20 GoodGymmers ran 4.5km to maintain the gardens and help with the renovations at Samye Mindfulness and Wellbeing Foundation

Ommmmmmmmmmmm…………….

Wow! What an awesome run last night and I bet some of your arms are now aching?! If you joined us, here’s a chance to be reminded of the evenings' antics, and, if you weren’t there… well… shame on you (just kidding :P ) – But you did miss out on yet another AWESOME task!

On Tuesday 6th June 20 runners attended GoodGym Cardiff, and for Stuart, Carlijn, Alison this was their first ever run with us Massive round of applause please - It’s always nice to see new faces on our GoodGym runs! Also to mention, many of our runners have now acquired GoodGym running tees too – You are looking mighty fine in these – GoodGym models :D

A few announcements: Ben (not trainer Ben, Welsh Bandana Ben ) ran the Snowdonia half marathon on the weekend and came second Cheers and Kudos to Ben! Also to note, Jade is first place on the GoodGym heroes leaderboard for Cardiff – Check out the leaderboard here (Pole position is changing day by day!)

The evening's run started by Ben giving us a brief intro about GoodGym, making us do some warm up drills and a rapid fire head count. We were then on our way. We stayed together as a group on the way to the task, although the traffic lights managed to split the group and as a result Ben made us wait in squat positions until the lights changed again (See the photos for evidence!). We were holding it, holding it….. holding it…. Until… Waheyyyy the lights changed and the others joined us. Ben finally let us break free from our squats, although this was easier said than done as our bodies had almost cemented themselves into squat positions by now. Feel the burn!!

We arrived at the Mindfulness and Wellbeing Centre at approximately 7pm where we were greeted by Yin and Jon, the organisers of tonight’s task. Jon allocated some of the runners straight away to pull up carpets, carry planks of wood and move doors (very heavy doors I might add!). Yin led another group into the gardens of the centre to weed. Sioned, Ellen and Andrea got stuck straight into weeding - Professionals!

Ben encouraged runners to try mindful weeding and explained the steps. 1. Look at the weeds and notice its textures 2. Feel the weed, is it rough? Is it smooth? 3. Smell the weed – hehe – what does it smell like? (For obvious reasons mindfulness tasting of weeds was not encouraged!) Check out the photos of our weeding team – Hannah, you did an epic pose that just HAD to be included in the run report :)

Whilst the gardening team were weeding, the indoor renovating team were busy pulling up carpets, carrying planks of wood and moving doors. Using their initiative, they formed a chain and passed planks of wood from person to person... It was harmonious teamwork. Unfortunately, during the task the indoor renovations team found a spider that had sadly died… they did not let this hinder their efforts though, and after a quick burial (moving the spider outside), they persevered – Those doors weren’t going to carry themselves after all!

After 35 minutes of hard labour and to the sound of the ‘The Final Countdown,’ the task was over. Upon admiring the completed works, Jon said

I’m just amazed by what you’ve done

After a group photo (Check it out!) and some jokes from Mikey, we made our journey back. Ben somehow found the time to make us do a cheeky sprint outside Cardiff Castle too – it's okay, we secretly enjoy sprints! He told us about the importance of anaerobic training for running long distances running events; which includes anything from 5k to ultras.

We arrived back at the Old Library just after 8pm. Lucy and Sam, gluttons for punishment, ran a slightly longer route back, and apparently this wasn't enough for them as they dropped gloves and picked them all up too.

Well done everyone tonight, you all did super! Big thanks to Jade for doing an awesome job of backmarking too!

After tonight’s run Ben asked runners to come up with a ‘pun for the run’ and the one that got the most likes would be used as the title of the run report. The winner: Well done to Sam who came up with Carpet Diem…. You've 7 days to relish being the Cardiff pun king; Who’s going to win ‘pun for the run’ next week?

Same time and same place next week, 6:15pm at The Old library

Next week

Many runners have now set themselves a goal e.g. run a 5k, 10k, half marathon or marathon - this is AWESOME! Setting goals helps us stay motivated and committed to a cause and I want to help you reach these goals. I am going to be including some short and fun fitness elements into our sessions, and, to kick this off, next week we are going to have some fitness games! Woop Woop “Eyes widen and Ears perk up* These games will work your core body muscles which will help improve running form.

----- Things to Remember ---

• Would you like some training advice or support? Email bena@goodgym.org. I'll be more than happy to help you create a training plan and help with any running advice you need.
• Remember to bring your DBS documents next week if you'd like to be paired with an isolated older person (run coach) or do run missions (one off tasks for isolated older persons).
• If you have signed up to become a member then your t-shirt will be on its way to you! When it arrives, bring it along to wear on the group runs, and wear it with pride when on your coach runs and missions too :)
• Make sure you've sync'ed your Strava/Runkeeper with your GoodGym account! Then check out the GoodGym Cardiff Heroes Leaderboard to see who's top.

Remember to share this run report on your Facebook profile :D !

See you all next week!

Oooooommmmmmmmmmm................ Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.