I hate goodbyes, and tonight we had to do two of them. Both Martin & Rachael have been a part of Brighton Goodgym from the very start, both attending our launch night more than 18 months ago. Since then Rachael has achieved well in excess of 50 good deeds through group tasks and visits to her coach, whilst Martin is just shy of 50 good deeds through group tasks and missions. You have both been an integral part of Brighton Goodgym’s journey and your energy and positivity will be sorely missed. We all wish you the best of luck in your new lives in Manchester and Petersfield and hope you will join us again for a group run if you ever find yourselves back in Brighton on a Tuesday evening! And Martin, don’t get any ideas about representing Manchester at the Goodgym Olympics, unless of course they’re willing to offer a substantial transfer fee!

Other big news this week focussed on the Brighton Half marathon where we were represented by Roy & Michael who both completed the course in impressive times. My race was less successful as I retired with a damaged foot that meant I had to do this week’s run by bike.

So for this week’s good deed we had an unseasonably balmy 3km seafront run to get to Scope charity shop in Hove. The shop is a big fundraiser for a great charity aiming to improve and empower the lives of disabled people, and its also a great way of recycling all the unwanted clothes produced by modern shopping habits. Shop manager Heather set us to work on tagging bags full of summer clothes ready for the change of season as well as labelling books and shoes. It was a quite time consuming job and made us realise how much work goes on behind the scenes to prepare stock for the shop floor.

Task complete we enjoyed the 3km run back to base with a quick burst of press-up, squat and shuttle run relay and some hill sprints up the ramps before a few of us headed to the pub for a final farewell to Martin and Rachel.

See you next week for a longer run out to Moulescoomb to help out at the Good News Centre.