DOING GOOD

What an evening! 19 GoodGymers hitting the pavements of Derby to do good & get fit on the spookiest GG evening of the year! Our biggest turnout in quite a few weeks - nothing to do with the shorter run eh guys? - & a crackin' evening of doing good, running & team games involving a pumpkin or two in 'traditional' Halloween fashion.

On behalf of the Friends of Darley Open Spaces (FoDOS) we cleared the top Darley car park of litter (suprisingly, not a lot), bagged up as many of the fallen leaves as we could & swept the space clean! That car park looked amazing once our 38 hands had had their wicked way with it!

Achievements

• FOUR bags of leaves swept up
• ONE bag of litter removed
• ONE happy car park & volunteer group!

Our hard work was noticed immediately by a local resident passing by who commented on what a smashing job we were all doing. She said that she collects litter every morning - which explains the lack of it - & that some mornings she finds a tenner... we weren't so lucky!

WHILST GETTING FIT

We stepped outside of the warmth of the Jurys Inn, away from the temptation of the shelves of chocolate & crisps (& beer) & worked on our high knees to create some heat. The one mile run from Jurys Inn to the car park took us straight up Cardiac-Hill, the perfect warm-up & we were ready for good-deed-iness!

After completing our mission & with the car park clear & obstruction free, cones were set up & we broke off into pairs, completing alternate laps (6 each to be precise) to make up ANOTHER paarlouf session! We'll have a week off from that, promise.

With heart-rates elevated & legs pumped... it was time for the much anticipated PUMPKIN RACE!

The Annual Pumpkin Race

Two teams headed up by Emma & Helen (who bossed the Halloween fancy dress!)

One badly decorated pumpkin per team.

Each runner takes the pumpkin to the cones & back to their team... safely! The pumpkin gets passed on to the next runner & so on, until each runner has cared for their pumpkin baby, in the fastest time possible.

A couple of mishaps, including a dropped pumpkin (documented well in the snaps!) & some rowdy-running, but both pumpkins made it back safely to their teams, with Helen's team taking home the win with about a 5 second margin! GO TEAM!

"We had a smashin' time!" - Ashley

Big thanks to Kathleen for marshaling our first Pumpkin Race & well done to everyone for getting stuck in with so much gusto!

Here's to replicating that at Christmas with a pudding...

WELCOMES & THANK YOUS

It was wonderful to welcome new faces to the clan last night & you no doubt added to the fun! We hope you enjoyed the Pumpkin Race Kate, Ellie & Sid & hope to see you soon for more weird games!

Thank you to BadGym for being a surprisingly well behaved front-runner. Thanks David for being an ace mid-marker & for joining us all the way from Sheffield! & a BIG thanks to Emma, Helen, Alice & Lehann for embracing Halloween & coming in your spookiest attire. You guys smashed it!

UP NEXT...

We're running to Mackworth to flyer for the Direct Help & Advice service; the perfect task for enjoying the sky which is sure to be illuminated with fireworks on Guy Fawkes night! Come along for our first FLYER-WORKS night... get it?

Big Loves x