Light evenings are back again

What an absolute delight it was to arrive and finish the task in the light. Head torches and Uncle Ivo's GoodGym lights be gone!!

It's kind of traditional that we kick off BST at one of our favourite tasks at St Botolphs Church with our hosts Val and Rik.

Val is always super organised and has all the tasks they would like done listed alongside their intensity level, meaning everyone can make a considered choice.

This evening Belinda and John chosen the more challanging option of sawing a large tree trunk into 3 pieces. This was quite some task which they completed very successfully illustrating what 37 years of marital team work can do!

Roxy and Stéphane got stuck into some digging with Ricky also joining them too.

Meanwhile Mel was bare handedly stripping ivy out of the wall which appeared to be quite therapeutic after a stressful day working !

Gillybean and Paulgot stuck into some fine pruning of trees and bushes on the outskirts of the church wall.

It was great to see our OG Beth back in the borough. She wasted no time in getting stuck into cutting up prunings that Gill and Paul had kindly provided ! El and Sarah got stick into removing ivy from the wall surrounding the doomsday font that we unearthed a few years ago. Sarah was fresh from her recent seamless move with Ryan into a beautiful new town house nearby whilst El had the brilliant idea to ask if we could take a look around inside the church. We didn't need to be asked twice and all processed into the church behind Rik who was the keeper of the keys! We all really enjoyed marvelling at c the size and beauty of the church and I was particularly interested to see a large lady chapel being there too.

We got back to work after our impromptu visit before finishing up fur the week.

Thank you St Botolphs - you didn't disappoint!

Monday night is GoodGym night

It was great to see the team tonight ! Thank you to you all that turned out to the task.Apart from anything else we had a really nice chat and catch up.

4 weeks ago we were at The Heene Community Garden laying cardboard under the soil to try and prevent the weeds growing. We went back today to ensure the cardboard is doing its work - and , it really is! Apart from some bindweed and few tiny weed shoots across the freshly dug soil we seem to be winning the battle. However if we had left it another 4 weeks it may have been another story! Tonight we weeded and cleared filling 2 bags! We will continue to win the battle 😇😊

Many thanks to Paul, RoxyElRickyMel and Paul for your time and energy today..

Next week,with the clocks springing forward,meaning light evenings again, we are returning to St Botolph's Church which is a GG Worthing favourite. I hope to see lots of you there!

Have a great week!

Julia xx

Beast from the East ?

On a freezing cold evening 5 of us braved the elements to do a tidy up of Anchor Gardens which is a seafront flowerbed which we have been visiting for several years.

Thank you to my team Paul, Sue, El, Stéphane and Ricky for their time and effort tonight.

We filled 3 bags of debris mainly thanks to Stephane's pruning of the large palm together with El's pruning of the other large palm tree/bush. With debris collected, it was job done for another week.

Wishing you a happy and healthy week and hope to see lots of you next week.

Julia xx

A welcome back evening

It was so nice to see Sue and Craig back this evening and we do hope that we will continue to see more of you in the coming weeks and months - we have missed you both :)

Tonight we set to work to clear more rubbish in our local beauty spot. We have already visited this area twice in the last 6 weeks but sadly, it always needs more attention.

Craig started near where we had parked and found a substantial amount of litter straight away.

Barbara and Sue set of to the far end of the task and worked backwards walking towards us. they quickly filled a bag and started on a second!

Stéphane and El headed straight to the most littered part of the area where Roxy, Paula and I pitched in too. Highly addictive !

Before long we had filled 7 more bags to the brim. This means that in the last 6 weeks we have filled 22 bags ! Sadly we had to leave the bigger items of wood and parts from a computer but what a HUGE difference we have made ! Visually the area now looks clear. We will revisit this beauty spot every month so that we can get this area under control especially during the spring and summer months.

Thank you all for tonight and see you next week

Julia xx

On a stunning evening on the extremely sunny south coast 10 of us gathered at Heene Community Rooms garden on our mission to finish laying cardboard under the freshly dug soil.

Congratulations to Mel on her first half marathon at Brighton at the weekend - the first of many I think! Also well done to Paul who pulled a great time out of the bag despite having been ill.

