We arrived to carry out Part Two of our mission to help tidy up the garden area outside Age UK in Swindon. We were met by Matt, the Manager, who briefly explained the work they had been doing during Covid to stay connected with their older clients, by providing a meals on wheels service. 🍲

We welcomed Paul, our newest GG joiner (also a Bassett Hound). We then set to, clipping hedges 🌳 and pulling weeds 🌾before the dark and rain set in. 🌧

Have to make mention here of the “GGGB” .... Gina’s Green Gardening Bag. It makes an appearance at most outdoor events now, and is a welcome sight. Keep your eyes open for it!

Matt kindly came round half way through the task taking tea/coffee orders (latte or cappuccino!!) with cookies no less! 🍪

We followed up the task with a chat in the very lovely coffee bar in the Centre. We’ll be back, if only for the cookies!

We met up at Age UK Toothill to help spruce up the community centre. During the recent Covid crisis, the staff and helpers had been busy providing 10,000 meals for the elderly, which had been more essential than ever during the pandemic. This didn’t leave much time for gardening of course.

Luckily it was a nice late summer evening and we set off weeding, planting and trimming to improve the front of the centre. Sam and Adam were celebrating too.... not because they found some snails and worms, but because it was their first wedding anniversary this week! Many congrats you two 💝 (was that GG hen run really a year ago?!!).

Lily and Gina (complete with her tool handbag) tidied the front flower bed which oddly contained fake grass (needed a vacuum really), Becky replanted the two tubs with pretty bedding, Tracey danced around with her big hands (and weeded lots of steps), Jason cleared and shovelled the paving and I took lots of piccys (with some weeding thrown in).

A half time cuppa/ biscuits was well appreciated from Matt. Lovely evening with lots of chat. Ended up filling over ten bags with weeds, so a good evenings’ work by all.

A small but perfectly formed group of runners gathered outside Oasis, remarking just how light the evenings have got lately (why does it always seem like a surprise?). Enjoying the novelty of being able to fully see each other, we shared our favourite thing to do on holiday - in summary, we're a simple bunch. When we're with friends, family and have some good food - with a sprinkle of running in exotic places thrown in for good measure, we're pretty happy!

Led by Mike we set of to the task, running and chatting away, leaping over some muddy puddles to keep us on our toes. Tonight we were tasked with finishing off painting we started on Pancake Day at Age UK at Toothill Community Centre - ridding the walls of an oeuf-ul lot of yellow! Matt, renowned for being the host with the most (and complete with waistcoat) was there to greet us with platters of biscuits and the best drinks selection at a task yet! We Munch-ed on biscuits and s'Gogh-ed Fanta, tea, and sparkling flavoured water, but Emma the Trainer's diva request for a latte was one step too far! She did deserve royal treatment after her radio appearance on BBC Wiltshire earlier the same day, spreading some GoodGym goodwill on the airwaves.

When we just couldn't eat any more biscuits, we thought we better get on with the task at hand. Charles donned his painting sweater (I need to Rembrandt mine next time), Tracy declared she would do the cutting in, Jason did a stellar job of paint distribution and we we're off.

This time we not only had to finish the hall, but had to tackle the toilet too, with some outstanding modelling from Stuart reminding us just what a toilet was for, in case we forgot! Lily covered the most ground (wall?) in the toilet, painting the wall, cupboard and also most of her arm magnolia. A top notch job all round - Monet couldn’t buy!

Finally it was time for photos… in portrait, landscape and not forgetting the all-important square version too! Then just under 4km back, re-routed to avoid the mud and with a sprint finish for some, to the Oasis for homemade cake to celebrate Charles, Stuart, Tracey and Tracy becoming one year older - not that you could ever tell! It was also Jason's 50th run with GoodGym tonight - congratulations Jason! At this rate Swindon GoodGym will be mistaken for the All Blacks any time soon.

Next week we will be running about 8km to 'plog' (that's litter picking for the uninitiated few) around the Link Centre in West Centre. Hope to see you (in daylight) at 6pm at the Oasis Leisure Centre - just look out for our red (and black) tops. Check it out here!

It was flippin' cold as we gathered outside the Oasis on Shrove Tuesday. Inspired by Tracey's GoodGym branded pancakes - with baked in red batter and not strawberry sauce, just in case there are any remaining doubters - we discovered there's a clear preference for the traditional lemon and sugar topping on our pancakes.

But it's Richard's impressive efforts in once eating 27 pancakes that will take some beating...although not all heroes wear capes, this red-shirted hero certainly eats crêpes!

