Lemon tell you how it all began…

GoodGym Windsor and Maidenhead only launched three weeks before Covid-19 necessitated a hold on group runs. Although the first few weeks had been a great success and the magic of GoodGym was starting to spread in the Royal borough, this GoodGym community was not well established and naturally therefore engagement in lockdown was limited. Until…

Leeds Trainer Aron Fulton had an idea to re-create the Endure24/Thunder Run style event in a virtual 48 hour relay. Having run Endure in the past, Windsor and Maidenhead Trainer Amy Lovell thought it looked relay fun, and a few other runners put their hands up and roped their friends in too.

A couple of days before the start, we had a plan that would get us to 390km. Most of the darkest hours weren’t filled, but we felt 390 was a respectable number (almost all the way from Maidenhead to Durham!) and Amy was too polite to ask anyone to run in the small hours anyway.

Is that a lemon in your pocket…?

Believing that the baton needed to be the same for every runner in the team, Amy cast around for ideas, and Nathalie De Juan landed on a lemon: pocketable or palmable, easily procurable (especially if your children have a plastic lemon in their toy kitchen), packed with nutritional value, and very handy for a post-lap G&T – it was parfait for the job! The lemon was picked, and team Squeeze the Day (or even 2 days) was born.

Amy and her husband James Lovell plotted everyone’s addresses on an OS map using little blue stickers and came up with the imaginatively named routes A and B, which passed most people’s houses so that runners could cheer each other on from their doorsteps.

The chalk of the town

As the countdown ticked from days to hours, Wendy Rumble heroically cycled the routes chalking helpful arrows at junctions, and other runners created chalk art on the pavement outside their houses to spur others on. As Sophie Lack donned her GoodGym t-shirt and citrus-themed leggings for the inaugural lap, the heavens opened and washed away half the chalk. Sophie got drenched as she set out, but we were not fazed – we never expected it to be easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Now dear reader, make yourself a nice fresh lemonade and sip it slowly as you read the next bit. Its long, but the team had 24 runners and each and every one deserves recognition.

Strong Girls Club

The first 50k was all run by ladies...Sophie only started running this year, but she powered round looking lemony-fresh.

Nathalie hadn’t run close to 10k since having children and was thrilled to slice nearly 20 minutes off her expected time. The rest of us were very proud but not surprised – she did the couch to 5k course with local parents’ running group Buggy Squad in the winter and buggy running does make you strong!

Jen Francis was caught unawares by Nathalie’s early finish but she took an arty photo of her lemon with her trainers, blew our minds by sharing her live location on WhatsApp (game-changer!) and sailed round for the first of her 4 laps – we can report she looked similarly relaxed and gazelle-like for all 4.

Ros Cooke was up next and raised the bar by pushing round her daughter in a double buggy. This was an awesome achievement given the by now gale force winds and the hills on route B. She must have decided this was a good way to transport a toy lemon though, as she did it again on Sunday and Monday. Ros's mileage also goes towards her challenge to run 100km in May in support of the Darby Rimmer Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Foundation. You can find out more and support Ros by clicking here.

Wendy was next. As a pioneer in the buggy running world, she is on The Independent’s ‘Movers List’, which recognises individuals who have inspired their communities through sport, so she’s running Royalty. No surprise therefore that she had Fran Sille’s husband Nick running alongside at a safe 2m distance to shield her from her doting fans, and that an ice cream van was waiting for her at the finish. At the end of her second lap later in the event she continued behaving like a pro with an ice bath in her paddling pool, and by lap 3 husband John Rumble was providing a mobile water service in their lemonsine.

Thirst class

The next 50k were all about firsts:

Paul Isherwood was the first male to carry the lemon, and quicker than he expected as well. Kudos to Paul for a no fuss midnight run on Sunday too.

Sula Bransden was the first and only to run in Windsor rather than Maidenhead, as well as the first to pour herself a celebratory GoodGin and Tonic having knocked an impressive 6 minutes off her expected time. She did it all again on Sunday as well.

