The end of the school summer holidays saw a cooler Tuesday evening than of late and 26 enthusiastic Goodgym runners assemble at the Big Moose café ready to help out the RSPB. There was a buzz in the air as the newer runners and regular members chatted excitedly and shared stories of their running and Goodgym experiences so far. At 6.30pm, the group hastily made their way outside for the warm up, round up of the weekly news and head count. Tonight’s headcount featured everyone naming their favourite thing to eat for dinner. Pizza came out as the most popular choice – yum! The runners who took part in the Cardiff 10K were cheered for their efforts and Darren and Nathan shared their experience of the gardening mission they completed last weekend for a lovely 94 year old lady.

Without further ado we were off! We ran as one group on a less than direct route to the task at St Mary’s Church just to give us a slightly longer run and time for more of Ben’s en route fitness torture including holding a squat for one whole minute! There were a lot of groans and shaky legs. Within 15 minutes we reached our task location. Sue from the RSPB was there waiting for us at St Mary’s churchyard armed with tools galore and information about what the RSPB do and in particular are doing with this site. Sue explained the site was being transformed into a Buzz site to encourage pollinating insects and bugs which she told us are losing their habitats with more and more becoming endangered. The project also aims to increase awareness and involvement of the local community especially in educating children and allowing families to join in and get hands on.

So to the task at hand…

The first team set to work were Rosie and Fiona who were given shears and a rake and asked to trim an area of overgrown grass which will be turned into a wildflower meadow. Rosie got chopping while Fiona used the rake to make neat piles of the cuttings. Later in the task she asked Darren to move the piles to the area where all of the cuttings had been piled up awaiting the return of the skip for removal from the site and exclaimed, ‘Darren’s got piles!’ – he took the joke well. Next to be given their task for the night was team Jess, Jess and Rachel. They were handed loppers and asked to clear an area of overgrown shrubs and weeds. Those pesky weeds stood no chance with these three on the case chopping away with their super sharp loppers. The remaining runners were split into two teams. One team collected spades and forks and were asked to dig over an area that we had cleared on a previous task ready for creating a woodland wonderland for the insects. The other team were tasked with moving a large pile of cuttings closer to the exit of the site ready for the skip coming at a later date. Martin scooped up a huge amount of cuttings in one go and posed beautifully for a photo taken by Ben with Ben shouting, ‘show me your bush Martin!’ There may have been a few cheeky sniggers. Lucy and Darren saw an opportunity for a litter pick and went around picking up the litter from the area to be turned into a woodland habitat. Encouraged by their actions, Nathan, Marian and Elle joined in and picked up any litter they saw in their vicinity to make the site look a whole lot better. During the task Ben kept us entertained and our minds active with a riddle or two. ‘What’s red when you start and green when you finish it?’ Did you get the answer?

One minute to go!

Before we knew it Ben gave the 1 minute countdown and the task was over. A couple of group photos in the churchyard followed before collecting up the tools and gloves. Sue thanked us for our help and difference we had made and said she hoped we would be back soon, hopefully to fill the skip when it arrives in a couple of weeks time.
We said goodbye and made to run back towards town and the Big Moose Café. ‘Ha, not so fast guys’ said Ben, we have lots of time left for more running and fitness so he led us off towards the Bay along Bute Street. On reaching the Bay we turned back towards the city centre and a series of sprints along Lloyd George Avenue followed. We managed to gain an extra little runner for part of the sprints with a young girl and her dad wanting to race with us. She asked if she could win so we gave her a small head start and we just couldn’t catch her! Her efforts earnt her a high five from Emma. After the sprints we ran through town and back to Frederick Street where the speedier runners supportively cheered in the sexy runners. A cool down and stretch followed with Ben letting everyone know that he will be posting some training plans in the Goodgym Cardiff facebook group for 10K and half marathon distances. We were also reminded about this week’s fantastic second group run on Thursday to help set up the Insport Disability Wales event. For all the details click here

And with that we were finished. With the Glassworks being closed for refurbishment it was a trip to Central Bar where Emma provided the snacks of peanut butter M n Ms brought back all the way from Canada – thanks Emma! The famous tweet-off warning came and a rare winner emerged in the race to be the first to retweet the Goodgym Cardiff post about tonight’s activities. Well done to… me actually!

Next week’s run is ‘plogging’ with Keep Wales Tidy. Litter picking will never have been so much fun, such great exercise or so satisfying. Get signed up here folks…