With that, it was time to beat the streets and whisk ourselves away to Age UK at Toothill Community Centre with Charles leading the way and the Dodgy Bum Gang, hamstrung with hamstring and glute niggles, bringing up the rear. Matt was there to greet us at the Community Centre with everything prepped for our painting session.

Last time we visited, we painted the walls with paint of the consistency and colour of scrambled eggs.

After some work at the centre, they've had un oeuf of that, and our task was to paint the walls with what looked like pancake batter but was in fact magnolia paint.

We split into two teams with Helen, Richard and Jason taking on the high rolling activity of painting the upper panels in the large hall and the rest of us tackling the upper hall, including repainting that famous yellow brick wall. The not so mellow yellow paint was soon covered up, but it looks like a second coat will be needed so a return visit is on the cards. Was Matt yolking when he asked if anyone would like to take the eggy paint away with them? We'll never know as there was no one brave enough to take up the offer!

Regular readers will know that we love a hump and dump task in Swindon and tonight we squeezed in a bit of lifting and shifting of an enormous oven with Jake and Mike leading the way in the muscle-flexing crew. After all that exertion, Matt's offer of a drink in the lovely cosy café at the centre was very welcomed. Matt really was the host with the most, offering a variety of coffees, tea, hot chocolate, cold drinks, crisps and biscuits (including our favourites, Jammy Dodgers). Hannah was particularly excited to be offered a choice of regular or red Fanta - we're expecting the full tasting notes to follow! It was then time for the photo shoot - we're still not entirely sure what gestures Richard was making but if the photos are a bit blurry, it's because we were all laughing too much at his slightly unusual interpretation of jazz hands.

The café is such a warm and welcoming place that we reluctantly had to head back out into the chilly wind.

It's a good job that Emma the Trainer had her motivational speech ready - "I really don't want to run back" was the inspiring battle cry!

Fortunately we're made of strong stuff and, under the moonlit sky with Venus shining brightly, we were soon back at the Oasis for more coffee and even more chat. There's a lot about Richard in this report, but he also tells that if we had a telescope, we would also have been able to see Uranus - it seems there's also a lot about bottoms in this report. And on that bum note, it's probably best to finish there!

If your goal is to get even fitter and do even more good in 2020, we have just the Community Mission for you. We'll be at Bridlewood School on Saturday putting up some football goals. The next time that Leap Year Day falls on a Saturday is 2048 - that's a long time to wait, so don't miss out this weekend!

Next week, we are running to a new venue - St Paul's Church and Community Centre - it's a longer run but there's plenty of support and encouragement and as always, the run will be backmarked, and no one will get left behind. We hope to see you there!

As with most other GoodGym areas this week, it would seem the elements were against us! Epic thunder and lightening, flash flooding and traffic gridlock across Swindon were all colliding and conspiring to keep us away. We have been in conversation with GoodGym central about trialling a double points bounty when the weather reaches tempest levels – what do you think?! However, our skin is waterproof and we have legs, so off we popped to Age UK Wiltshire for a return visit to their new(ish) home at Toothill Community Centre.

This week the runners had the absolute delight of being sandwiched between Run Leader Richard the Rector and Backmarker Stuart. Lucky runners! And this week’s paparazzi duties fell to Helen.

Last time we visited, “Team Frosting” and “Team Scrambled Egg” helped to transform windows and walls inside the centre. This time we were tackling the outside space, clearing weeds and brambles. Lots of girly squeals could be heard – those brambles hurt a lot – and we hope we didn’t alarm any local residents with the noise! We trimmed, cut, swept and scooped until there was no more trimming, cutting, sweeping, scooping left to do. Except for the high up hard to reach bits, whereupon Safety First Simon absolutely did not breach any safety regulations. Nope. None at all. Nothing to see here

Richard the Rector then declared it was time to head inside. Hurrah! The centre has been beautifully decorated and in the new café area was the very apt message that “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”. We didn’t do much dancing – except when we were attacked by the brambles - but we did have a lovely chatty time achieving our “Goodness Goals” as Age UK Wiltshire put it! With the task done we were treated to tea and cupcakes.

Chatter this week included travels of next week to Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Everest Base Camp and Transylvania! Will everyone remember to pack their GoodGym t-shirts? Will we see some GoodGym on tour holiday snaps?

Does “Strava Palaver” still happen when you’re overseas? Stay tuned to find out!

