On a lovely July day, 14 GoodGymers headed to Brockenhurst for a scenic 10 mile loop around the New Forest.

First to arrive was Bath’s own Emily Jones, who took the sensible decision to camp the night before.

9 of us arrived on the train from London and decided to take the scenic route from the station. After a couple of wrong turns (during which I at no point started loudly shouting that someone else needed to take over the navigation NOW) Tom had us back on the right track. Unfortunately after we made it to the top of said track, it turned out that we still had a mile through the farm to go and so a quick warm up jog was called for. Luckily we made it about five minutes before the race and managed to find Emily just before the start! We also met Neil, who had taken the later train from London and somehow managed to arrive before us.

Alas, no such luck for the Bristol crew, who were stuck behind a lorry and not moving.

The race itself was great, 10 mostly flat miles through some lovely New Forest scenery with horses and cows to see, and lots of friendly encouraging marshals!

Racing done, the Bristol crew arrived just in time for the picnic. The sun came out in force, we almost certainly ate more sugar than we’d used on the run, and we even got offered the end of the keg of beer by the crew packing up.

As the Londoners took the non-scenic, much shorter route back to the station, the Bristolians decided to stretch their legs with a swift 6k before the drive back.