Today was a momentous occasion for GoodGym Cardiff – the first ever Saturday morning group run! Our task was to run to Coryton Primary School to help them to set up for their Autumn Fete today and here is how it all went

Ten runners met at our one off meeting point Llandaff North Community Centre with varying degrees of eagerness. Hats off to Ben and Nathan who not only ran to the meeting point but completed ParkRun first! And to Andie and Aimee - well done for making it after both having late nights and a few adult pops on Friday evening. Ben began our warm up in the community centre car park with some high knees at various speeds – Andie’s suggestion of speed 11 was not very well received by the other runners. Next came butt kicks before we opened the gates to put those pesky sheep back in the pen and closed the gates behind. Before setting off we did a quick headcount where we had to give our name and our favourite flavour of cake. Carrot cake was a popular choice but for Martin the decision was just too tough and his favourite was “all flavours of cake”.

And we’re off down the river

With that we set off on our run to Coryton Primary School with Ben and google maps leading the way. In glorious sunshine, we headed as a group to the Taff Trail. It was a little muddy in spots but was a beautiful route meandering along the river with a couple of hills thrown in for Ben to keep us on our toes. At various points we stopped to re group holding plank positions and squats in our usual Ben Bootcamp fashion. Ben had brought with him a skipping rope for one of us each time to skip until the others caught up. Lucy and Martin despite not being the best at skipping gave it a good go. Thanks to Aimee for being a very able backmarker this morning and not losing anyone.

After about 20 minutes we reached the school and were greeted by PTA member Laura. She explained to us that the fete was to raise funds to make improvements to their outdoor classroom and to replace their well used wooden pirate ship in the playground for the children to use at playtime. She had a list of jobs for the GoodGymmers to complete. Lucy and Tom were allocated the job of hanging the bunting between the trees lining the playground and around the outdoor classroom which was going to be used as a stage for the band playing later in the day. Samina and Craig set about sweeping the playground to make it look spick and span. Nathan feeling big and strong was given the lifting tasks, moving chairs to the band area, moving sand bags and arranging the tables for the stalls. The other runners took on various tasks including a good old litter pick – we are becoming pros at them! Andie and Martin came to the aid of Lucy and Tom to help to finish the bunting erection at the end of the task. Whilst this was happening a quick game of girls Vs boys Connect 4 took place. Although I didn’t witness this myself, I heard it was an extremely competitive game with the boys, Nathan, Ben and Craig claiming a narrow victory over the girls, Samina, Lexi and Aimee. Come on girls – we need a re-match to pull even!

Domino’s and flapjacks .. yes you are reading that correctly!

Laura and the other PTA members were surprised and pleased at how quickly we completed the tasks we had been set and that we had finished the whole list. As a reward for our efforts we were offered slices of Domino’s pizzas and a chocolate topped or plain flapjack!! We gladly took the treats on offer but on the run back some of us discovered that running after three slices of pizza is not the best idea. We had our obligatory group photo taken beneath the school entrance sign before Ben suggested we complete the school’s assault course as out fitness session. Craig was raring to go and took to the climbing wall first and made good progress crossing it before we each followed on behind. Thankfully despite a few wobbles and screams we all got through the course safely. Lexi enjoyed it so much that she decided to go round again – respect. As a finale, we each pulled ourselves up the slope with the rope. Some runners performed a very elegant flip over the wooden post at the top – well done Martin and Lucy who needed a little assistance after getting stuck half way over.

Task completed and assault course smashed we wished the PTA well for their fete, waved goodbye and set off back to Llandaff North Community Centre. Our thanks to Katie at the centre who arranged for us to be able to meet and park there. We took a slightly different route back but we still used the Taff Trail and enjoyed the beautiful river scenery and ducks along the way – quack!

On reaching the community centre a cool down and stretching session was led by Ben. We reflected on our great task and discussed having Saturday morning group runs again in the future – everyone thought this would be a great idea.

Feeling great and having enjoyed our weekend outing we headed to The Plough for a well earned drink and natter.

The Runpunstiltskin Award

So to the most important part of the run report – the Runpunstiltskin award!! And the very deserved winner is Samina! Great to have you with us today and thanks for your fabulous suggestion.

Photno

As you may have noticed, we have less photographic evidence of today’s task than we normally would. Sadly Ben’s phone has had technological issues and lost the majority of the pictures that were taken. He’s battling to get them back and has asked our contacts at the school if there are any photos that they took of us whilst we were there helping that we could have copies of – watch this space for additional photos been added.

Join our next task

Our next group task on Tuesday is back to the Mindfulness and Wellbeing Centre to help with the finishing touches to their renovation project as they launch their new look centre. Sign up here

Thanks for a great run guys, have a lovely rest of the weekend and see you all on Tuesday x