For the second consecutive week GoodGym Huddersfield was foiled in its attempts to do our scheduled activity. The persistent rain meant that the fences we were due to paint at Greenfields Children’s and Family Centre were simply too wet, so we needed a Plan B.

And Plan B came in the form of a double header leaflet delivery. We had about 150 leaflets left over from a previous task earlier in the summer that Age UK now wanted posting in the Dalton area. Plus our friends at Growing works on hearing we were in the neighbourhood asked us to distribute some flyers for their forthcoming harvest festival activities too. The proverbial two birds with one stone...perfect!

Before the running however there were the usual formalities, including this week the presentation (for only the third time) of the GoodGym Huddersfield Fabulous 50 cape. Those GoodGymmers who reach the milestone of 50 good deeds get the honour of sporting the cape (kindly made by our first ever 50 good deeds runner Kati Law) on the occasion of their 50th GoodGym activity. And on this occasion, the hard working recipient was one of the Huddersfield GoodGym founder members Ben Godfrey. Well done Ben, congratulations.

Formalities over there was a run to be done, just about 3K over to Dalton where we could distribute leaflets to our hearts content. Well not to our hearts content exactly, we could distribute leaflets until all 300 were posted and then do some hill reps. Fortunately the seemingly incessant rain of earlier in the day had indeed ceased, and in a well practiced way the crew divided into pairs to take on specific streets.

David Bilton (who is known as GoodGym Huddersfield’s top leafletter) and Jo Talbot took Albany Road, Kati Law and Ben Godfrey posted on one side Dalton Green Lane, whilst Louise Galvin and Wendy Redmile did the other. We were poetry in motion, travelling through the terraces, bungalows and detached dwellings like a well oiled machine posting as we went.

45 minutes later we were done, leaving the group with a choice. A longer run home or some hill intervals on the nearby Woodbridge Avenue. It was the hill reps that got the vote and a few minutes later we were banging out progressively longer intervals an the ever steepening slope. As is always the way hill reps are never fun at the time, but everyone feels great for having done the afterwards. Well perhaps almost everyone, as one of our number was heard to remark that perhaps next time perhaps we should make sure we bring more leaflets!

There was still another 3K back to the Stadium and then a stretch before saying goodnight to the GoodGymmers who left having been reminded that when it comes to good deeds there is always a Plan B. Cheers everyone!

Whilst our numbers may have been 50% lower than last week’s record attendance of ten, five Huddersfield GoodGymmers worked doubly hard last night to deliver over 300 leaflets around Deighton in somewhat tropical conditions. The sticky heat didn’t deter Louise Galvin, Ben Godfrey, Meg Deacon and myself, and it was also great to welcome along GoodGym newbie David Bilton for his first ever GoodGym experience.

The 3K run to Deighton was a warm one to say the least. We were returning to complete a task started a couple of weeks ago, posting flyers promoting Age UK’s affordable footcare service. This time I had bundled the leaflets into stacks of 50 so we knew exactly how many we would be posting through letterboxes during the session. Taking one side of the road each, a team of boys and a team of girls were soon opening gates, running up garden paths and eagerly pushing leaflets through doors.

One by one the streets in the Deighton and Bradley areas were ticked off our list, as the GoodGymmers ploughed on with the task although the heat did begin to take its toll after a while, sometimes slowing the pace to a walk. However the leaflets still got posted, after an hour we had pushed just over 300 through doors, which will hopefully translate to more custom for the footcare service and happier feet in the local area. Champion pusher last night was new boy David Bilton who rattled through his stack of 50 leaflets and a few more besides, although he modestly claimed his success was mainly due to the fact that his houses just happened to have shorter garden paths!

Short paths or not it’s always surprising how much ground we cover on a leaflet job, along with the advertised 3K there and 3K back, up and down 300 garden paths had given a total distance for each runner of well over 10K. Well done team, as ever the characteristic GoodGym determination and commitment “feet”ured prominently again last night!

Thanks to Ben Godfrey for the flash of inspiration that brought us this week’s title.

All runners know the importance of healthy, pain free feet, so it was a great pleasure to “feeture” a job for Age Concern’s affordable footcare service as last night’s task. This new service needed a bit of promotion in the area and what better way than to call on GoodGym’s expert leaflet delivery skills.

So last night our sole objective was to push as many leaflets as we could through doors in the Deighton area of Huddersfield, well that and have as much fun as we could doing it of course! Following a few leafleting jobs this summer GoodGym Huddersfield are now getting pretty good at this kind of task and never cease to be surprised at just how many leaflets we can post in an hour, not to mention the number of miles we rack up running up and down hundreds of garden paths!

We had eight great runners in the group last night. GoodGym Huddersfield regulars Kati Law, Ben Godfrey, Louise Galvin, Meg Deacon, Mark Donnellan and myself were joined by first timers Peter Phillips and Victoria Knight-Phillips. It turns out Victoria had been an early supporter of GoodGym Huddersfield, being involved in the initial preparation and set-up work over 12 months ago, so it was great to welcome her along to enjoy the fruits of her efforts.

After last week’s wet one it was great to be able to enjoy a proper sunny summer evening, and following a warm-up of our legs (and brains) with a round of “Jump In, Jump Out, Jump Left, Jump Right” we were off on the run. Heading towards Deighton way gave us plenty of opportunity for some off-road running action, both along the canal towpath and up the climb in Riddings Wood.

By the time we reached Age UK’s centre on Keldregate we were raring to get posting, and I was raring to get the 2 Kg’s of leaflets out of out my rucksack and into the hands of the eager GoodGymmers. Working in two teams working opposite sides of the street soon posting flyers through as many doors as we could manage. Peter and Vicki were also working together well as a team, due to Vicki’s very impressive “holiday nails” not lending themselves particularly well to posting leaflets!

Keldregate, Sherwood Drive, Owlers Close, Alandale Road all got done, we were absolutely flying trough our supply of leaflets and having a great time whilst doing so. It was nice too to be able to chat to some local residents as we passed and explain what we were doing. I met Kathleen Turner (who assured me she wasn’t the film star Kathleen Turner!), who was particularly impressed and thought GoodGym was an amazing idea!

After more than an hour on our feet it was time to head for home. And finding ourselves near Bradley Woods, it was a perfect opportunity for a little more off-road running, and also to admire the fenceposts GoodGym had dug holes for for our friends at Woodscape way back on a dark night in October. Incidentally we will be doing another job for Woodscape in a couple of weeks time.

A route back through the woods and along the greenway was the perfect end to a successful night of leafleting and something of a GoodGym ultra run. According to various Garmin and Strava records the run to Deighton and back, along with all the leaflet delivering in between had racked up a total distance somewhere in the region of 10.5K! Well done team, a definite “feet” of endurance and yet another cracking effort by all involved!

One more thing before I go, congratulations to the ever energetic and completely committed Kati Law who through a combination of Group Runs, Community Missions and Coach Runs totalled 50 GoodGym good deeds last night. Well done Kati, great effort!