Fran Sille squeezed us our first sub-50 lap, and showed us she had plenty more juice in the tank when she went on to run a double on Sunday morning and then on Monday zoomed through the team’s overall fastest lap (46.04 including a couple of Strava crowns – can we make a segment pun here? Do lemons have segments or is that just oranges?)

James Lovell also hit sub-50, which was no mean feat having just done bath-time and bedtime with 4 children aged 5 and under.

We also welcomed our first same-day recruit, Lara ‘I now regret this morning’s 7k’ Edmonstone-West. Well she needn’t have worried about that earlier 7k – she bagged herself a PB and completed her lockdown Medal Mad challenge all in one fell GoodGym swoop. Boom!

Citrus got real

Meanwhile, there was fighting talk on the WhatsApp. As camaraderie grew, the night slots started to fill… John Rumble (aforementioned water boy who had been signed up blind by Wendy and was yet to run) said something like:

It might be the wine talking, but I’ll do a 2am lap.

James said he would tomorrow if John did tonight and John immediately set his alarm. Sophie then recruited her Dad as bodyguard and talked herself into a Sunday 10pm slot and her friend Tara Isherwood (relatively early on her running journey and totally new to GoodGym) heroically put both herself and husband Paul (our first male runner from earlier) forward for night-time escapades.

Tara also waved a magic wand and introduced Sunday evening runner Michelle Burke and Saturday night hero Ankur Nangpal. Ankur went from ‘I think a double header might be too ambitious’ to ‘if you give me till 2.15 I reckon I could get 20 done’ and Amy handed over to him at 23.41 still zinging with adrenaline after her first lap. That adrenaline kept flowing for all 4 of Amy’s laps, earning her the prize for most consistent runner at 47.something minutes every time.

Nocturnal creatures

The next few hours are also best described in Ankur’s words as Amy wasn’t awake to witness anything else…’Leaving a crunchie and some water on the driveway’….’Halfway 68 minutes now ready for the murder!!’….’conditions are perfect.’…’Keep pushing John awesome unsociable hours work’…’I hate you Tara, safe running, tear it up’…and best of all:

As long as you’ve covered yourself in Vaseline you’re good.

We are also delighted to report that Tara bashed out a PB on her lap even though she stopped to take a photo of a fox. We suppose she didn’t slow down for any foxes when she did the same the next night as she squeezed in another PB – simpeely amazing running!

’Here comes the sun….’ (John Lemon)

Wendy and Fran were up with the sun for the next three laps and then we welcomed fresh legs Anna Snelling. Anna took a tumble but didn’t require any lemon-aid and kept smiling.

Wo-oah we’re halfway there, wo-oah…lemon on a pear

In no particular order, other stars who ran for the first time on super Sunday included:

Anna’s husband Matt Snelling - mystery man Matt has a no phone rule on runs, so we couldn’t track him, but he powered round route B like a machine, hitting every cheering post exactly at the forecast time.

Stephan - top cheerleader Stephan set up a high-vis marshal station at the end of his drive complete with lemons and gin and tonic – until the wind made it too dangerous for the bottle and glass to stay out. That’s his story about how the gin disappeared anyway… Stephan got a bit lost on his lap and ended up clocking up a few bonus km but he was still in GoodGym spirits when we found him despite the sun now being hot enough to brown a lemon meringue pie.

Meggie – like for many others, this was Meggie’s first taste of GoodGym. She got into the spirit straight away though, cheerleading on both routes and adorning her Parkrun t-shirt with a beautiful fabric lemon so we could easily identify her.

Rekha – first heard of GoodGym just a few days before the event when she appeared outside Amy’s house like some kind of magical vision in running kit while Amy was creating a chalk fairy-tale scene on the pavement to cheer up passers-by. Amy squeezed the moment and talked her into to 2 laps. Rekha definitely does have magical powers because there can be no other explanation for her massive lemons.

Michelle – also appeared like a vision to Amy, this time while Amy was flagging towards the end of her third lap. Michelle was also new to GoodGym, but she certainly looked the part in her red t-shirt when she came out to cheer. Minutes later she started her lap and she whizzed round despite having run 11 miles the previous day.

