We were treated to a perfect summer evening for our group run this week, full of sunshine. A warm welcome to Alex and Angura who joined us for their first runs this evening. Give them a cheer on their profiles!

We met off base, at Hilsea Lido, and headed out for a quick run around Hilsea Lines in our pace groups, enjoying some of our very local trails.

Maura shared a lesson in running glamour: "You need pockets in your leggings for lip gloss, because you never know!"

When we finished our loop, we arrived back at the Lido and were tasked with watering some new plants that have been planted and touching up the paintwork. Kat was happy touching up the bottom.

After all the hard work, some of the group took on swimming some lengths in the pool to cool off as the sun set and Katie was kind enough to come prepared with a box of mugs and selection of tea and biscuits!

This week's GoodGym runs are all in partnership with the Great Get Together celebrating what we have in common. We even had a few stickers and wristbands to give out too!

Tonight we welcomed 2 new runners, Steve and Mike - give them a cheer! Toni is now an old hand on run number 2!

No walkers this evening so we warmed up with a round of squats and balance learning about favourite cakes and first cinema visits. We also discovered that there aren't many members who are going to get their cricket team call up!

We then headed off the St Faith's to tackle the garden area which was being overtaken by bindweed. Maura, Charlotte, Steve and Mike were on litter picking duty and found plenty to fill the black bags (4 in total by the end). Interesting finds included a tree decorated with energy drink cans and a shop security alarm (which obviously didn't do it's job). All other hands were on deck with tackling the weeds in the garden. Several impressions of David Bellamy "wummaging awound in the undergrowth" with GoodGymers appearing from the middle of bushes! Kat contorted herself into the hedge to pull out a bottle, Jen used her bouldering skills to reach weeds and litter that others couldn't reach. Rachel stood by to take photos of the health and safety nightmare!! Jo found a frog (or toad) who wasn't best pleased at being disturbed. Almost everyone ended up covered in bits of green!

After a quick round of step ups and mountain climbers while the kettle boiled we were treated to a cuppa and a slice of cake or biscuits as a thank you for the hard work. Bonus!! And much enjoyed by all with the most direct route back to Fratton taken afterwards to try and prevent the cake stitch.

Our great get together truly was! It was lovely to see such a good number of people tonight.

Don't forget our social run on Friday (all welcome). Picnic after if the weather holds. Then we're back to Fratton to help out with the Great Get Together event at the community centre on Sunday, details here.

Next group run on Wednesday we're off to help PARCS with their garden. A new task location but not too far away. See you again soon

It's a busy time of year, making the most of the light evenings even if the weather isn't always quite what we'd like it to be!