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!

10 GoodGymers enjoyed a short run, walk and cycle, in this September heatwave, to Charter house. We welcomed back Dani and welcomed Chloe and Dale on their first deeds, great to meet you both. We also congratulated the superstar that is Laura on her 300th good deed 🎖️

We have really enjoyed doing our monthly slot at Charter house as every time they have had a different task for us to complete, keeping it varied and interesting. This week we met Gianni and his dog Bonnie and our task was to clear a pathway for cyclists taking part in Cov's big bike ride. With a trolley full of tools to choose from we each grabbed one each and set to work, taking it in turns to throw the ball to Bonnie in between.

We raked, swept stones and pulled weeds, working swiftly to make a nice even pathway for the riders to enter the beautiful Charter House gardens. With Dani thirsty for a bit more of a work out Lil and Laura came up with a fitness session plan of uphill pyramids. We said our goodbyes to Deb who was cycling home and Laura P, Louise and Joe set off on their walk back to base then started our uphill pyramids. It was good fun with both Dale and Dani showing us their competitive sides!

Once we were finished we made our way to CBGC and just caught up with Laura and Louise as Joe had left to go home. After cooling down a few of us went for a wee drink to toast Laura’s 300 and present her with a card and a cake made by Deb.

Fab session guys!

Ten Goodgymers ran and walked to Earlsdon to deliver some leaflets for a Myton Hospice charity ball. We met inside Coventry Boys and Girls club tonight as it was tipping it down. Deb had very kindly made homemade cakes as we had a double celebration tonight, it was Joe's birthday and Laura D's 100th deed and she had made special ones especially or us - so thoughtful! Laura P also brought along a card for Joe for all of us to sign which was a lovely idea.

Thankfully by the time we were setting off the rain had cleared so we did the warm up outside in the fresh air and then set off for Earlsdon. We met up with the walkers and poor Joe was soaked through after the rain had caught him on his walk to the meeting point. Deb had boxed the birthday cake and ran very carefully ran holding it all the way, once we were all together we sang Happy Birthday to Joe and presented him with his card and cake :)

We split into 2 teams and made our way down the first road, one team one side of the road and one the other. As there was 5 of us on each side of the road it was maybe a few too many so Lil suggested the teams take different roads to make it more efficient and speed things up a bit. This worked much better, we got into the swing of things and the piles of leaflets were shrinking fast. By the time we were ready to leave we had managed to deliver around 600 leaflets, which was fantastic!

It was a lovely evening, finished off with the yummy homemade cake, chocolates and a bag of plums that James had brought along from his plum tree, happy days!

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!