Whoop whoop! Monsterous Mike did the double tonight with his 50th Good Deed and his first outing as run leader - and on a night where we had to run through “Murder Alley”! The unenviable job of backmarker went to Helen, and Sandy Sam led the Walkie Talkies.

Despite having a 100% success record (so far!) of us all making it out alive, it’s a brave task-force team that takes on this particular responsibility at Halloween!

A few of us had raided the dressing up box (or the rather empty!) supermarket shelves for last minute fancy dress. So fortunately we only had a short walk / run to the Baker’s Café at the Railway Village. The Baker’s has an interesting history! It was opened in the 1840s as a bakery serving the railway village workers and later a pub. It’s now run as a social enterprise – a lovely café serving yummy food and drinks to the local community. Still to come in its exciting history is the GoodGym Swindon Christmas (but not actually anywhere near Christmas!) knees up.

Hannah had a variety of tasks lined up for us – weeding and scooping up leaves outside and in the surrounding area, cleaning the floors in the café and cleaning windows. The café has a food hygiene rating of a 5 – so no pressure then!

The following account of proceedings is to be imagined in the voice of Ray Parker Junior and to the Ghostbusters soundtrack, if you will. I take no responsibility for poor grammar – that’s song lyrics for you!

If you need some help in your neighbourhood

Who you gonna call? GoodGymers!

We might seem strange

But here to do some good

Who you gonna call? GoodGymers!

We ain't afraid of no walks

We ain't afraid of no runs

If the weeds you have, are out of control

Who you gonna call? GoodGymers!

Remove without a trace

That’s our goal

Who you gonna call? GoodGymers!

We ain't afraid of no slime

We ain't afraid of no slugs (well maybe just a little bit!)

Who you gonna call? GoodGymers!

Windows need a shine?

That task is mine!

So call GoodGymers

We ain't afraid of no mops

We hear the floor needs a clean

We ain't afraid of no brooms

(high pitched for this bit!) Yeah yeah yeah yeah

Who ya gonna call? GoodGymers!

If you need good deeds near a freaky “Murder Alley”

You better call, GoodGymers!

Lemme tell ya something, GoodGyming makes us feel good

We ain't afraid of murders

We ain't afraid of alleys

Who ya gonna call? GoodGymers

I can't hear you

Who ya gonna call? GoodGymers!

Louder...

GoodGymers!

We had a quick huddle at the end for a prize giving for costumes. Rosettes were awarded to Hocus Pocus Kirsty for best overall costume, Devilish Charles for Scariest Costume, and Puffy Pumpkin Tracey for Cutest Costume.

On the way back we all made it through Murder Alley, without event. Except for Safety First Simon being heard to say “stop pinging my bra strap!” We would have stopped to enquire why he was wearing a bra and who was pinging it but we all know loitering would have led to imminent death so we pretended we hadn’t heard and carried on running!

All done with our Tricks, we headed back into base for coffee and Treats!

Next week’s task is a very special one! We will be running approximately 9km in total to Prince Rupert Court in Freshbrook and back, to play Just Bowl, socialise and eat cake (!) with our friends there, including the wonderful Betty from Margaret Matthews Court. We have been to Prince Rupert Court before; in March and June, to do some gardening, and the residents enjoyed our company so much, they have asked us to go back! The residents, who are 55+ years and have physical disabilities, can often go for long periods of time without friends or family visiting, and so really do appreciate our visits and the company that we provide. Be sure to sign up here

A change of plan this week meant we were able to return to the STEAM Museum to finish a weeding task we’d started back in July. We were joined by newbies Cath, Jo, Karen and Yvonne. We think they fit splendidly into the GoodGym family – read on to find out why!

After much super sleuthing the day before, a crack team deduced this was the last group run that our lovely run leader Sandy Sam would be attending before her wedding!

So we formed a rather unconventional bunch of hens and presented her with a bouquet and veil and announced that there would be post-run cake to celebrate her upcoming nuptials to Adam. We are clearly lacking in the sleuthing as she will be back next week – more cake anyone?

The getting-to-know-you question was what our chosen superpower would be! Emma the Trainer would have COMPLETE silence when she is doing parkrun directing (of course!), Sharon would be able to repair any broken joints (horse or human – handy!) and Jo would choose mind control (eek!).

The runners led by Sandy Sam and backmarked by Stuart, and the walkers led by Jo all arrived at STEAM in no time. It’s on the site of the old Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway and in its heyday could produce three locomotives a week!

What a great task - outside in the fresh air, right in the heart of Swindon’s heritage, chatting with friends while weeding. Last time we took a scattergun approach to the weedy landscape so this time we were more strategic to achieve maximum aesthetic pleasure for the visitors and residents who all use this area. We filled lots of bags as the hard working staff really needed some help in this weed multiplying weather. The ‘after’ picture was very satisfying! We weren’t doing so well on our weekly quest to find peculiar objects. But wait - enter Bodyless Bob! A tiny dismembered head (of the toy variety). He’s not pretty, we don’t know his story, and one doesn’t like to ask but we adopted him and took him back with us anyway.

Before we left we had a quick look around the very impressive museum. Swindon really did make the most beautiful trains! On the way out we spotted a wooden train planter at the main entrance that was made by Swindon Men’s Shed who we visited last week. Oh, we do love a coincidental community connection!

