Great strides at Stepping stones

On an extremely humid and warm evening 8 trusty GoodGym runners met up on the 2nd spring bank holiday of the year. What a great turn out and so good to welcome Sue back after shattering her knee and breaking her collar bone in a riding accident 8 months ago.

It was also great to see John back with Paul for his bank holiday treat together with Tamsin , Barbara , Belinda and Nick for an evening of good deeds with a fair few laughs too !

The task for this evening was at the homeless hostel Stepping Stones which, as the name suggests is a half way house homing residents before they return to independent living. We returned this evening to help them with their extensive garden which has started to go wild !

We headed off for our steamy warm up along the seafront promenade stopping to look and our seafront flowerbed that we planted just 3 weeks ago and which is really starting to bloom vibrantly red.

I will cut grass when I get mowtivated

After a slightly delayed head shaking start and a bit of deja vu ,2 of the residents Nigel and Wayne arrived with the all important key to the shed so that we could started on our task.

The boys wasted no time in selecting their power tools. Paul with the mower , John with the strimmer and a little later Nick joined the power tool squad with an additional mower to attack the lush green lawns surrounding the corner house. The lovely smell of freshly cut grass soon filled the air.

The new weed whacker is cutting hedge technology

The ladies wasted no time in weeding and cutting back the front flower beds which soon went from over grown to clear and shaped and much tidier. It was good to hear the friendly chatter between Sue , Belinda, Barbara and Tamsin as a contrast to the hum of the power tools around the corner.

There was an interesting triffid plant in the garden ( hence the title pun ) which after deliberation and a few chuckles hit the green bin !

I came, I mowed I kicked grass

All too soon the time was up and after a unique photo moment with the entire group we headed off back along the seafront which was a little less steamy but no less hot ! Tonight, as a bank holiday treat and in what may well becoming a new habit, we swapped fitness for fizz.

Lets get fizzical - Roger that!

Whilst Nick was dispatched to the car for the supplies Tamsin started an impromptu set of extended burpees with an option of squats and chest presses which I challenged the group to continue until Nick returned. What kept him so long?!

We finished the evening with an idyllic drink on picnic rugs on the beach. On a beautiful , warm and still evening we enjoyed the usual entertaining banter mixed with GoodGym chat . We also took the opportunity to wish Nick ( aka Roger! ) Happy Birthday in advance of planning the next round of Birthdays drinks for Barbara and Paul in July.

Next week we return to the Bug Cycle garden in Beach House Gardens followed by a run and physical rather than fizzical fitness session. I'm looking forward to putting you through your paces .

Good Luck to the GoodGym participants Barbara, Paul and John in the Worthing 10 k this Sunday and to any others that I have missed.

Have a great week everyone and keeeep running !

Julia :)