Nine runners ran 4.5km to help clear the basement at the Scope charity shop

A beautiful morning suggested spring was in the air. By lunchtime it was raining and by the time we were all heading to DMU it was cold and sleety. Easy come, easy go! After hearing about each other's running adventures including weekend races alongside GG runners from Birmingham and Derby we set off for Scope.

For the second consecutive visit we had a slightly different task to our usual clothes sorting. Having done such a sterling job of tidying up one basement room last time we were shifted into the other half tonight to tackle the shelves. Filled to bursting with assorted donations, junk and paperwork we quickly set about storing paperwork and sorting the rest into some semblance of order. Discovering all sorts of weird and wonderful items, many long past their best, we created a neat and tidy assortment where once stood chaos. We even found a set of Liverpool FC curtains that were in such a dilapidated state they may well have not seen the light of day since the last time the Red Men won the top division!

Having finished bang on time we headed back to DMU for some sprint repeats on the straight alongside the building, a perfect space for the activity giving us a clear run to go hard and recover.

A super effort tonight and Liam and Amanda were clearly grateful as ever for our contribution! Well done team GG!

Look out on the weekly email this week for some forthcoming community mission opportunities helping Leicester Outdoor Pursuits Centre, Menphys and LOROS. See you all next week as we get out on the cycle network once again to help Sustrans!

Happy running, HD

Our third group run of 2020 saw us return to Scope for a welcome indoor task! Firstly, many thanks to Dave for leading over the last two weeks, it really is appreciated especially with the last minute task change last week.

Tonight we welcomed Natalie, an experienced GoodGym picking up her "wanderer" badge for visiting her 7th different area tonight, along for her Leicester debut. Great to have you along, we hope to see you again soon - great effort on the hill too!

With Dave and Mel walking directly to the task, the rest of us headed on a slightly different route to normal, accidentally ending up with some Strava art of a lovely leaf shape to our run by the time we finished! A new task tonight too, Liam and Amanda have been instructed to get the basement tidied within the next two weeks and like all wise managers took the opportunity to get someone else to do it for them! In next to time we sorted a variety of items into boxes and bags and turned the basement from something reminiscent of a disobedient teenager's bedroom to a tidy, organised space where you could see the floor oncemore! Our "parents" Liam and Amanda were hopefully delighted with our work and it's great to actually see the difference we made so clearly. With some time to spare we carried on with a little of our usual clothes sorting with Jimmy managing to end up wearing a Tiger onesie (photo evidence required!) much to our amusement.

Work complete, we set off for some hill work on New Walk, completing 5 reps increasing by 15 seconds each time from 30 seconds through to 90 seconds. Back to base to stretch off and share news of our forthcoming bonus task this Saturday morning for the Canal & River Trust (details here and next week for LOROS (details here. Good luck to those trying to get into Stilton 7!

Great work tonight all, lovely to see you all again, let's finish January off in style!

HD

Ten runners ran 3.5km to help Scope

Our last group run of the year and what fun we had! We headed off to one of our favourite tasks at Scope with Dave, Jen and Mel walking direct to the task and the runners taking a tour of the festive lights in the city centre en route.

As usual, we came across an array of weird and wonderful clothing donations but tonight there was a twist. Our task was to buy something from the shop to wear to our festive post-task meal! Jimmy took the honours with an outstanding t-shirt discovered in one of the first bags we opened, with Stu donning a stunning pink hat, Dave improving his fashion sense (having been barred by Mel from buying his preferred cardigan) and Micheala lighting herself up being other highlights! A great effort everyone and a lovely gesture to pop a few quid in the till at Scope.

We then retired to Efes Mangal for food, drinks and laughs with the main topic of debate being the names of Leicestershire nightclubs from the dim and distant past and trying to establish just where Sharon met her husband!

A cracking task, great company - the perfect end to a wonderful 2019! Have a great couple of weeks running, resting, eating and drinking. Here's to a fantastic 2020!

HD

Seven runners ran 5.4km to help Scope

GG Leicester's favourite task returned with a bang tonight with some great work in the Scope basement complementing some dressing up shenanigans as has become the tradition!

After sharing news of our running weeks the runners set off on a loop through the city with the walkers heading directly to the task on Rutland St. We were met at the shop by Amanda who gave us the heads up on what needed sorting down in the depths.

