After four seasons in as many days Monday night arrived with a generous helping of rain. But was it mulch too wet? Never! Not for goodgym! Some of us met at 'the suitcases' and ran up to the task - it was striking that on the mile and a half run we passed areas we have litter picked, a place we have helped to create wild seed beds, and an area we have helped to weed and clear up. No two tasks are the same - it is never much of a mulchness where Monday nights are concerned.

When we arrived at the Greenhouse Project we were met by Sandra who completed her first task tonight (yayyy welcome Sandra) Heetu and Ema.

We immediately set to work filling bags and wheelbarrows of (you guessed it) mulch and transporting it to the flower beds. The mulch was spread around the established plants to discourage unwanted weed growth. Due to the continual rain the mulch felt heavier so we all got a good work out - to keep warm some people took to running laps of the area in between tasks, running with the wheelbarrow and doing some spontaneous star jumps.

Despite the rain spirits were high and there was still a lot of chat whilst we worked. Nobody sang, that I could hear,although one suggestion for a song may have been ...Mulch is all around me (and we're wet wet wet!)

We have been to the Greenhouse Project a number of times and always receive a warm welcome and are happy that there's mulch to do at the Greenhouse Project and so we get asked back.

In true Goodgym style many hands make light work and in super quick time we had finished the task and we were ready to pose soggily for our group selfie ( apologies to Pauline who had to rush off to her drumming practice so wasn't in the group picture)

Speedy gone mulchly - our work is done.

Shout outs to Heetu for her 50th task (which included a double mission this weekend) and Sian for her 10th task. Credits for photos to Pauline and for puns to Bekah and Ema. Kudos to the team tonight for working up a storm in a downpour

This week 4 runners and 1 cyclist met on Hope street and headed out into the night to meet meet 5 more goodgymmers at Ullet Road Church, where we were tasked with emptying an old storage room.

We made quick work of the 1.8 mile run (turns out having a cyclist as a pacemaker really speeds you up) and arrived at a bustling church hall. At first, the task seemed like a tall order (see the before pic) with the room filled with a miscellany of strange and wonderful items including a bath tub!? We had to manoeuvre each item down a narrow stairway into the basement. But as usual many hands made light work and we were done and dusted in a record 35mins, leaving plenty of time for tea and biscuits.

Thanks so much for all of your hard work. The church will now be able to use this space to store chairs for the many events they hold and will make their lives much easier!

Although the days are getting longer we are still currently meeting in the dark - so it was a dark evening when we met at The Brain Charity to help them tidy up their outside place. Everyone arrived independently - totaling over 19 miles between us of walking and running. We welcomed new members Sarah and Kleanthis to their first task. Great to have them on the team. The tools had been hidden by the staff of the project so uncovering them we soon set about cleaning and clearing the tarmac and beds of leaves and rubbish. Its a big area and our torches picked out the litter but when we started to rake the laves up more and more litter was also found amongst it. We uncovered little plants that will now be able to grow without having to push through the huge blanket of leaves. Sian found a grid under a mound of leaves and earth which will help with drainage when we next have a big spate of rain. Its amazing how much can be done when everyone works together - 13 bags of leaves and 2 bags of litter and even in the dark we could see that we had made a difference. Huge well done to Harriet Pat and Lucien for completing 5 tasks.

This weeks session was based in a beautiful Georgian square which has been witness to many film shoots tonight was no exception as part of the session was used for Sallyann to complete video sessions for her run leader assessment.

It was heartwarming on such a cold night to see everyone turn out and be such obliging students (guinea pigs) so she could get this last bit of her course complete to gain her certificate as a run leader.

Filming over and we picked up litter pickers to do a litter pick – we were all so pleased to see how little litter there was in comparison to other nights – however we still managed to fill six bags and Steph still found what seems to be her standard find, an item of clothing .

As we weaved our way through the streets a couple of residents came to thank us for our work. Pat was thanked by a resident who gave her a fresh scone – its gestures like this that are just like a warm blanket on a cold night.

We ended the night by going into the famous Philharmonic Pub to have a social chat in the warmth of an historic pub. It was the first of our monthly socials and we all welcomed the warmth and a chance to catch up with each others news.

And talking of news 4 of tonight’s crew are training for the Manchester relay and used it to put in the miles for their long run and have made it to the half way mark 5k down 5k to go ( we are trying to persuade others to join us… watch this space)

Sian and Lucien ran to and from the task and Ema, as always, totted up the most miles walking to and from the task – 5 miles round trip.

What a productive evening we all had.