Tonight we had eager runners ready and waiting in the sunshine of Daveena's Cafe courtyard at 6.15pm and it was a while before I realised we had special guest Katie who had travelled all the way from Portsmouth to join us! Katie is the trainer in Portsmouth and she set up the Goodgym there so I will be picking her brains in the future about how we can continue to build up Goodgym Poole!

So we set off up the steady incline of 2 miles to St Aldheims Church for our first task with a return visit! A few warm up drills in the park along the way to make everyone think about what they are supposed to be doing before each run (but probably never do!)

Up the hill we stomped and to the final resting place (well sort of...) of St Aldheims Church where we found some wheelbarrows, forks and spades and our task leader, David hidden amongst the bushes!

David as the church volunteer once again got us organised with clear instructions on getting the roots up! He quickly spotted Aaron as a potential tree puller so he was soon given a fork (which lost a prong 10 minutes into his gardening) and up came some bushes! Good training for the next Ultra adding in the power work! Jason and Nicki worked on some beds (deju vu for Nicki who did this just 2 weeks ago!) whilst Sian and Katie happily pulled weeds from around the church.

The hard grafting it turns out was around the corner as the Liz's, Anne-Marie and Rob worked on cleared a thorny patch of ground ready for future planting! It was pretty hard work but Anne-Marie took satisfaction of completing an edge of border whilst others were digging for roots! Rob was kept busy emptying wheel barrows into compost heaps avoiding the prickles! Both Liz's are graduates of a Couch to 5k programme so good to see they are now adding in strength training with the gardening!

As a amateur gardener, tonight I learnt that roots of brambles are not prickly (thanks to David) and moss can be killed with salted water (cheers Jason!)

Pip, the minister came out to chat to us and we finished by checking out the inside of the local church and hearing about the history of it in the local area - what a great way to end our task! The church inside is beautiful and just celebrated 125 years of being in the local community. You can really see how the church is looking more open to the local area with the work they are now doing - both phyically and with the support it offers.

Thanks to Jason for being back runner and Aaron for leading (he bearly broke a sweat all night i'm sure - next time we will find him a bit more to do!)

I hope we can go back to keep working on the grounds with David again - The difference is already so great!

Ps Pun courtesy of David himself! Pps Goodgym Tourism is clearly a thing just like parkrun tourism - I look forward to visiting others in the future! Katie you rock!

The sun is again out in force tonight for another lovely evening!

Perhaps not such a scenic run tonight as we headed up (yes it was an incline) to Branksome along the roads of Parkstone.

We were met by Barbara, a volunteer at Branksome Centre and she was ready with brooms, black sacks, litter picker and water buckets!

Fiona despite a day of exercise with her horse and a weights session, took on the task of the watering with Anne, carrying buckets across the grounds. Barbara is planning to do some more planting tomorrow now the soil is less dry.

There was a number of young people sat outside the centre, not part of the group that night but those that choose to use the centre as a social point. It was elsewhere a youth group going on for a variety of ages. There was also children in the play area and games happening on the pitches.

Hilary took on the litter pick around the playground but actually tonight, there wasn't piles of rubbish so Anne-Marie could crack on with the weeds and rubbish around the sides of the outside areas.

We hope that the job we did tonight, helps the centre and those that use it keep some pride in the facilities they have and can access. It wasn't a renovation project but the tasks done tonight can help maintain a safe environment for those that socialise here!

It was all about the girls tonight as we met in the courtyard of Daveena's cafe!

Prize for furthest distance travelled easily went to Marta tonight, who had come from Velencia and was brought along by Clare whilst on her holiday to the UK for her first Goodgym session!

We ran the 3km to Pennant house where we were greeted by Denise all ready in the garden for us!

It was bark spreading, planting flowers in the beds and a bit of weeding for us all to get along with as the summer house was not yet ready for us to paint due to repairs being done!

Anne-Marie planted some roses despite confessing to only having a balcony whilst there was pansies and other little flowers to dot around. Bags of bark soon disappeared and Denise was pretty amazed how in 20 mins we had planted it all and spread the bark! We had a bit of time to clear the leaves from under the beautiful tree before a bit of sweeping and all chatting along the way!

There are 12 residents at this block and many enjoy the garden to sit out in or just view from the lounge area. They are holding a garden party in a couple of weeks so grateful for extra hands to make it all look lovely!

On the way back we stopped in Ashley Green for some sprint sections to finish just to make sure we had a but of HIT training in there! Turns out Hilary has got some speed in those legs! Great to see Lauren from a previous couch group, now a frequent nordic runner, come and join us for the first time at Goodgym, along with Anne-Marie who keeps fit from cycling - Thats a great thing about Goodgym - infrequent runners love it too!

Great enjoyable run and task tonight!