Naul's Mill Park just outside Coventry city centre to support the Friends of Naul's Mill Park. Our task was to prune back all of the overgrown shrubs and trees covering some steps down to the newly restored pond, so that it is welcoming and accessible for park users. There was an event in the park at the weekend so a little litter pick (say that quickly!) was also needed.

We set to work with secateurs, a broom, rake and those big plastic grabby hands that Goodgymers love, and made light work of opening up the path to let more light through and ensure that it is welcoming and accesible to all park users. It also gives a much better view of the swan family enjoying their new pond. After tidying up, the runners made our way back to our start point via the Naul's Mill Linear Park, tried out the climbing wall and did a few continuous speed reps to get the legs and heart going!

It was a glorious sunny evening tonight and 8 GoodGymers enjoyed a 2.5 km run and cycle over to Sherbourne Valley allotments. Greg was there to welcome us and it was great to see everything in full bloom with giant sunflowers and pumpkins covering the area we prepared on our last visit.

There was a few jobs to get stuck into, Deb, Laura and Lil tackling the bind weed, which has wrapped itself tightly around some of the plants. Graham, James and Meera were on the weeding in between the paving slabs whilst Georgia, Laura and Greg prepared a soiled area under some trees ready for wildflower seeds to go down. With this being one of the furthest runs we only had around half an hour for the task but we worked fast to get a much done as possible. Time had had flown and we managed a quick group shot in front of a sunflower stem which towered above us.

As our second good deed for the day Lil kindly suggested that we return a supermarket trolley that Food Union had used to transport some plants. We ran via Morrison's to put the trolley back in its rightful place and then took a different route back down a narrow footpath which took us out by the arches at Spon End.

Fab work everyone, well done!

There are a few events happening at Food Union in the next couple of months so check out their facebook/instagram page for more info.