Well Egyptian Cotton actually but whoever let the truth get in the way of a good pun!

News during the intro speech focussed on the fantastic achievements of those who ran the Brighton 10k at the weekend. We had Gilles, who ran the entire race in a gorilla suit (and a Goodgym t-shirt) carrying a pair of inflatable bananas! We had Helena with an amazing PB of 40.50 but in typical runner’s style she’s not happy with it, thinks she can do better… Well, I know for sure she can and whats more she will but you can still bask in the glory of the steps you take along the way! And we had Michael with yet another PB of 52.52 and this is from someone who was doing a parkrun in about 30 minutes just a few months ago. Fantastic progress! And, go on then… there was me! Who got a PB of 37.45, was first lady over 35 and 7th lady overall, won fifty quid and a bottle of prosecco! Trumpet blown!

There were no new runners tonight but we were delighted to welcome back Rachael who we’ve been missing for the past few weeks whilst she settled into her new job. It was great to hear about how her friendship with her ‘coach’ is progressing and remind us that Goodgym is also about reducing social isolation amongst the elderly. If you would like to be paired with an older person to motivate you to get out and run then bring your docs in, get DBS checked and we will do the rest.

Tonight’s task was a return to the Hop 50+ community cafe to apply the second coat of Egyptian Cotton paint after our visit last week. As we were pretty much a completely different crew, task owner Lin, explained again about the work they do to keep the over fifties sociable, healthy and active. It’s a really great project and a very good fit with Goodgym and we are delighted to help out.

Second coat applied we headed back to base along the seafront with some Fartlek sprints between the lampposts on the Prom and a fitness session at the wonderful new square next to the i360. We worked in pairs, one running across the square, the other using the bench seats for step us and one legged squats, and then swapping over.

Next week we are back outdoors with a great task at a community garden in Kemp Town. There is lots to do so sign up here to come along and make a difference.

A big Brighton Goodgym welcome to Sean and Mari who joined us for the first time tonight, great to have you on board!

In tonight’s news we congratulated the ever speedy Helena for being the first lady to finish at Hove Prom parkrun on Saturday when we had our parkrun meet up. And also big up to the ever improving Michael who is going through that fantastic period when you are reasonably new to running where you get a PB on practically every outing! He knocked another 50 seconds from his parkrun PB to finish in under 26 minutes. Marvellous!

We were a cosy, small group of 10 tonight and it was lovely to chat as a group during our steady run along the seafront to tonight’s task. The Hop 50+ Community Cafe is a great fit for Goodgym as they do amazing work in reducing social isolation amongst those over 50. During the day the place is buzzing with people dropping in for lunch or coffee or taking part in some of the fantastic activities organised by the energetic Lin and her team. Only another 2 1/2 years and I’ll be down there myself!

We set straight to work on sanding down the filled holes, cutting in and rollering and before you knew it we’d changed the tired old grey to a much fresher Egyptian Cotton. The two biggest walls were all but complete with their first coat and we will be returning next week for coat number two and again in the future to do the end walls. Great work team!

We set off back to base along the seafront where we did some Fartlek running. This is a Swedish word which translates as ‘speed play’ so you just throw in some bursts of speed as and when you feel like it, e.g to the next lamp post or up and down the ramp etc. We were back at the YHA in no time and whilst stretching down Sean had the brilliant suggestion of turning my ‘Paint Hop Pro’ pun into the beauty you see above. *Genius! *