It is that time of the year when our friend Stuart from the Friends of Palmeira and Adelaide reaches GoodGym Brighton for some Autumnal conservation of the community green spaces in Palmeira Square. Despite the chill air temperatures of this week Tuesday evening, 10 brave heart GoodGymers cycled and run to our weekly task, where Stuart, the lead gardener Jan and the lovely Andrea welcomed us with garden tools ready for some speedy (and warming up) raking action in the outdoors.

Have you ever raked wet leaves from a city park? Like (or even better than) exercising with a Power Tower Gym – Rachel’s quote, enabling you to perform functional exercises that are the most efficient and effective training regimen out there. With this powerful piece of equipment, you would be able to perform 4 major kinds of workouts, namely, Chin-ups, Press-ups, Dips and Vertical Knee Raises.

We managed to rake 4 big bags of green waste, 2 tons plus of minus, which will be collated in the new composting area enabling to recycle food and green waste separately, to close the biological cycle and produce lovely compost to regenerate new grass for the park next spring.

We welcomed returning new members Amy and Dagdas, and lovely Sarah who is commuting every week from PeaceHaven to what has now become her regular weekly appointment with GoodGym! Tell your friends WHAT's ON at GoodGym Brighton.

This Tuesday, 10+ of the GoodGym Brighton crew ran, cycled and walked over to Lavender House for a full perimeter clear-up. Headtorches on, we weeded, detangled and plucked our way through the edges of the building, filling up multiple wheelbarrows for compost and giving the outside a noteworthy November glow-up.

Jane had a moment of magic finding a red admiral butterfly and having it stay still on her hand long enough for a photo and a video. A flash of summer in a little bit of a November drizzle!

Also on this week's GoodGym Brighton’s wildlife watch: an honourable shout out to the many ‘bench bugs’ we had to yank coats and jackets away from, and a healthy, stocked-for-winter looking worm. Christophe’s ‘bright’ idea to light our group photo with headtorches gave us a more sinister, ghostly energy than our normal group shots, but it’s not been too long since Halloween so I think we got away with it.

Weeds tackled and all equipment returned, a few of us ran over the road to the Sidewinder for some burritos and much-needed trail run chat.

This Sunday, me and Rachel decided to do a GoodGym community mission and volunteer as marshals for the Hove Park Junior Parkrun. A wholesome start to the morning — helping the local community, cheering on young runners, and getting a bit of fresh air. What could go wrong?

As I made my way to the park, I started thinking about my own running. You see, I always seem to end up last in my age category at Parkrun (well, they call it age grade, which somehow sounds even worse). And as a 39-year-old staring down the next age bracket, I can’t say I’m particularly excited about it.

Then it hit me: Why volunteer when I could just run the Junior Parkrun and win? It’s a shorter distance, right? Surely, I could take gold!

In my head, I lined up at the start, ready to show those under-14s how it’s done. The whistle blew — and off I went. Run, run, Forrest, run! Parents shouted something (probably words of encouragement, maybe not), but with my headphones in, I didn’t care. I was flying. Some gave me looks — clearly just jealous of my speed.

And as I reached the finish line, I did it. I won! Because age is just a number, and the sky is the limit.

…Did that actually happen? No. Did I end up marshalling as planned? Yes. Was all that just a vivid daydream while clapping and cheering from my post? Absolutely.

Still, it was a brilliant morning — great atmosphere, enthusiastic runners, and plenty of smiles. I’ll definitely be back to marshal again. (Though I’m still slightly amazed they let me.)