It's so true GG gives you wings eh! We all agree Anita - As we flew into our task tonight .....

Tonight we welcomed back Thomas and congratulated Mark on his official 100th goodgym mission! Goodgym finally gives you wings :)

Mark is never one to take it easy on us, so the warm up on the green was energetic and fast paced. When he asked if we were hot enough, the answer came back 'not half!' If only we were solar powered!

As if it wasn't warm enough...GoodGym turn up the heat! pic.twitter.com/bEisLQOwvQ

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) June 25, 2018

On our run out to the task, we crossed the bridge and were surprised to see a man proposing to his girlfriend. As we kept running, a small round of applause suggested he'd got the answer he was after, how lovely!

We kept on going, towards Marble Hill House, then down to the river bank, where we were glad of the shade from the trees. Our task tonight was on the other side of the river so we headed back towards the bridge, only to find a film crew! Turns out we'd witnessed a film in the making, not a real proposal! Oh man, GG could have hit the movies....Never mind

Once at the task, we surveyed the enormous amount of weeds in the flower beds. "Is this-tle we have to do? This-tle be a great task!" we cried. We battled the prickly heat, the scratchy, sticky cleavers and the clouds of dusty plane tree seeds. We tried everything to get the more well rooted weeds out, a weed-le bit of this and a weed-le bit of that, until finally we had a whole pile of bags and a much cleaner, clearer flower bed, well sections of it anyway! Heading back, we formed our own little band of the seven dwarfs: itchy, scratchy, sneezy, sleepy, sweaty... we're just ho-hoping we can find sometime to come back & finish the job.

After a wacky races style race back to Wholefoods, with Anita claiming a last minute victory via a crafty short cut, we just had time for a round of Happy Birthday for Mark who turned 100?? on Friday! Happy Birthday Mark

As discussed in news here is the link if you wish to participate in the GoodGym Olympics via Strava before the weekend.

And we’re off… It’s the 2nd of January 2018 and undaunted by the bleak weather forecast or the weight of two weeks’ foraging in the Quality Street tub over the Christmas holidays, 12 runners reported for duty at Wholefoods in Richmond.

Mark promised us a gentle short run to ETNA in St Margarets, a local community centre, where we were due to finish a job we started last year, putting the weeds to bed for once and for all with some heavy duty matting and several bags of bark.

It kicked off with a game of ‘Where’s the wheelie?’, a bit like ‘Where’s Wally?’, although you’d expect it to be less challenging since the wheelie bin we were looking for could house a baby elephant (it took two search parties…).
Then it quickly became clear that this job was Mahmoud’s personal mission. Thwarted by too little time on our last visit, Mahmoud was determined to see the job through this time. He was so committed to the task, in fact, he even ran home to get better tools when those in the shed were found wanting. Then he set about cutting and laying matting like a man possessed, whilst we weeded and mulched around him. By this time, we were being pelted by rain and a little icy wind had whipped up around us, testing the spirit of even the most hard core GoodGym runner. The garden shed was starting to look pretty tempting. But Mahmoud, seeing one last bag of bark and with five minutes on the clock, persisted until all the bark was gone. He was definitely our player of the match.

So, 2018 got off to a stomping start with old and new faces joining us for the inaugural run of the year. Let’s hope the weather is a bit kinder to us for the rest of January.

Finally, remember to log all your runs on Strava/Runkeeper (and link it to your GoodGym profile) during January for the GoodGym challenge. Collectively across the UK, we are aiming to complete 5,000 good deeds and run 50,000 kms in a month. And then, of course, there is the chase for the glory of being the best team in the UK…

Welcome to Judith on your first run, I don't think Richmond has had a mother and daughter team, so it was good to have Heidi back and for her to bring you along, well played for getting stuck in at the task. Welcome back Thomas (lots of the newer runners were delighted to see you laden down with you graze snacks.)

Well done to all those runners who have signed up for events this year. One of the challenges mentioned was R.E.D January for the charity Mind, to raise awareness and funds for mental health. Jenna is running this one daily and whilst not necessarily participating for sponsorship, if anyone would like to donate then please contact her.

In amongst the news tonight , I should have mentioned that we have a "starter" run in the calendar for Jan 13th, if anybody you know is considering joining a GoodGym run but struggles with a Monday evening or wants to have a go with other newbies then this is the run for them. If you are already a GoodGym runner you can also use this to build up your mileage, so all welcome. The run details and task are listed on the website.

Finally, we left last year singing and for those that stuck around at the end of tonights run we started the new year in fine voice too as we sung "Happy Birthday" to Mahmoud. Definitely player of the match, holding his birthday celebrations at bay while he tends to his good deeds.

BTW.....BIRTHDAY'S ARE NEWS! You must tell us about them, we promise we won't give you the bumps!

Happy New Year all

Seventeen sensational @GGSHEFF runners ran 7km to help spread woodchip for Heeley City Farm.

We welcomed new runner Rachel Ripley to the GG family tonight, welcome to the team Rachel - Give her a cheer!

After a quick brief and headcount and with Sam as our trusty back marker we headed off to Heeley City Farm for the nights task.

This weeks task involved a hide and seek style start with tools and a treasure map of the task hidden away in a horsebox. We quickly deciphered the map and got to work, splitting into 2 teams to move woodchip to areas of the farm that were in need of a new layer!

Using wheelbarrows, wheelie bins and brut force we quickly covered the areas in need and even had time to fill some bags up for moving in the future.

After downing tools and accidentally disturbing the local scrumpers we headed into the fitness element of the evening which took advantage of the local topography....

This week we:

• Duck Walked

• Lunged

• Box jumped

• Downhill backward walked!

• Hill sprinted

After all this in the heat it was time to head back and finish with a fast becoming customary mini hill sprint at the end before stretching and spreading the word of the latest news including:

• GG Barnsley launch

• Chosen Park Run for this Sat

• Wednesday Runch

• #stickemup - see photos for Sam's excellent demo!

Next week we are off to Reagther so make sure you've signed up.

Happy Running,

Tom