Francis De Juan – attracted the best cheer of the weekend, an unconventional ‘c’mon bum head’ from his son. Inspired by wife Nathalie’s earlier performance he too knocked nearly 20 minutes off his expected time. His behaviour on Monday proved him to be anything but a bum head. He stepped into the breach when we were way ahead of schedule and Joanne Whitfield was blissfully unaware so had taken her dogs for a walk.

Slice slice baby

It’s not surprising Jo wasn’t following the WhatsApp chatter too closely. In the middle of all this running she only welcomed a new grandchild into the world! Congratulations Jo on the beautiful new addition to your family! Being a grandmother obviously suits Jo since she squeezed an extra km into her Monday loop and later found the energy for a 33km bike ride and 10 minutes of skipping!

Adam takes the Stage

As a (lemon)balmy Sunday evening gave way to darkness, we wished happy running to the superstars who were stepping up to squeeze the night as well as the day: Sophie, Tara, James and fresh runners Adam Stage and Helen Preedy.

Adam was the only person Amy had the guts to ask to run at night in advance of the event. She knew he was a nutter (in a good way, like the ground almonds in a lemon drizzle) and he didn’t disappoint. He went off piste down the Jubilee River, up the Thames and up Winter Hill (twice!), where he hit 20k, handed over the lemon and paused to watch the sunrise. His photos were a beautiful treat for the rest of us to wake up to on Monday morning. While the relay continued he enjoyed another 10k run home and then a pancake feast that even Heston B-lemon-thal couldn’t rival. Adam has signed up for a 100 mile race next Summer and we wish him every success. If you’re looking for inspiration you can read about his journey here.

Speedy Helen Preedy took the lemon at 04.17 and headed off on route B. Kudos to Helen for starting this early, because the slot she first signed up for allowed at least an extra 40 winks. We were now ahead of schedule, and on track to squeeze in all the laps Amy had rather optimistically wedged into Monday.

Extra kudos to Helen too because, as the Sports Development Manager for RBWM, she brought GoodGym to the borough and without her we would all just be standing around like lemons.

Lemon curd and lemon did

As the end of this amazing weekend drew close, the team spirit was off the scale. Although many of us had only just met whilst running past each other’s houses, we would support each other to lemon and back.

Bringing the event full circle, Sophie set out for the final lap. She was tired but determined to take that lemon home. As she passed the now familiar cheering posts along route A we all wanted to give her a big squeeze, but we had all read the Covid-19 guidance for GoodGym runners and it was ridiculously hot, so we showered her with love from our sprinklers and hoses instead. As she powered towards her doorstep (and past it and then back again to get to exactly 10k) the cheers could be heard at Windsor Castle. Sophie melted onto the pavement and into the arms of her husband and twin boys like a lemon sorbet. There was not a dry eye in the house. Epic.

Low hanging fruit

So what was the view from the leaderboard? Well it was clear from early on that the York teams included the Grand old Duke’s 10,000 men and they are obviously much fitter than us from all those hill repeats. And we could see that team Do you relay like it!? were being a bit wicked by running shorter laps, but we enjoyed some close competition with Tu Be or not Tu Be, who finally made up their minds at the last minute and pipped us by 1 lap.

But we weren’t bitter

We were super proud to make it to 490km, a whopping 90km further than our original target, and the equivalent of running past Durham and all the way to Gretna Green. Besides, in GoodGym we win by strengthening communities and putting our energy into something Good, and in that sense we felt like we were top of the lemon tree. The event peely brought us together, and put the zest back into lockdown life and into running. Team, you were simply the ZEST!

Ex-squeeze-me please, isn’t GoodGym meant to involved a practical task?

Well alongside all this running the team were responsible for looking after at least 30 small children, we poured over 19 million gin and tonics, Jen organised an amazing 1 mile challenge for over 130 people at Maidenhed Athletics Club, and James casually put up some scaffolding, renovated a window and fixed a leaky toilet. How do you like them lemons!?