So storm Dennis breezed through Stockport, I think many people feared him and stayed home this week, as well as it being half term, it was a quiet session for Goodgym Stockport.

Despite only 3 runners we still managed the entire task, which shows great things can come in small sizes and great things can be completed, always.

The task was to deliver leaflets promoting 2 wonderful social events happening in the Stockport area. A money maxiumising roadshow, along with multisports, craft, food and refreshments! whats not to love about this?? The event is to be held this Thursaday, the 20th Feb 1-3pm at Bridgehall community centre, Stockport SK3 8XL.

The event is a helpful roadshow sponsored by lots of wonderful charities, and organisations in the Stockport area that all have the same goal, to make Stockport a better place!

Some helpful advice, such as budget recipes, energy advice as well as a free sandwhich and hot drink!

Massive Thank you to Hannah and Simone who attended the task last night, thank you for working with energy of 300 people and getting all the leaflets posted, and posters put up, hopefully it will have a big impact.

Next week we are leafleting again, hopefully the storm will have passed by then......

Have a great week running folks,

*Hats off to those that came along tonight! * They may have been small hats and blankets but a massive well done to you all for your effort! And the run wasn't small either, running just over 8.5km to get to our location and back.

We all met at the usual location of Produce Hall, setting off at 6.30pm. The evenings task was to run up to Stepping Hills neonatal unit to deliver 20 knitted hats and 2 crocheted blankets that we have worked hard to create over the winter months, the task itself came up one evening when at the last minute bad weather made a task impossible, so i had to come up with something fast, I'm pretty crafty and so thought we could have a go at knitting hats, Mmmm its wasn't easy! but we did have a good go, and then a few people carried it on and made some at home, the second time we did the task this time i thought that crocheting would be easier (it wasn't!) But again, the fabulous Goodgymers encouarged each other and kept trying! and eventually we had 2 blankets and more that are half made, so another session to both craft and create and to run to the hospital is going to happen.

The whole process of this task has been fantastic, watching people learn a new skill and help each other has been wonderful, and tonight we got to send our work to the neonatal unit at Stepping hill, which is a wonderful unit, providing care and love for babies and families at a much needed time, it has also been a talking point for many of us who have had personal experiences at the unit, ranging from being born premature, to spending time at the unit, to the likes of Debs who made it to the local paper when her son was born premature, its something thats had a big effect on the group.

Thank you all so much for being for being who you are, that was the last run for this month, and a great one to end on, Good luck to all those racing, park running and training this wk end, enjoy it, have a great week running,

Well that was a fun one! Last night our run was with wheelbarrows filled with slate....... It was a slightly different task to what we would usually do, the task was really far away from our starting point and so we met at the task location, the canal in Romiley.

We were met by the lovely Neil and Phil from the Canal and River trust, they had brought a canal boat filled with slate, and set up a line of lights and had all the equipment set up and ready for us to set to work.

There were only 3 of us last night so we quickly set to it, taking it in turns to shovel the slate, wheel the barrow, tip the slate, pat it down, move the mud and more, it was great fun, exhausting, a brilliant work out and great fun. With there only being a few of us i didn't think we would get the task done in time, but we did! and we did a great job, the section of path we worked on is now fresh and clean and free from mud, its going to be perfect to run on for people, as well as making it more usable for people on bikes or with prams.

This task is going to be a on-going task, with regular 6 week path fix ups, so if slate and boats are your thing then come and join us, it will also be a great task for anyone that wants to walk rather than run.

Well done Hannah and Debs for working so super hard, we did a great job. Have a great week running folks

Last nights task was cancelled due to the terrible rain from last week, and so we decided to run a loop then crochet a loop!

Once again we met at our lovely new location of the produce hall on stockport market, setting off to run at 6.30pm.

4 lovely ladies met and set off doing a little loop of the town centre, we ran really comfortably while having a chat, because the weather is changing there were lots of leaves on the floor, so we were being super careful......

