In the bleak midwinter there was a warm spot on the shores of The Mersey as a group of Goodgymers joined together to welcome the daylight in the shortest day of the year. Organised by Jo who unfortunately couldn’t attend we met outside a café that is well used to runners and cyclists and offers lots of outside as well as inside space and a mighty fine breakfast that we may mention again. Ema who had power walked over 5k to meet us and Steph who had also strode out to get to us saw us off as we set off for a run ‘down the prom’. The tide was out giving us glimpses of seaweed and sand as well as the ever present Mersey our river of life. We reached our turning point and found a helpful passer by to take our photo his dog, Ted was so excited and had a coat on that matched our Goodgym tshirts and so Ted became our honorary member for the photo shoot. We returned still chatting (do we ever stop). The sunrise turned out to be more like someone turning on the dimmer switch slowly and not fully however as Chris said it was a lovely way to celebrate the turning of the season. We returned to outside the café and were met by very enthusiastic Ema and Steph before we waved good bye to Chris who had to rush off on his bike to work. The rest of us had a chance to try out those gorgeous breakfasts and yes you guessed it chat some more. As we marked the shortest day and the longest period of darkness of the year and look forward to ‘the light returning’ it has to be said that the darkness is always lit by the brilliance of the Goodgymers. Thank you Jo for inspiring and organising this celebration today