We were straight into our stride, sorting clothes into categories to make it much more time efficient for the shop staff to retrieve the required stock from the basement during opening hours. As ever, we found lots of interesting items, Dave turning into an owl, Jimmy finding his standard array of weird and wonderful headgear and Lisette becoming Little Red Riding Hood!

Finishing promptly so Amanda could catch her train, the walkers returned on the direct route with the runners taking in some incline work on New Walk as they looped around past Nelson Mandela Park, the Tigers ground, LRI and DMU on their inbound route!

Great fun as ever on this task and we return there on December 17th for our final run of the year. We're planning to head out for our GG Leicester Xmas Do straight after that one with the challenge being that every runner needs to attend the meal wearing at least one item of clothing purchased at Scope during that night's task. There could be some interesting photos that night! Get signed up for that task here. Xmas meal details will follow in the weekly email later in the week, make sure you have a read!

Happy running, HD

Nine runners ran 5km to help out at the Scope charity clothes shop

Clocks forward, a GoodGym group run in the daylight...and our task was in a basement! Luckily for the group Scope is one of our favourite tasks and getting underground brings out a little mischief in us all whilst still managing to get our good work for the evening done.

An even split of runners and walkers this evening but Huw failed in his quest to lead the runners to land at exactly the same time as the walkers, needed an extra 200m or so on the route to synchronise the arrivals perfectly! Down in the basement we got stuck into to sorting the donations and as usual an array of weird and wonderful clothes (some of the swimwear took some working out as to how they would possibly maintain the owner's decency!) brought amusement to one and all with a little bit of dressing up along the way. Rather pleasingly (and by finishing a couple of minutes later than planned) we managed to clear the entire cage of donated bags, all sorted into categories and transferred into the cages ready to head to the shop floor. Mission well and truly accomplished tonight!

While the walking group headed directly back to base the runners took a longer loop up towards the train station and then down New Walk (running down New Walk without having to go up it too is an absolute treat) before a loop around Bede Park and back to DMU.

Over the next few weeks we look forward to Nicola's 50th good deed (pub to celebrate), a visit from GoodGym founder Ivo and one or two brand new tasks. And all in glorious technicolour daylight!

Well done all tonight, a super effort much appreciated by our friends at Scope!

HD

11 runners ran 3.7km to help sorting donations at the Scope charity shop

As we moved into March the group set off for one of the favourite tasks, sorting the donations for our friends at Scope. A text message from our host Liam at 5.40pm sent Huw into a brief panic but luckily it was nothing sinister and our task was on as planned. 8 of us ran through the city centre with a loop around the Curve to meet the walking Mel, Irene and Lindsay with our arrivals perfectly timed this week. It's a testament to the commitment of our runners that even when people are carrying injuries they still want to come and do some good on a Tuesday night.

We descended to the darkened basement, for a moment thinking that Jen accidentally bringing her headtorch might prove to be a stroke of genius of clairvoyant proportions, but once we managed to find the magic switch we were in business. After a chain gang style shifting of our previously sorted donations into another area we set to work making a dent in the heaving storage cages to get more donations ready for the shop floor. Sharon and Jimmy ensured we worked more efficiently than ever before by organising our labelled bags into a system making it easy to locate.

A visit to Scope wouldn't be the same without a little dressing up and hats were the theme this week as we uncovered a delightful range of headwear for people to model for photographer Mel. With a new instruction tonight to seperate men's, women's and children's bags into different cages it became apparent that the women of Leicester are clearly extremely charitable (well that or they are more prone to a refreshed wardrobe) as the number of bags of women's clothes outnumbered the others significantly.

With the floor cleared the runners headed back via New Walk to try out a drill to loosen up and strengthen the glutes before a little work up and down the hill to get the heart pumping. Sharon, Michaela and Jen edged the gents by a whisker in the drill mastering the technique admirably, one to practice for sure.

Back at base we stretched off and some ventured for a quick beverage in the Black Horse to finish the night off.

In search of a pun for the report title as ever, I've opted to squeeze in a tribute to Prodigy singer Keith Flint who sadly passed away at the weekend. His story reinforced for me the massive positive difference GoodGym can make to our own mental health and wellbeing as well as those elderly and isolated people in communities who benefit from our volunteering.

Good luck with whatever running you manage this week.

HD