With the scented promise of fresh doughnuts on the promenade, six GoodGymmers set off from the Penarth Pier Pavilion for the monthly Vale good deed. After arriving ambitiously from parkrun, Aimee led some patent pending warm-up pirouetting (something about pizza slices) .

All prior talk of walking the hilly start was soon abandoned as the group kept up a steady pace, first along the breezy coastal path and then all aboard the leafy Railway Walk Park into Penarth town.

With a few miles done, the familiar Marie Curie charity shop played welcoming hosts; like the broken jammy dodgers on offer, the group was split into two. One, sorting out mounds of clothes - an Aladin's cave of smart fashion. The second, to continue our good work by painting the backspace of the charity shop.

Nathan, Emma and Aimee kept their kit paint-free - clearing many clothes bins and sorting several racks of clothes, saving the charity many hours of volunteer's time! Meanwhile Mikey, Martin and Lucy painted the kitchen - Martin crafted ingenious climbing boxes to reach the tough spots, and Mikey confronted his traumatic paint-covered demons of the previous visit.

Returning back to the Pavilion, letting gravity do most of the work down the blooming Alexandria Park, the group settled on Crazy Cafe for post-good deed coffee!

14 runners joined the inaugural GoodGym run in Penarth, the Vale of Glamorgan, and ran to the Marie Curie Shop. A shop which helps raise money for the Marie Curie Hospice. The hospice offers specialist care for people living with a terminal illness and support for families, completely free.

On a very cold Saturday morning, and by cold I mean 0 degrees centigrade, GoodGym runners rose up from their beds ready for the day. Some runners chose to adventure to Park run. Emma Wilkins achieved a PB – Well done Emma! After Parkrun runners then headed to Penarth Pavilion. Well done to Mikey who ran all the way from Blackweir to Penarth – You are strong!

Welcome to Penarth Pavilion

We all met inside Penarth Pavilion. The building was beautiful and staff were welcoming and friendly – Nothing was too much trouble. After everyone signed in we made our way outside and began jogging to warm up. We did a Mr Men warm up and then ran down Penarth Pier. There we did press ups and tricep dips and Ben then instructed everyone to run the length of the pier and run back at a 5km pace. Despite the cold temperatures everyone was definitely feeling warm now! We then did a headcount and welcomed Debbie and Paul, GoodGym Bristol runners, to GoodGym Cardiff (Even in the cold temperatures they received a very warm welcome). Part of the warm up involved naming our favourite running locations… Ellen said Florida and everyone began thinking of Disney and holiday destinations! Ben didn't do his Mikey mouse impression on this occasion you'll be pleased to know.

With ‘The Emma’s’ back marking and Darren leading, runners began the uphill challenge to Penarth Town Centre. Not deterred by the hills the runners approached them with fire and fury. They ran to the top of the hill and began planking, everyone held their planks until the Emma’s caught up with the group. Lewis did a legendary plank position by planking on a bench! #legend

Once we all regrouped we continued running. Ben made sure everyone was very careful crossing the roads in Penarth… :) After a 1.5 mile run we arrived at the task location!

Welcome to the Marie Curie Penarth Store!

Mud and Dave, staff at the Marie Curie Shop, had smiles on their faces ready to welcome us into their shop. We all entered the store and Mud shared information about Marie Curie and the tasks they needed doing.

The Task

Runners were split into two groups, 1 group (consisting of Lydia, Lucy, Emma, Emma, Paul, Deborah and Aura) sorted donations whilst the other group (consisting of Jack, Darren, Mikey, Lewis, Nathan and Ellen) were painting downstairs – A big thank you Ellen for keeping those lot in line!

The group who were painting the downstairs toilets got to know each other very well. Mikey and Darren were in the women’s toilet together… painting the walls, and at times each other by the looks of them at the end of the task. Jack and Lewis were in the men’s toilet together… painting. And whilst all this was going on Ellen and Nathan were painting the walls around the sink area. Nathan warned everyone that his dad is a decorator by trade and will ask his dad to provide painting top tips for future tasks; This is clearly where Nathan gets his painting ‘skills’ from too. Upstairs the winter clothes were being hung up in their correct sizes. They managed to go through approximately 8 bags of donations in about 20 minutes!! Speedy work ladies, and Paul! After they had completed that task, they went downstairs and sorted bags of toy donations which involved lots of playing with the toys. Emma also came across her new favourite book called, ‘I’m a happy bunny’ – This may not actually be the name of the book… but I can’t remember it.

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Riddly Diddily Doo, I have a Riddle for You!

Whilst tasks were going on Ben challenged everyone to work out the riddle for the run “The more you take the more you leave behind. What am i?” Keep reading for the answer

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With 5 minutes left the painters began cleaning up. They washed the paintbrushes and put everything neatly to the side ready for our next visit!

Thank you very much GoodGym!!

Dave and Mud were both amazed by how much we got done in the allotted time. Dave said “I can’t quite believe it, I really can't!” and Mud was so thankful, she said she looks forward to seeing us again. Ben then gave everyone mince pies to refuel before getting on our way.

Let’s run up those hills!!! Feel the burn and let those legs turn!

We ran up the hill to get a panoramic group shot of Cardiff. This didn’t go as intended and instead the photo is a panoramic view of roofs – very picturesque. We also took the opportunity to be big kids in the park and went down a slide and ran up the steps. Lydia flew down the slide at a rate of knots! Darren almost got stuck. We then continued running and headed to Alexandra Park. Darren and Ben led the run through the park playing follow the leader. We ran in directions that was anyone’s guess and stopped for a photo with a hedge designed in the shape of a bird, then a wood carving of a bird and then the final surprise, a cage full of real birds… Canaries maybe?? With all this going on Nathan starting waving his arms pretending to be a bird.

After these – not to be missed- photo opportunities we continued running, down a slope up some steps and then back down some more hills to Penarth Pavilion. After we arrived back to Penarth Pavilion we recapped on the run and did a group warm down. Deborah highlighted it was a big day for trainer Ben… who, unbeknown to him, has now reached 50 Good Deeds

50 Good Deed Alert!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!

Well done Ben for that marvellous achievement. You are an asset to the GoodGym community. Who will be next? Maybe it will be Lucy on Tuesday, which she keeps reminding us of!

After the run we went into the cafe in the Pavilion which was lovely and afforded us with delightful coffee :) Mmmmm delicious

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Join us on our GoodGym run this Tuesday - Click here to get signed up Check out all of the upcoming runs by clicking here

The answer to the riddle is... footprints - Did you get it?

Well done to the Daz who came up with this week's Pun! He is so punny isn't he?

Don't forget to log your run today on Strava or RunKeeper so it counts towards our monthly total. If you have Strava and forgot to record it you can add it manually as we all did 2.8 miles today! And if you haven't yet linked Strava or RunKeeper to your GG account you can do it here