It was soon time for the runners to head off back into the darkness while a few of us stayed for more chat, and were soon kindly asked to leave as it was time to lock up! Age UK Wiltshire have made such a lovely cosy space for the locals we don’t know why anyone would want to leave! Thanks for having us.

Next up we will be running approximately 4km in total to Margaret Matthews Court in Rodbourne to help with a gardening task. This promises to be a very special task – we absolutely loved our last visit here and getting to meet the delightful residents who are sure to distract us from the job in hand! Margaret Matthews Court provides sheltered accommodation for older people and they need some more help tidying up their garden area. So don't delay - sign up here today!

This week we were very happy to be returning to Age UK Wiltshire to help with their improvements to Toothill Community Centre.

Emma The Trainer led the speedies, backmarked by Tracey with sat-nav duties performed by Andrew. Sandy Sam led the steadies, backmarked by Jo. We all arrived safely and on time – with all those helping hands we’d have had to hang up our red t-shirts in shame otherwise!

It was a lovely surprise to see the place has been completely transformed since we last visited and is becoming a really great place for the Toothill community, both the young and young-at-heart alike!

One of our tasks was to apply frosty film to some windows, preventing prying eyes from peeking in – we had fun guessing what on earth they would be getting up to!

So ‘Team Frosting’ got to work on cutting the film to size which turned out to be a bit wily and required every hand, elbow and even knee available to keep it under control. The windows needed a quick squirt of water (to activate the stickiness) before peeling the back off and get sticking. Simple! Except ….. things that we now know to be easier than peeling the back off the frosting:

• Running the London marathon backwards
• Completing a Rubik cube wearing a blindfold
• Getting across Swindon’s magic roundabout alive in rush hour traffic on a pogo stick

We (eventually) got sticking but there was another 10 minutes of “to-me, to-you”, “up-a-bit, down-a-bit”, “why isn’t it sticking?”, “WHY ISN’T IT STICKING??!!” before it became apparent there had been a slight mix up in the instructions and we’d put the non-sticky side to the windows. As one person put it “All the gear, no idea!”

Over in ‘Team Scrambled Egg’ they were having troubles of their own. Their task was to paint walls yellow and doors grey. Another simple sounding task, but how did they manufacture paint that has not only the colour but the consistency of scrambled eggs? Not to be put off by this eggstraordinary substance, we cracked on.

Both paints turned out to be a bit eggsplosive and we feared that several red t-shirts had perished in battle.

Our number one fan, Jo’s mum, avidly follows our adventures each week and during a post-run de-brief heard about our splattered t-shirts and shared her top laundry tips. Water based paint should be soaked in washing liquid and oil based should be dabbed (not rubbed) with turps and then soaked in detergent. So there you have it - thanks Jo’s mum!

There was a lot of painting to do and we do like to finish a job, no eggscuses. With five minutes to go everyone eggselerated a bit to get as much egg, I mean paint, on the walls as possible. Sorry, for the over use of egg puns, but one is never un ouef!

Before heading back this week we were in for a real treat as the lovely Bernice had prepared tea, cakes and biscuits. Should we be eating and drinking before a longish run – yes! We laugh in the face of bellies full of yummy cake and tea. We are GoodGym after all!

Tune in next week to find out…. will the next run report have any bad egg puns? Will word spread that we work best when there is promise of CAKE? Will Jo’s mum’s tips save the lives of even more red t-shirts?

More hot dates for your diary:

Community Mission – Friday 12th Friends of Wroughton Primary Federation need our help at their Fun Run! GoodGym Swindon have been invited not only to do a fun warm up with the children, but we have also been asked to start the run and hand out medals to all the finishers! Arrive at 4.15pm. Sign up here!

Community Mission – Saturday 13th Simon at Christ Church needs our help! There is lots of gardening to be done so why not join Richard from GG Swindon's Task Force and give a helping hand that day? With an 11am start you can still fit in parkrun and coffee before heading over! Sign up here!

Group Run – Tuesday 16th We will going to the Victoria Centre at Great Western Hospital to help with a much-needed gardening task in one of their internal gardens. The Victoria Centre offers Later Life Inpatient Services, supporting and treating older patients with dementia, affective disorder and psychosis. This is a longer run, so to make it accessible we have the 3 options:

1. 13k run, there and back at 6pm from Oasis with the ‘Speedies’
2. 13k run, there and back at 6pm from Oasis with the ‘Steadies’
3. 3k walk, there and back at 6.30pm from Coate Water Country Park with the walking group

Sign up here!