On a humid April evening 16 volunteers ran to Donkey Lane near Perfect View in Bath. We did lots of useful cutting and weeding at the community gardening project there. We had lots of fun and did some great hill training!

Welcome!

We met outside the leisure centre and I shared the latest news and notices. We have organised 2 fantastic Community Missions for this weekend. See the bottom of the run for details! After a warm-up we were on our way.

"H'ill stop us running up hills one day..."

We ran up Walcott Street and up the steep steps in Hedgemead Park. This really burned the quadriceps and was a fantastic workout for us all! We paused at the top to catch our breath and (did some tricep dips in the meantime!) made it to Donkey Lane with plenty of time.

No foaling around!

Our host, Sue, was ready and waiting for us. Donkey Lane is a community garden that is managed by Transition Bath. The garden is run entirely by volunteers and anyone is welcome to come and help improve the garden and enjoy the produce. They grow an assortment of fruit and veg, including apples and kale!

There was lots of work for us to do and Sue split us into groups.

Nettle the devil you know!

Some of the runners were using shears to cut down nettles and large weeds on the side of the path. With all the good weather we have been enjoying recently they have started to run wild! This useful work helps keen the pathway clear and safe which is good for the gardeners and also other members of the public using the Donkey Lane foothpath.

We'ed never give up!

Another group spent the evening on their hands and knees with an assortment of tools to improve the path that runs inside the garden. The GoodGymmers were using trowels and even knives and forks to remove weeds from the path. To make sure we didn't damage the path, we made sure to use our tools to cut the weeds at their base instead of pulling them straight out from the root. Our hard work made a massive difference to the look of the path. The path is clearer and safer for gardeners to use and it also makes it clear to the public that the area is a tended community garden and not an overgrown patch of land.

A forkin' hard bit of work!

Other runners were using pitch forks to turn over some ground to make it more suitable for planting later in the year. This was tough work as the ground hasn't been worked for a while!

WELL DONE QUEEN MARY!!

We took a moment to honour a well-travelled member of our group. This task was Mary's 199th good deed and her coach run later this week will be her 200th. This is a massive achievement that we wanted to recognise, so Steph, in classic GoodGym spirit, presented Mary with an amazing '200' t-shirt complete with buttons and rubber gloves that she had made at home. And of course we insisted that Mary wore the top on the run back! What an inspiration to us all.

On our run back we paused to watch a group of Morris dancers in the centre of Bath. There was discussion about combining our cool-down into some kind of dance procession to match them as a rival group...

Thanks!

Thanks to Emily for backmarking for us last night and making sure no one got lost! Thanks to Joe for another brilliant pun! Thanks to Steph for helping me take pictures and thanks to Sue for hosting us at the task. We had lots of fun and we will be back soon (hopefully at harvest time!!!).

Upcoming runs

• We have a great Community Mission on Sat 27th April at The Orchard
• We are also doing a really fun Community Mission on Sun 28th April as part of the 2019 Worldwide City Nature Challenge
• Next week: we have a hilly run to help out at St Phillips and St James Church
• In June there is an exciting race in Cheddar Gorge that some of GG Bath have already signed up for
• In June we are also helping at the Saltford Festival

We had a rainy run out to Action on Hearing Loss in Twerton to do some much-needed gardening and weeding. We ran 7km in total and had a great workout. We always love going back and helping our host, Evan, and can't wait to go back again and help out some more!.

Well done ... GoodGym Bath!

After meeting inside the Leisure Centre in our usual space, I shared the latest running news. Emily and I represented GoodGym Bath at the Volunteering Community Awards held at the Guild Hall in Bath last week. We were nominated for 'Volunteer Team of the Year'. So well done and thank you for all of your hard work volunteering with GoodGym - that nomination only came through your hard work and effort.

Although we didn't win the award, we were very proud and thankful to be recognised with a nomination. We were also inspired after seeing so many fantastic individuals and teams rewarded for their tireless volunteering efforts in BANES. It was also great to see many of the partner organisations that we work with be recognised with awards (in particular, Bath City Farm and Carol from FoodCycle) and it's great to think that we are a small part of that too.

Evan-tually, we made it there!

Evan, our host for the night, welcomed us when we got to the task. Action on Hearing Loss is a shared living space for people with hearing difficulties. We regularly help Evan maintain the grounds on our Tuesday runs. It is important to make sure that the paths are clear and bushes are well kept to make sure that anyone with any impairments can safely walk around the grounds.

Last night we had two main tasks and we split into two teams.

Beleaf in yourself!

Emily lead one group to clear the area outside one of the main buildings. The runners used a variety of impressive gardening tools to trim hedges, control bushes and clear dead leaves from the path.

A weedy good bit of work!

I took the other half of our group to clear some weeds from the pavement and the flower bed areas around the back of the complex. This space will be used later in the year for the residents to grow flowers and vegetables, and its important to keep it maintained and clear.

Well done, in particular, to Chris for valiantly being in charge of taking the wheelbarrow down the muddy (and spooky) track through the trees to compost all of nthe weeds and leaves!

Thanks Evan!

At the end of the task Pascale taught us how to say "thank you" in sign language so we could thank Evan for his time. Thanks Evan! We shall return!

Thanks Chris, Emma and Pascale!

Thanks to Emily for backmarking on the way there and the way back, and thanks to Joe (the King of puns) for the pun this week! And a special thanks to Pascale for interpreting for us last night.

Upcoming runs

• Running the Bath Half? Emma has kindly volunteered to lead a weekend training run this Sunday.

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