We were contacted by a local hospital to help gather donations for a Covid Positive ward for elderley and palliative patients as they did not have their own toiletry bags.

We were more than happy to help and we managed to collect a large number of items and drop these off for them to be put into specially made care packs.

THANK YOU SO MUCH - YOU ARE AWESOME GOODGYM TRAFFORD!

Well done and thanks everyone! Another mission completed (and Kate's 50th Good Deed!)

Shout out to our GoodGym Trafford Group runners who ran 5K last night to carry on the "big tidy up" at our base location of St Matthews Community Hall in Stretford. Welcome back to three of our launch night buddies Elaine, Meera and Anna, fab to see you again.

Big congrats to Elaine (pictured above) too for becoming the very first fully fledged Mission and Coach runner for Trafford, that's great news! If you're interested in becoming verified please get in touch with me or the Coach Team for more info, it's really easy to do.

Before we completed our task at St Matthews, we ran to the Beacon Centre (via Clare's never ending road - sorry!) had a quick photo shoot and then ran back through the lovely Longford Park completing running drills and planking on a plank! Thanks to Anna for her sprint drill and to Clare for backmarking.

On our return after we had stretched off, the lovely Community Hall Manager, Helen explained the history of the hall to us and told us about the amazing range of local groups that use it regularly including music, dancing, groups for people with additional needs and even a parrot flying group! Who knew that was even a thing?! After we had squawked (sorry!) at that surprising fact, we got down to work and made great headway with the entrance and car park of the hall - clearing, weeding, tidying and chopping down ivy.

Yet again, we achieved loads in the time we had and Helen was really pleased with our progress:

Thanks to you all, it's looking really lovely!

Our lovely Community Hall Manager, Helen

***STOP PRESS***

We closed by having a chat about our 10TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS!!! GoodGym is 10 years old next week so we chatted about our very special birthday task on our group run on 18th September from our base location of St Matthews Community Hall, Stretford (M32 9AJ) at 6.30pm. We'll be helping Friends of Victoria Park to make their gardens more glorious, click the link to sign up and also join us at our social at the nearby Head Bar afterwards!

We also will be completing a Community Mission for Gorse Hill Studios on Saturday 21st September at 12.30pm. Click here to sign up - we need loads of you to make the gardening party go with a swing!

Thanks again guys and see you all for our birthday celebrations!

Working on a small and perfectly formed pocket paradise

Well done to the GoodGym Trafford crew who ran 7K last night to help tidy up a little pocket paradise - Stephen Street Community Garden in Urmston, Trafford. Special mention to Helen aka Aggie who joined us for her first ever GoodGym run, well done!

After meeting at our base location of St Matthews Community Hall, Stretford (M32 9AJ) at 6.30pm we had our welcome natter (including a reminder about our social on 18th September after our Group run that evening at Head Bar, document check and warm up from Kate (at points both at the same time!), the team took off at a fair clip led by Lou and kindly backmarked by Cassie. Big thanks to you both and also to our tech consultant for the evening, John who helped us with some Strava connections!

Once all assembled, resident and fellow GoodGym-er Jo who was our task owner for the evening, explained some of the history of the plot and how it had been a dumping ground a few years back until the local community decided to take it over and transform it. The result is a lovely little green spot that has fruit, vegetables and flowers for the community (including the nearby Carehome residents) to enjoy.

Of particular focus is the end of summer party which is in a few weeks, so with that in mind and after we had been briefed and were suitably tooled up, the team set about weeding, raking, tidying and clipping like nobody's business to make sure the garden is looking its best for that!

Whilst we worked we admired the crop of frankly whopping raspberries and abundant apple tree which has already yielded sufficient a crop for crumble for the whole street! We all got into the party mood with some of Kate's tunes and even Freddy our mascot paid us a visit to lend a paw.

This GoodGym Trafford task is not to be sniffed at...

Even though Jo has been on Group tasks before she was still surprised about the impact the team had in less than 45 minutes.

This is fantastic, look how much better it looks already!

After taking a good group shot (Kate's photo skills are slowly improving!)

we divided ourselves into two teams to run home, one team taking a longer route and running at a faster pace with the second team pacing ourselves.

On our return we stretched off and congratulated ourselves on another task well done. Next week our Group run is helping a small children's mental health charity to clear down after their event on 11th September. Click the link to register!

Thanks to all who joined us and see you next time!

Happy running, Kate x

DING DING, TRAFFORD ROUND TWO!

For our second GoodGym Trafford task a lovely crowd of 19 GoodGymers ran 5k up to Gorse Hill to help the Gorgeous Gorse Hill Project and Stretford High School with their planters and raised beds.

It was lovely to see so many people return from our launch and some new faces too- a big welcome to newbies Jan and Rachel - great to have you on the team! As well as our gardening task, we ran to Gorse Hill Park where we tidied up some litter and did a fitness task.

After our intro chat, we warmed up outside and had a talk about the tasks and the Projects benefitting. Then we ran/ walked from St Matthew's up Chester Road pointing out the various Gorgeous Gorse Hill pocket parks and installations along the way. And then we saw the most glamorous bollards in all of Trafford…and spotted that they needed weeding too!

We divided into teams and set to weeding, tidying and generally titivating the plots at the Avondale location and at Stretford High School.

Amazing!!! Thanks so much. This makes a huge difference for us. Awesome! Ruth, Gorgeous Gorse Hill Project

As before we got loads done and there was even time for Kate to go live on our Facebook page and Twitter account (and take some extreme nose-ups) in the process! Check out the vids and give us a like and a follow!

Once we’d completed our task we headed round to Gorse Hill Park where the Odds vs Evens pitched themselves in a litter picking and jumping jack battle .The Odds won by a whisker…

Flip me, that’s not a Klein pile of rubbish

When we’d deposited our rubbish we ran back to St Matthew’s where we completed an all over stretch off including asuper hard yoga stretch which everyone managed really well!

We also had a chat about next week’s task and what to expect from Kate in the next week. Click here to sign up for next week’s task which is a gardening task at the Stephen Street Community Gardens in Urmston.

As well as having a really good natter some runners also got their documents checked so that they can start doing coach runs (regularly running to see an isolated elderly person), or so that they can take part in mission runs (running to help isolated elderly people with one-off practical tasks). We are excited to see how they get on with their runs in the future!

A big thank you to David for leading us wonderfully, Jane for backmarking in her brilliant green jacket and Anders for taking some lovely photos along with everyone who mucked in together and made each other feel so welcome. Thanks guys!

It was great to see so many of you back again and to hear what you had been up to in the week.

Once again, well done to all and we very much look forward to seeing you all at St Matthews next time!

Keep running, Kate