On August 15th 2017, 21 Brighton Goodgymmers visited One Church for the first time to tackle their rusty railings. We had two more visits in 2017, three in 2018 and here we are again in 2019 attempting to finish what we started almost 2 years ago!!!!

This week we welcomed two new runners, Edlyn and Kirsty, really good to have you on board, perhaps they were inspired to join us after reading a wonderful write up in the Guardian this week. If you missed it read it here. Welcome back also to Scarlet, who’s been busy getting married and passing exams, congratulations on both! We also congratulated anyone who went for a run on Saturday on the hottest day of the year, in particular David & Michael for completing the challenging Maverick race over the Downs near Stanmer. And well done to Michael and Helena for completing a mission and helping Mrs J settle into her new home. You can read about that here.

So just a short run to the task where we got ourselves into groups of four, with 2 groups painting, whilst the other ran to the Level for a circuit of strength and conditioning moves before swapping back in. This way we maximised the painting, making more great progress on this mammoth task before running out of paint. With a bit of time left over we switched to weeding the front of the building and left things looking much smarter than when we arrived.

So we haven’t quite completed the railings, I reckon one more visit should do it, but One Church are very grateful for all our help in smartening up the front of this old and difficult to maintain building that houses some great community projects.

Next week is our birthday, we will be celebrating 2 years of getting fit and doing good by going for a casual drink and bite to eat after the session. And we have plenty to do with 2 tasks next week so sign up here. In the meantime, keep on running but stay cool!

Tonight we welcomed Lucy for her goodgym debut - great to have you on board, Lucy! We also congratulated Roy and Tara on their Bright10 pb's on the weekend. And yes, Rachael - it's a 10 mile race, not 10k, so the applause for our times was well deserved :-)

Ten of us then headed for the task that keeps on giving: yes we paid another visit to One Church to paint the railings! They really don't look like much but these things sure have kept us busy over the past year. We are finally on to painting the top coat a lovely shade of, well, black. Another couple of visits and we will probably be done!

Tonight was also a #RunandTalk event where goodgym acknowledges the link between running and good mental health, and there was plenty of good chat as we worked on our brush strokes.

Once we had cleared up and doused ourselves in white spirit, it was time for a bit more running. Interval training was the name of the game as we ran 4 even-paced laps, with a short rest after each lap. Our track tonight was the area just north of the pavilion - it probably has a name, but I've only lived here for 20 years, so how would i know? The good news is this area is soon to be redeveloped and should become much more accessible to pedestrians (and runners!) and a lot less like a traffic island.

After rounding off with a few minutes of HIIT, we headed for our monthly social - this time to the Black Lion, where we learned about Morris dancing, the origin of bulldogs, and floated the idea of a goodgym Christmas karaoke social in early December. If we do it, we should only be allowed to sing running themed songs, and I'm going for Flock of Seagulls "I Ran (So Far Away)", which I expect only Tara can remember.

Finally, don't forget it's our monthly parkrun meetup at Hove Park this Saturday: 9.00 start, near the cafe...and if anyone is interested in occasionally volunteering at the new junior parkrun (Sundays, 9.00, Hove Park), please get in touch with Roy!

(I do indeed remember it well! Here's a clip for anyone under 45!!, Tara) https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=a+flock+of+seagulls+i+ran

Tonight we welcomed back Rachael & Louise for there first Goodgyms since completing their marathons so we were able to congratulate them in person for their fantastic achievements. It was also great to welcome Rikash for his second Goodgym run but first with us in Brighton. And it turns out he had recently met Amro so I sense a firm friendship forming there! We also congratulated Roy on his new parkrun PB!

Way back last summer I first met with the good people at One Church to discuss how we could help them with their rusty railings. “Should take about 3 visits,” I said “1 to prep, 1 to prime and 1 to top coat.” Well I’ve just checked through our run reports and I can confirm that this was our 5th visit!!!

