In spite of torrential rain and the challenging distance(8km), 16 GoodGym runners still turned up to brave the elements, to get fit and do good in Cardiff by helping Headway, the charity that works to improve life after brain injury

The winter weather has now arrived, brace yourselves runners for colder and wetter runs! Fear not, though, as when running with GoodGym you will never run alone! With these motivating words going through minds before GoodGym this evening, a Tuesday run with friends is not to be missed.

At 6.30 Ben led runners outside for the warm up. Ben told runners to jog on the spot and called out numbers from 1 to 5. 1 was the slowest speed interval and 5 the fastest. Ben then asked the group to call out numbers themselves, 1 and 2 suddenly became the most popular numbers – The ante was upped when the number 6 was bellowed out! Butt kicks and high knees followed and soon after we headed to the task with Ben leading the way and Team Emma backmarking. It was good to see Fliss, Claire and Aura again joining in on a GoodGym run!

1 Mile down

Let’s get squatting guys; Right, lets see if we can hold a squat whilst the others catch up… quads began to burn but sure enough Team Emma weren't far behind.

2 Miles down

Whilst waiting for the traffic lights to change there was time for a quick round of trivia. Time to guess the movie quote! “Is it secret? Is it safe?” Click the quote for the answer! Ellen got it right on this evening’s run!

We’ve arrived at Rookwood Hospital!

All 16 of us made it to Rookwood Hospital and in good time! Looking like drowned rats or soaking pussy cats we said hello to Rebecca who was the task organiser of this evening’s run. Rebecca told us all about the charity Headway and Rookwood Hospital – Click here to find out about Headway

Rebecca explained that the painting task that was planned could no longer be done due to the risk of asbestos, however, she explained to us that there are a couple of rooms that are very much in need of cleaning… our eyes lit up when we saw the room as we couldn’t wait to get stuck in and make a positive difference. Lucy armed herself with the hoover, Fliss was her furniture moving assistant, Jack filled up buckets with water, Martin’s weapon of choice was a rag, Daz couldn’t resist the opportunity to clean dishes and Charlotte, Aura, Claire and Lorena also amred themselves with cloths. Charlotte’s display of ‘wax on, wax off’ at last week’s task were very much present again this week! 25 minutes flew by but we managed to get the work done!

You lot work so fast!

Rebecca thanked us for our efforts and wished us well on our journey back to Yr Hen Lyfrgell. The rain was still beating down hard and but we are GoodGym and we laugh in the face of rain… hahaha.. Okay we didn’t… we just knew we had to get back. Lucy backmarked the run home!

On our way back Ellen led us through a shortcut via a park. Although it was dark it still provided us with different scenery on our return journey which we were all grateful for.

On the way back we stopped to regroup and a special treat was in store…

Daz’s riddle for the week

This week Darren had a riddle for the run which was pertinent to the evening. “What gets wetter as it dries?” … If you think you know the answer put it in the comments section below! The rest of the run involved interval sprints and planking and low and behold we made it back only minutes after 8pm – Hooray!!!

THE WINNER OF THE RUNPUNSTILTSKIN AWARD

Holding the RunPunStiltSkin award in high regard, a big mention has to go to ME! (Ben) who is this week’s winner! You are just amazing and you can have the award for the whole week. Show it to your friends, your family but keep it safe!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

After the run Aimee, who is currently taking a break from running owing to injury was waiting for us at the Glassworks pub with Pumpkin pie and Vegan chocolate cookies. It was a lovely surprise and even though she isn’t able to run with us at the moment it’s an absolute pleasure to see her after the run every week!

GoodGym Cardiff now feels very much like a family and new family members are always welcome!

Join us on our run next week. Click here to sign up