19 going on 20

What a great end to 2019 we’ve had…not just because of the growth of Goodgym Slough or all the new participants who have joined us and become regular runners nor our nomination for the Get Berkshire Active Awards…NO!....We’ve had 3 new Goodgym babies in 2019… First came Leo, Chrissy’s lion….and in December we’ve had not 1 but 2 new GG members!... Baby Orla, who we had the pleasure of meeting today, came on a very special day…(December 18th…and I have the honour of sharing my birthday with her)…and Baby Erin was born on 30th December… Huge congratulations to Darren and Denise on the arrival of Baby Orla…and Ruth and Ben on the arrival of Baby Erin.

Long live the Resolution

The New Year normally starts with some kind of promise to yourself to do something less; something more; something better..

With us…nothing changes…we ended the year helping others and improving our fitness so we start the next year…the next decade even in the same way…just maybe a few pounds heavier (around the waist) and a few pounds lighter (in the wallet).

January promises to be more of a fruity type of month rather than a doughnut…we have extra sessions planned over various Friday’s, Saturday’s and Sunday’s..

We’ve already kick started the year with our first mission of 2020 helping Mr D pack away 8 boxes worth of CD’s and Vinyl’s in readiness’ for his impeding move. Well done to Ihfaz and Mabu to making that happen.

Another pun fights the dust

Our group run tonight was to help the local Parish Hall in Wexham with a clean up task. One of our regular runners, Mabu wears another hat with the committee at this hall so he asked us if we would be able to help them one Monday night….and of course who are we to say no! It’s always great adding new task owners onto our growing list of community groups that we help.

So, after the usual warm up, welcome brief and safety chat (and cuddles with Baby Orla) we headed out the 3.5km to the Hall.

On arrival we met with our task owner Iftakar and Mabu for the task overview.

We then quickly formed into smaller team formations and got to work.

A Clean Sweep

With quite a few floor areas to cover which Mabu had kindly already swept... with the mop in high demand..it really was a case of snooze you loose!

Sut, Roisin and Kam headed to the upstairs landing sweeping and mopping the floor and bathroom areas

Antonio and Ifhaz tackled the first floor kitchenettes whilst Emily and Jen had the downstairs kitchens.

Sandy, Jenni and Naomi certainly didn’t think that floors were beneath them! They were as smug as a rug by the time they had finished…though one lady took the biscuit tonight….our Roisin was like a machine…she had the best mop action I’ve ever seen! We could all learn a stroke or two from her.

It was a slippery slope but somehow we floored it tonight...within 30 minutes we had covered the whole Hall...just in time for the cake that Iftakar and Mabu had provided for us!

What's coming up

Don’t forget to check out our Group Runs for January, including our Saturday starter session https://www.goodgym.org/admin/group_runs?area=slough

And also our community missions https://www.goodgym.org/admin/community_missions?area=slough

Have a great week and hope to see you next week

Nineteen going on Twenty

We’ve had the most epic year this year and its all thanks to all of your guys hard efforts and camaraderie… we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve celebrated our first year anniversary, we’ve attended the GG 10 year party and even had our moments of fame! Sandy and her epic speech..me and my endless magazine interviews!

It’s been a year full of punny puns…and maybe some not so…but none the less we’ve helped 21 local community groups this year with 7 of them as new task owners.

We reached our 1000 good deed milestone…I reached my 100th…Sandy, Darren, Milly and Ricky got their 50th….with so many more to come in the new year …2020 will certainly be a big one for us.

Not to mention our shortlisted nomination for the Annual Get Berkshire Active Awards! We really do have so much to look forward to in 2020.

Lets flyer away…lets flyer lets flyer away

Our task was to drop a few leaflets for a few local community groups (including Goodgym!) and then head to the local for a few Christmas Cheers…what a great ideer and a nice santament to finish off our final task of the year.

With over 650 Good Deeds done in 2019 alone and over 220km covered….I think the team really did deserve an early night.

So after our usual welcome brief, safety overview, GG News and warm up, we headed out the very short distance to the other side of the park and hit the roads around Baylis. Great to have Erin join us on her first session with us…

The teams were divided into pairs and each pair had a street to target and then meet us back at Pool Lane. The task was done super fast tonight…there was no wine’ing or moaning from anyone…they all shot back to base…ready to hit the local.

So. I can’t top Ricky and the Jingle Ladies jingle bells song rendition tonight…but I do have my own Fa La La La Fantastic version of the 12 days of Christmas…

One the first month of Goodgym, my trainer gave to me:

• A Goodgym Red Tee
• Two homeless feeds
• Three walking lunges
• Four fence panels
• Five good deeeeds
• Six one off missions
• Seven litter pickers
• Eight gloves for gardening
• Nine walls for painting
• Ten flyers for flying
• Eleven river clean up
• Twelve social drinks do’s
• And a birthday in a nice pub

2020 Vision

We have some epic tasks and run distances lines up for 2020… All the Monday Group Runs are on the system so please have a look and book yourselves on..We start with a new task owner (Wexham Parish Hall) on Monday 6th January…with a few firm favourites lined up each week.

Here is a list of all our upcoming Monday runs in 2020 https://www.goodgym.org/my/happenings/group-runs

We will also be doing a Saturday Group Run and Task with Ryvers School on Saturday 18th January as a starter run. Sign up details here: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/school-tidy-up

There will also be some extra community missions lined up…we have already booked a clothes sort at Thames Hospice shop in Langley and a Junior parkrun takeover… Check out all our community missions here: https://www.goodgym.org/areas/slough/happenings/community-missions

So until then…wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year