Having discovered last week that we are far more skilled at chatting and eating cake than playing bowls, we stuck to safe territory as we gathered for our group run and chatted about food. Tracy and Kay had set our gastric juices flowing by talking about their pre-run bacon sandwiches, and it turned out that most of us are pretty partial to a bacon, or in the case of Emma the Trainer and Richard, facon sarnies.

With stomachs rumbling after all this food talk, we headed off towards Swindon’s Athletics Track, the home of Wheels for All. This was the location of our very first group run in August 2018. What a lot has changed since then – we’ve welcomed lots of new runners and walkers, supported our community with hundreds of good deeds at group runs, community missions, and with mission and coach runs, made lots of new friends, eaten lots of cake, drunk lots of coffee, and had a party or three. But, with a chill in the air, unlike that first run, there was no time to reminisce and the walking group headed off with the runners in hot pursuit.

By the time we arrived at the Athletics Track, the rain - or was it sleet? – had started but there was no escaping the outdoor painting task. Wheels for All is a national programme that embraces all children and adults with disabilities and differing needs, to engage in a quality cycling activity providing fun and stimulating cycling across the UK. Our task for the night was paint one of the cycle storage containers – and we’ll be back in January for part 2! Ben had everything set up for us ready to go – a huge vat of “weapons grade” green paint, and an array of brushes, rollers, and gloves. Sam was taking no chances and turned up with the GoodGym painting equivalent of full hazmat – a carefully prepared binbag clothing protector and some fetching pink rubber gloves (her aspiration for full length vet gloves not quite being met by the local supermarket). Once Gaby had fashioned a protective and stylish skirt from a bin bag, we grabbed our rollers and paintbrushes and got stuck in to the task.

This was quite some painting task – a huge container, very smelly and sticky paint, and the distraction of athletics training in the background. But undeterred, we set to work – with Mike putting his recent home decorating skills to good use. We powered through the task – in an attempt to keep warm – and soon we had turned the container from red to green. With our noses and fingers turning blue from the cold, it was time for photos before heading back to the Oasis and a warming cuppa and even more chat!

There’s a lot of GoodGym activity coming up in the next few weeks – here’s the run down:

If you haven’t got a place in the Swindon 10K on Sunday 17th November, why not join the GoodGym cheer squad? Let’s turn Swindon red again! Good luck to everyone taking part!

On Tuesday 19th November we are heading back to Toothill Farmhouse where there’s always a warm welcome and a cuppa and a biscuit too!

Our next Community Mission is on Thursday 21st November – we’ll be at Swindon Tesco Extra handing out FareShare 'shopping lists' with suggested donations. Customers can then buy items from this list to leave at the in-store food collection at the end of their shop. This food is taken to one of 21 FareShare Regional Centres where volunteers sort it to then redistribute it to 3500 charities across the country.

It’s nearly time for our “it’s not Christmas yet” Christmas party on Saturday 23rd November – an afternoon of delicious food and good company awaits! Sign up by Tuesday 19th November to confirm your place!

And looking ahead to December, we’ll be supporting Prospect Hospice with gift wrapping – sign up to get into the festive spirit with Jo and Tracey!