But all the hard prep is done and tonight it was prime time! We were met by Andrew who filled us in on some of the great and diverse things that happen at One Church including pole dancing classes and The Real Junk Food Project! With a big group of 15 painters but only 8 brushes we split the group in two with half painting and half taking on tonight’s fitness session in the car park behind the church. We did 4 rounds of 45 seconds of sprints, plank & a squat with a side leg raise using a mini band before swapping over with the painters. Thanks to Helena for supervising the painting whilst I cracked the whip on the fitness sessions!

We nearly got the priming done but alas not quite so about another 3 visits I reckon!! This is the task that just keeps on giving!!

We headed off as a group to the Level for a quick fitness game, a bit like stuck in the mud but with a cone collecting competition thrown in. Lots of fun!

Next week we’ll be going to one of our favourite tasks…The Bevy. See you then!

A bitterly cold Saturday morning for our starter session. Perhaps that’s why only half the sign ups turned up! But 4 of us were not put off by the chill in the air and we ran just under 1km to reach our destination One Church.

Andrew from One Church met us and showed us inside this lovely building which functions as a community hall for a wide range of groups and charities as well as a venue for bands and a weekly ceilidh (had to look up the spelling for that one!) On Fridays they host the Real Junk Food Project who feed up to 200 people with food past its best before date collected from local supermarkets. They also have a scheme for training young unemployed people up as baristas to help them find work in Brighton’s booming cafe sector.

This was our 4th visit to One Church to help them smarten up the outside railings. On previous visits we had sanded back the rust and loose paint and we had just started priming when the dark evenings drew in. So it was great to have an opportunity to go back and do some more painting in daylight. It’s a tricky job getting the paint to cover all the curling ironwork and Roy did a fantastic job going over all the bits the rest of us managed to miss! A large section of the railings are now primed red and we will be going back to do some more once the evening light returns.

Well done folks, more miles run, more good done!

A Relay Good Job!

Three new recruits tonight! A very warm welcome to Kirsten(, Mairie & Catherine!

This week’s news featured Harriet who after just a couple of months of running completed her first race at the weekend at The Rise 8km. Well done Harriet, keep up the momentum and enter a 10k next! And special mention to Tanya for also completing the Rise 8km in a frankly rather ridiculous unicorn outfit! Well done Tanya, you wore it well! Also Big Congratulations to Beth who reached her 50th Good Deed in Worthing last night and tonight completed her 51st in just 7 months! And she ran the Oxford Half Marathon on Sunday too!

Tonight’s task was One Church Railings Part 3! One Church do great work in the community supporting young, old, vulnerable and homeless with some fantastic projects in their beautiful but challenging building. After 2 previous visits where we sanded and scraped and scrubbed tonight was the night where there might just be paint!! This is one hell of a task, just when you think you’ve got rid of all the loose paint, rust and grime there’s more! But thankfully One Church had had a couple of students in since our last visit who had also had a good sand, scrape and scrub so it didn’t take too much more sanding, scraping and scrubbing before we did get on with some painting! Hurrah! A section of railing has now been undercoated with red oxide paint! Phew!!

For our fitness session we headed to the temptingly close but very difficult to access Victoria Gardens right opposite One Church for some relay reps around the approximately 400m perimeter of the garden. In pairs one ran whilst the other squatted, lunged and press upped before swapping over. Well done to Michael, Louise and new recruits Mairie & Kirsten who completed 4 reps each.

We headed back to base for our monthly social only to discover that YHA had a bit of a cold beer crisis in as much as they didn’t have any! So off to the Mesmerist we went where there was cold beer aplenty.

Don’t forget we are having our monthly parkrun meet up at Hove Park on Saturday. Come along, wear your t-shit and stay for a coffee after. And on Sunday it’s the Brighton 10 mile race starting at 9am on Hove Lawns. Good luck to Michael, Scarlet, David & me who are all running. If you’re not running, help us go faster by coming down and giving us a cheer!