Megan and Stéphane headed out for some interval sprints down to the seafront and back. They were worked on a perceived exertion scale gradually increasing the effort over 5 repetitions of the same distance. Suffice to say I think they had a great work out!

Ricky worked on removing tape from the cardboard that I had acquired whilst the rest of the team worked on digging up the soil and digging it in.

Shout out to our very own ultra runner Roxy who despite all her recent kilometres, put some energetic digging. Many thanks to you all for some serious effort with this task - I actually feel we may have finally cracked it !

El came up with this great pun after I had mentioned to John that it was fine to take a break from his energetic raking !

During the task eagle eyed Belinda spotted our very own Worthing fonder member Beth running by with her brother and Dad. I hackled her enough that she couldn't ignore it so she stopped for a brief chat and photo :) What a lovely surprise!

Many thanks to Paul for completing his task force training - maybe a task report may be a first chance to flex your TF muscles?!

Looking forward to seeing lots of you next week - I'm not quite sure what the task will be but watch this space !

and so does Worthing GoodGym. 14 goodgymers volunteered to support the 692 parkrun finishers as March arrived bringing with it the feeling that spring may actually be here.

It’s a set up

Sue A, under the close supervision of John, arrived nice and early to help with set up. Poles hammered in, rope and tape installed, it was time for Sue to cast her GoodGym top aside and display her running club allegiance.

Showing the way

There were three GoodGym Marshals out on the course. Ricky found a position along the prom to cheer and support the runners. Paula and Barbara were given bright yellow signs to take out marshalling, basically warning the general public to exercise caution in their vicinity.

Ropey start

No, not Belinda’s RD missive. John P, Daisy, Anne and Sue held the rope that separates parkrunners from those who haven’t found parkrun yet!

Run director, run

It was reported that Belinda’s dulcet tones could be heard from quite a distance away today. It was just at the start she couldn’t be heard due to the constant chat of eager parkrunners who feel they’ve ‘heard it all before’. Belinda took the opportunity to share all about GoodGym and how it contributes to the local community, as well as having fun and getting fit. There was a special shoutout to John P who was volunteering at parkrun for the 25th time. Although not a GoodGymer, we are all very fond of John P. We only have as many socials in the pub as we do because then we get to see John P who is often tempted along to join us.

More than a token gesture

Belinda took the opportunity to spread concern by encouraging Anne in her belief that the tokens may run out. Frankly, we’ve no idea why Anne was concerned - surely if they did run out she would be quick enough to catch up!

As time goes by

One of our elder statesmen, Paul, oversaw the finish line. Clicking his ticker at every passing pair of feet.

Funnel

There was no ducking responsibility for Sue W on funnel management, and no funnel ducking allowed. There is a perverse pleasure in watching an exhausted runner stagger over the finish line to be told to keep on moving through the never-ending funnel created earlier by John and Sue A.

Breaking the Barcode

Roxy, who took a pause in her long, long, run attended the Daisy school of barcode scanning in order to be ready for the steady onslaught of runners finish tokens being thrust eagerly towards them.

Run baby, run….

Sue A, Ryan, Sarah and Craig who ran as well as volunteering were joined on the course by Jay with his juggernaut, Olivia filled, buggy. Gill, as often happens, ran amongst the throng chatting with her running pals.

Post event clowning

As usual when Sarah, Ryan and Craig contribute to closedown they turned the finish area into their own personal playground. No flagfighting this time, just competitive banner folding. Who won? There is no result, the banner remains unfolded.

Taking the biscuit

Results were processed supported by hot chocolate and biscuits. John and Ricky were happy to take responsibility for biscuit demolition whilst Belinda ensured the 692 runners got their correct times.

Half the battle

Our local parkrun is finding it increasingly difficult to fill the roster each week. On a normal Saturday (that is, one that doesn’t happen to be pre half marathon rest day for many) with 14 GoodGymers we would have filled half the roster. Let’s see if we can do even better next month. And don’t forget, parkrun volunteering isn’t just available on our monthly GoodGym promotion occasions.