A Met Office weather warning of heavy rain and wind are never what you want to see when you check the weather forecast the night before a GoodGym run. However, mother nature was kind and despite it being a rather chilly April evening 7 GoodGym runners turned up to run and do good. It was also lovely to meet and welcome Sarah whose documents I checked so she can get involved with some coach runs (and hopefully a few Monday evening group runs!).

News

1. A big well done to the running machine Gill! for reaching the big 5-0 last night! Gill ran 37 miles on Saturday and as ever came along with a big beaming smile on her face…in fact I can’t think of many Monday evenings where Gill hasn’t come along! Along with being a big fan of the securters and running very length runs, Gill is a truly lovely, friendly, and inspiration individual who provides a lot of laughs and ‘punny’ entertainment every Monday evening (she’s also a fab parkrun pacer who I miss chasing down on a Saturday!). Thank you and well done, Gill – can’t wait to see you proudly wearing your black GG tee soon!
   
2. Sunday 13th May - Flower bed planting volunteers are needed for our huge planter (No.41) outside the Pavilion - lots of red flowers ordered, and white for the ‘GG’ logo…something Belinda admitted last week that she had recently realised, “it’s two back-to-front GG’s!”….who knew?!

We were all ‘digging’ the bug cycle garden

After a quick catch-up in Splashpoint we headed out on a short 2km warm-up along the Promenade and around the pier and then on to today's task. We arrived at the Bug Cycle Community Garden where we met by Nadia and Vanessa. The project is a wonderful and colourful outdoor space within Beach House Park that encourages children to explore and learn about nature and is one of my favourite tasks. Vanessa explained to the group all the jobs that needed completing around the garden: 1. A bed dug around each side of the path ready for wildflower planting 2. Planting of some pot plants and weeding 3. Soil relocation 4. Mowing of the grass to create a path

We came, we dug, we kicked grass!

Everyone quickly got stuck in, Anne and Tamsin did some 'spade jumping' to assist with the tough grass digging, as exclaimed by Tamsin “grave digging”! Duncan and Paul took charge of the wheelbarrow and the soil relocation, while Belinda and Gill got stuck into the weeding and planting around the garden - a quite amazing amount of mint was dug up by Belinda! The vast array of herbs filled the air with a lovely aroma and along with the stunning sunset and wonderful company provided all the ingredients for a perfect (and totally unexpected) spring evening! All the grass that had been dug up had formed an impressive mound and despite the productive fun we were having sadly had to call the task a day following the park rangers polite request to finish up so that he could lock up the park.

Gill’s 50th was kinda a big dill!

We thanked both Nadia and Vanessa and said our goodbyes following a group photo under the trellis. Following Gill's epic Saturday run and upcoming weekend run, she also said her goodbyes to deservedly rest her legs. However, we couldn't let her go home without first presenting her with a special 50th card complete with a felted seagull hair slide/brooch that was made by John and Belinda.

Dunc’an & diving

Duncan also had to head off for his gym boxing training so 7 became 5. Obviously a Monday evening wouldn’t be complete without a fitness session so we had a quick stop off in Homefield Park for a short time-trial around the outer loop of the park. There was some excellent ‘hip to lip’ arm sprint action and all appeared to have redder faces, heavier breathing and faster heartbeats within minutes, I think Paul even murmured "bring back Julia"! Imagine the excitement when I then suggested some hill sprints…sadly/luckily (delete as appropriate!) the hill path appeared quite slippery and so as not to have any injuries, despite the hospital being conveniently close-by, we forewent the hill sprints for some outdoor exercise machine work. The session was finished off with 10 enthusiastically executed burpees, and an attempted synchronised jumping photo which had varying degrees of success!

Next week’s task is “Wildflower Seeding in Goring By Sea”! Sign-up here and you’ll be pleased to know that Julia is back in charge next week and has promised some fantastic Aussie-esk weather and some bubbles to celebrate the Pearl Wedding Anniversal of Nick and herself!

Thank you all for making the last month an absolute joy to lead. Hopefully see you all again soon. And one final big good luck to Gill and Anne in the Three Forts on Sunday!