It was a great turn out as 19 of us huddled into Daveena's cafe at 6.30pm tonight.

It was so lovely to see two new faces join us - Sarah and Ella. So fab to have you along ladies!

Sarah is in the process of setting up a new run group that we will fully support here at Goodgym Poole. It is Run, Talk, Run. The concept is that a group meets for a 5km run (or a 2km walk) to have a chance to chat to others to improve their mental health. It will be on a Monday in Creekmoor so spread the word! We hope we can work together with the group in the future. As we all secretly know - our mental health is really improved by feeling part of the community at Goodgym and even more so when we feel we are making a difference in our community as well as looking after our health. We all have our own 'why' for coming to Goodgym and what it offers us! (What's your why?)

Onto tonight's run - A quick warm up on the forecourt before taking on the mound of opportunity that is Fernside Road! Onwards to Ringwood Road and another opportunity! We found the small path that leads to Dorchester Road and it was a chance for a bit of form coaching. Each person had to think of an area of form they need to work on and run the distance (with acceleration / deceleration) working on that form. So perhaps standing tall or using those arms or just working a bit of head up. After 1 repeat, the scores were in. Either we are all terribly British or not trying hard enough as scores of 5/6 were given to themselves! Well practice makes perfect and after 3 of them the scores were more of an 8 so on the right path.

Onto the school where we have been over the past few months with painting, gardening and even moving a library of books around! Tonights task came with the promise of stickering and in a bizarre way this had been a real draw! We were met again by the dedicated Mrs Armstrong (Head Teacher) and Mr Thomas (Deputy) with a big stack of stickers with labels for books for a new reading programme. Sounds simple enough! However as we all quickly discovered, there was no order on the sheets so each time we had to go through the lists and try and find a book in the entire library with often little idea where it actually was! Well this has got to be our most frustrating task to date - it was a bit of a needle in haystack for some of the books! Elizabeth suggested another way to try it - call out authors on the shelf and like a game of bingo we could match to our sheets. This worked for a few but it was still not moving very fast. In the end we settled for calling out popular authors or books and seeing who could help. Sadly we left the school, with many sheets barely touched as we could not find them! Nicola topped the leader board with 8 books found and stickered! Tim was heard loudly saying he was 'looking for bad girls' which I hope he found before we had to go, whilst in the depths of despair at lack of progress, Richard was looking for a book on euthanasia! Fiona who has hidden knowledge and background - knew a fair bit about how libraries run so was more helpful than many of us wondering aimlessly looking for a random book we had never heard of! Time ticked on and Sarah asked me if we had to stay till they were all done - It would have been a very long night!

We decided to give it a end point and took our lack of satisfaction of not completing out into the fresh air, for a quick run back to base. We left on the promise to return if we can help further! Leaving behind Mrs Armstrong and Mr Thomas scratching their heads at the system that had been created!

Poole Hospital Charity run this Elf Dash annually to raise much needed funds for equipment.

Our job was pretty simple, we are there to direct the runners and keep them safe as marshals.

We all met at 10.30 at Speedway and a walk around the course to know our positions. Turns out to be much nippier than expected so we jumped into the North Pole bus for a mince pie and warm up till it was duty time.

It was a short course of approx 2km and questions to answer along the way. Parents joined in so it was a very relaxed affair. Some amazing outfits along the way, kids and all times of elfs!

The warm up was headed up by Goodgym too, so I got to use my daughter's examples of being beans to be the Mexican, French, runner, string and broad bean to get everyone going!

Definitely time for a cuppa after!

It was disappointing news that our planned task of going to Pennant House was cancelled earlier in the day. Denise, the manager, informed me that residents were unwell so it would not be beneficial to go that evening. We hope we can visit again in future!

So, I knew that Nigel at Branksome centre had wanted his windows cleaned when we were free so a quick email to him and it was all arranged we can let ourselvs into the centre later on and give a good clean.

It was all under the premise that singing was still allowed as requested by Sian although I am not sure I heard her sing at all that evening!

First up it was great to welcome Sean over from Bournemouth Goodgym who had earnt extra kudos before he even started with cycling in from Southbourne. Although it was almost removed as he informed me he was only running next to me for my light - come on Sean, get your own head torch! 😉

Another new face tonight was Gayle who had heard about Goodgym from her sister who had been to one in London. Having completed a marathon in May, Gayle had not run since (😱) so bravely joined us tonight and clearly had plenty of fitness still there. We hope you will keep joining us as part of your training for London Marathon Gayle!

