DOING GOOD

A Sunday special & it was indeed a special one! Visiting the Age UK centre on Chad Park is always a pleasure; the regular volunteers there are delightful & the whole place has such energy & enthusiasm about it. This was especially true yesterday as the centre was eagerly anticipating the arrival of over forty local elderly people for their Sunday lunch club... or more like a runch club in our case!

What a wonderful initiative to help combat isolation & loneliness in the local community. We were excited to be playing our part to help support it.

It was also a special run as we got to greet some newbies to the GG Derby clan; a warm welcome to Gemma, Tracy & Clare.

We arrived at the centre to the waft of cooking & were welcomed with a pot of hot tea to warm us up - perfect! There was only time for one man to sit around on the job - cough, Sam, cough - (evidence is in the photos) & then it was straight to work, moving tables & chairs ready for Sunday lunch'in.

Once the furniture was in place, the finishing touches came out & tables were laid with cutlery & condiments. Everywhere was looking great & then it was of course time to grab a group photo with team GG & the Age UK centre volunteers before running back to base.

WHILST GETTING FIT

& what a beautiful way to get fit! The run out was a little damp as with got caught in a quick blast of rain, but we soon dried off once hard at work in the Age UK centre, working our upper body strength lifting & carrying. We then enjoyed glorious sunshine for the run back to the Jurys Inn as a reward for our good deeding!

A small hill to jog up & then it was plain sailing down Nottingham Road, over the bridge & up to St Mary's Church where Derby City was beginning to brim with life on a Sunday morning. We finished with a bit of a bounce as always on the bouncy-bridge by the Jurys before stretching & showing our butts to the world... well, to the guests in the hotel lobby anyway.

It was fantastic to be running in the daylight on a group run again, something we haven't done since our launch back in September. We'll certainly await the lighter evenings with anticipation!

WHAT'S NEXT?

After a little chat yesterday with the volunteers of Age UK, we think it would be a fun idea to host a 5km fundraising run for the centre on Chad Park... watch this space as its likely to involve both group runs & some community missions to pull it off, so we'll need your help!

Big Loves