On the run back we encountered a rather merry chap who joined our run for a bit. Move over Bodyless Bob, we give you ummmmm, Legless Larry? He seemed to enjoy jogging and shouting motivational things like “Go GoGo-Gym” which is an entirely different type of exercise altogether, but still, a future new member perhaps?!

Before the Task Force could consult the GoodGym training manual for recommendations on what to do in such situations, he waved goodbye and was off!

On to “Murder Alley” and there was some tomfoolery by the Walkie Talkies (check out the photo!). We apologise unreservedly to any security services who spotted us on CCTV and may have been inadvertently placed on red alert due to our theatrics. And it has not escaped our attention that all four of our newbies were perpetrators! Like we said, fitting in nicely.

All safely back at base, with Sam still looking resplendent in her wedding veil, we had a large, lovely and chatty catch up over coffee and cake.

Next up is a Group Run on Tuesday 27th August. We will be running approximately 9km in total to the Saltway Centre and back to help clear out some planters so that Aiming High families using the centre can plant their own bulbs and seeds. The Aiming High Short Breaks programme provides access for children and young people with disabilities to social and leisure activities, and to enable their parents and carers to have a break from their caring responsibilities. Pop it in your diary now and sign up here! If you’d like to join us for a post-run drink back at the Oasis, order at Coffee Corner before 6pm.

The 1st birthday celebrations continued with a fabulous barbecue in the well sheltered ‘St Johns Hollow’ at Lydiard Park on a very windy, rainy day...

The barbecrew Helen and Tracey did a fantastic job in organising the celebrations with an amazing combination of food to cook for every dietary need! Not only were there two BBQ's; one for meat eaters and the other for veggies, but there was a section for those following a 'free from everything diet' with no fear of cross contamination. Now that's good organisation for you!

Thanks to everyone who contributed food, cooked to perfection by the chefs extraordinaire!

Andrew had printed a timeline of photographs from our first year, hung around the hollow. He did a sterling job as GoodGym Swindon aren’t renowned for taking many photos during tasks?!

The weather was not on our side, with strong winds and heavy rain showers, but our spirits were high! With a combination of umbrellas and gazebo’s we kept everything and everyone as dry as possible.

Tension and excitement was almost evident, as the Barbecrew announced the award ceremony for achievements from our first year. Special mention must go to 50 Deeds Kingsley for clocking up that number of good deeds and Jo’s mum for her removal of nasty stains laundry advice.

A brilliant day with great friends, created in what has been an unbelievable first year for GoodGym Swindon.

A few of us retreated to the Forest Café after the barbecue to eat posh ice cream (thanks Kirsty!) where Emma ‘the Trainer turned the conversation onto Christmas and thoughts of how we can celebrate the festive period. Any ideas will be very welcome. Right, I am off to put my Christmas decs up...!

On a blustery morning at Lydiard Park, the usual scene looked slightly different, as a wave of red shirted superheroes from GoodGym Swindon swooped in to take control of parkrun.

The eager bunch of scanners, pacers, marshals, funnel managers and timekeepers gathered at the registration point ready to get into action and spread the word about the Good in GoodGym and ensure the event run like a well oiled machine.

The pacers, Paul ‘the Scientist’ at 20 minutes, Andrew at 22 minutes, Stuart ‘50 Deeds’ Kingsley at 25 minutes, ‘Sandy’ Sam at 27 minutes, Tracey at 30 minutes, Graham at 32 minutes, Jo at 35 minutes and Sharon and Kyra Bonner with young Ely in the buggy pacing at 40 minutes donned their yellow pacing bibs, collected their pacing cards positioned themselves ready to drag, ooh sorry encourage, potential victims, sorry runners, around the course to a PB!

Emma ‘the Trainer’ called everyone over to the ‘grassy area’ for the compulsory landscape, portrait and square photo call! The grassy area, everyone thought! Which grassy area? We are in the middle of a park, it’s all grassy!!! Emma, not blessed with height, could not be seen!

James ‘David Bailey’ Booth, the parkrun resident photographer managed to squeeze everyone in and take the photos.

Hopefully they were up to the strict standards set by Jo, our instatwitbook expert?!

This was a great opportunity to welcome Cath to the group. We look forward to seeing Cath on a Group Run in the near future.

Lily joined ‘Safety First’ Simon on the timers with David ‘the Pacer Chaser’ made sure everything was kept in order by being the number checker. We sent him up and down the funnel that many times he must have almost run a 5K run by the time tail walker Teresa finished. Thankfully Teresa managed to complete the whole course without getting lost, or going the wrong way! Having Mike, Emily and Tracy marshalling on the course would have helped keep her on the right track!!

Kirsty kept a tight hold of her cattle prod; an important piece of equipment in the funnel manager arsenal to keep the runners in the funnel so...

...we don’t have any ‘funnel duckers’ messing up the results! A phrase not to be said too quickly!!!

Once the runners finished their run, top scanners Jase the Ace (not sure if Tracey is the only one allowed to call him that!), Hannah, Helen, Rachel and Gina (in charge of the unscannables) ably recorded every run making the results processing a lot easier. Having so many GG’ers volunteering was fantastic and great to see so many red t-shirts on parade!

So when is the next Community Mission? We are heading to We're Open THIS THURSDAY; check it out HERE!