It was so amazing as we all huddled under the cover at the back of Daveena's to hear a lot of chatter, see hugs (usually courtesy of our lovely smiling Ali) and hear the laughter. So many of our runners only met at Goodgym and have become such good friends, it was buzzing! Even had to ask for a bit of quiet whilst the risks were given - thanks for the reminders about names and numbers as it nearly didn't happen!

Onto the lovely warm up in the glam setting of the Sloop Carpark - although we did not recieve such a great welcome from those passing through so it was onto (and Up!) North Road.

Thanks to Julia and Jayne who took a steadier pace at the back allowing another pace option tonight, only just behind the rest of us!

Along Ashley Road there was all the smells of the take aways (twice we had to endure that!) before we could turn into Library Road (conveniently just after the library!) and head down to Branksome.

At Branksome it was all hands in looking for cleaning equipment, bags, cleaning tasks that needed doing. Sean was a pro with the mop, play area was cleaned up and even the teacher in Hilary coming out as she was spotted displaying all the books beautifully on the shelves. Sarah was on the hoover with the sweepers again (!)Jayne and Julia tackling the sports hall.

As usual, we have our bunch of runners who quietly get on with any task they are given - kudos for you guys for not being distracted by photos and the baby shark christmas song - That will be you Tim and Patricia!

Window cleaning team of Melody and Sally were on it inside and out!

Thanks to all the photos sent in - Elizabeth, Patricia and Richard.

I understand there was a recruitment drive on route to the centre - Melanie we hope to see you at Goodgym Poole soon!

Robert great to see you but take a few days break now from activity!

Good luck to the Christmas Pudding Runners on Sunday - Elizabeth will storm her first 10k I have absolutely no doubt about it!

Good Evening Runners!

Its getting a little colder, definitely dark but it is dry and we have loads of friendly faces meeting at the back of Daveena's cafe!

Great to see Tracy who came on our first ever run over the summer back to join us! Big welcome to the fabulous Vici who hasn't run in about 4 years and managed over 4 miles tonight up some pretty good inclines! (I know - maybe we shouldn't like her!)

We managed a short warm up whilst dodging cars on the garage forecourt - Many of those lunges did not look pretty (mental note for future warm ups - more lunges!) before heading up the ever giving North Rd!

Thanks to Patricia who backran for us tonight!

Tracy and Richard took a good pace up the road, closely followed by Elizabeth.
Vici demonstrated what a lot of gym work can do when it comes to hills as she kept powering up them like she had been running for years, not like it was years ago!

Not the most exciting route, dodging people, cars and obstacles down the Ashley Road but there was a lovely photo opportunity along the way thanks to St John's Church and Centre (we must get in touch to see if they need volunteers at all!)

We reached Branksome community centre and one of the volunteers was ready for us with half a dozen brooms, rakes, bin liners and gloves! She even nipped home down the road to grab another rake for us! Branksome community centre is a really busy hub for families, children, young people and locals. They have a cafe in the day and many different groups in the hall and various rooms as well as a busy play area outside inc a hard court. It was a pretty simple mission tonight - clear the leaves! They were pretty thick all around the court, entrance, play area and pathways. So it was pairing up and getting on with it.

Sian wins the prize for fitting the most leaves in one bag - seen on several ococasions jumping up and down in a black bag to squish them in! This time it was Melody who had the spade and who did a great clean up job around the edge of the pitch - with the added danger of some youths kicking around a ball (That wasn't on the risk assessment or brief!) narrowly missing Sally on more than one occasion.

Patricia was partnered up with Robert making sure he was working hard, although he was a little tired after his big run on Sunday!

Tim was spotted quietly working away piling up leaves quickly than anyone could keep up to bag them whilst Christine took the other side with newby Vici to show her the um bags?

30 minutes later and can you guess how many bags there was - 17! All piled high with leaves till they are fit to bursting. It was really safe it all turning to mush and mud in the spring next year.

Time to head back to base - there was a lovely little incline to start with nice hill work from Melody to get back up to Ashley Road.

Down the North Road - great opportunity to relax and run down and get some pace on (remember to relax and lean into hill!) before a stretch out at Daveena's.

Home for cuppa!

Lovely evening as always!