This week I set GoodGym Runners the challenge of getting out to run and taking a picture of road signs on the way. The challenge was to find:

A first name (especially of anyone signed up or from GG Birmingham) A place A tree or plant A colour An animal A building A body part A number Anything odd/rude

I had kept the challenge open to interpretation and creativity. So, the week began with Nurjehan of Haringey finding, among other things, the part of Birmingham I live in (Handsworth) and our first animal (Greyhound).

Laura got the Birmingham entries started with Holly and Ivy for the plants. I then went on a quest for holiday locations in the south west with Cornwall, Devonshire and Somerset popping up in Handsworth, as opposed to Handsworth popping up in Haringey!

(Get) Fit, but you know it

Then Miriam shared her successful previous quest to find her name in Liverpool which got us inspired to find each other’s names around Birmingham. In the meantime, Rob found a park, Liam captured Holland and Morwenna went on a tree hunt, successfully finding Elm, Laburnum, Willow and Acacia. I managed to find Annie’s name in the luxurious surroundings of Lozells. Annie reciprocated with a fabulous NHS sign on display during her run. Liam found George lurking around on a street corner and Miriam gave up on finding her name in a different city, picking out an Odd description instead. I then went out to find myself through running and found that I had my own Grove, before David sent us all away on Holliday.

Tousif went out and found Philadelphia’s own boxing hero before Rob found the Beach(wood) that he chose for the imaginary holiday.

GoodGym vs Zombies

We had been missing something odd and it was at this point that Lizzie stepped up with the excellent Flesh Hovel Lane. This already got us thinking about Zombie films before we googled it and found that it had suitably gruesome origins. Keeping up the dead bodies theme was Fiona, who found Brookside and wondered if anyone was old enough to remember the soap opera. Sure enough, she was asked whether there were any nice patios and anyone that didn’t know about it got to find out what Barry Grant looked like in his prime. Perhaps to lighten the mood, Balal found his name on a kebab shop, Ben was very productive finding Ryan, completing my surname and finding a bonus raft of literary figures. Then I started to get the entries from other GoodGym areas to add to Nurjehan, and I found out how creative and completist we will have to be to keep up!

Take the idea and run with it

First of all we had Vic from Coventry, who got a creative full set of signs on her run. Also from Coventry, Liz completed the entire set with the highlights being my name, the rainbow lights at the bridge where I usually park if visiting GG Coventry, the amazing Centaur Road (sent by a Pharoah no less) and our first rude (body part) entry of Butts park.

Elizabeth managed bingo for bringing rudeness into more than one criteria on her sign search, doubling up Chestnuts with Netherton as possible body parts. Managing to add Tennyson to our literary figures and my surname into the mix really has to put this around the top of the pile, if I was counting.

Sarah then sent in another complete set from London, while Peter managed to find snakes on his road signs. The odd criteria was fulfilled with the incredible Knightrider Street found by Sally at Camden. But the wider areas of GoodGym were not finished there as Sarah-Jane sent in a full set and Linda sent in hers with the bonus of adding Keats to our literary figures collection.

So, what I’ve learned is that we’ve got a long way to go to be as complete in our outlook when taking on a challenge in Birmingham. Also, we’re not as rude as the rest of the country, if maybe a little scarier. Thank you for all of your efforts, there will be another theme for your photos next week. Which sign was your favourite?