After our loop of running we made ourselves comfortable to do a loop of crocheting! Once again this task was a challenge, hahaha, but the ladies were like professionals/kind of?! by the end of the task. Kirtsy and Debs donned the hook and did pretty well, and this time even the lovely Racheal got crafty and threaded the hats up from a previous week, well done lady!

The blankets are getting bigger each time we do this task which is great, as we will be running up to Stepping Hill neonatal unit in January to hand the hats and blankets over.

It was a real personal one this week, and it was great to hear Debs story of her son that was born super early weighing just 2lbs!!! and just how wonderful Stepping Hill were at supporting and helping her through that time, so it really is lovely that we get to give something back.

Thanks again everyone for a lovely evening of getting out there, getting fresh and fit and then getting cosy and doing some good, your superstars......

Last nights task was to collect a ghoulish amount of litter in a disused green space of Stockport. 5 runners set from our new venue, Stockport Produce Hall, a fab social space in the heart of the town.

We had a little run around the market to warm up and get our pumpkins racing, then set off to our location, this week the task was less than 1km away so it was perfect for any new runners, or people who would like to join us but walk, we aim to have a session like this at least once a month so more people can get involved.

Once at the location, we put on head torches, gloves, and handed out bin bags and litter pickers and set to the scary task…… There was a whole heap of litter that had clearly been there for a while, we had 45 minutes to try and collect as much as we could, we filled many bin bags full of spooky stuff.

After we had collected as much as we could it was time to pick up our pumpkins and play do our own version of trick or treating! I had planned a few fitness ‘games’ using a pumpkin as a weight, we played pass the pumpkin, played pumpkin tag, we also had a circuit using the pumpkins, we worked our entire skeletons in last nights session!

After the team did the scary stuff I handed out treats, so it was all good! im not a witch after all.

After the treats we ran back to Produce Hall to chat and cool down, lots of chat about long runs and trail runs, all very positive and inspiring! Also lots of chat about smaller runs and park runs that people are getting together at, which is just brilliant!

Well done to Tony for completing Chester Marathon with tight calves, and good luck with the Conwy half, my fave run to do, highly recommend it. And a massive well done, I think to mad Hannah who decided LAST WEDNESDAY to sign up for a ultra run this SAT!!! My word……well done, and keep us all posted, we will be thinking of you, enjoy it.

Have a great week folks

8 fabulous goodgymers ran about 4km last night, running at various speeds with stops and starts as we sampled the many exotic locations of Edgeley forrest and the great pyramid of Stockport, on our adventure we also found the extremely rare plastic star snail habitat……it was a wild one!

Our task changed last minute to litter picking 3 areas of Stockport, and who would have known we would have found such hidden treasures right on our door step.

As we set off at the usual 6.30pm it started to rain, but that didn’t stop us, we did a some running drills to fight the rain off and warm up. We then headed off to location number 1 to clear a alleyway near the bus depot, here we collected bags of rubbish and randomly a few pairs of shoes! We also bumped into a blue dude stuck on a wall (see photo!)

We then hot footed it over to the forrest, not really a forrest, just a bunch of trees to be honest, but still lovely, but covered in litter! So here we filled many bags with lots of litter, including a tooth brush, a car part and a never before seen plastic star filled with snails!

After our trip to the forrest we wanted to stay close to nature and so headed by the river mersey, passing by the famous pyramid of stockport, we had a quick pose and ran off to collect more bags of litter.

At the end of the trail we had a little fitness session involving some static strength and core work along with some running sprints, judging by peoples faces everyone was very very happy??

We then ran back via the river to end the session, stretch off and cool down.

It was great to Tony! Thanks for joining us, and wonderful to see a few people that haven’t been for a while, thank you for all your energy and giggles.

Have a great week running, and don’t forget that this week theres a community mission on Sunday, and then for the next 2 sundays, so head over to the website to have a look.

Have a good week lovely people,