It was unexpected; our Run Leader, Crazy Legs, was unable to make it to the run last night. There was a brief moment of panic from me, “OMG – I’ve only got 2 minutes to plan a route, an icebreaker, a fitness session? HELP!” However, this also meant that I now had the opportunity to run at the front and jump in those puddles first?! The panic faded. I love puddles and we were guaranteed some big puddles tonight considering the recent downpour? Brilliant! Surely we could act like children tonight considering we were running to Playsteps, a nursery for 0-5-year-olds near Faringdon Park?! So that’s exactly what happened, particularly on our way back to the Oasis – the biggest puddle EVER was found under the railway bridge, which no one managed to escape! Soggy trainers all round. Sorry!

I was impressed by the turn out last night considering the recent rain; 13 GG’ers including two wonderful newbies – Kirsty and Adam. Both are keen parkrunners so they get a big thumbs up from me! Something that I do know about Kirsty (now known as Kirsty H as we now have two Kirsty’s at GG Swindon) – she did brilliantly at the Swindon 10K a few weeks ago; her first EVER 10K! Fantastic! And Adam is getting married next September…to GG’er Sam! Cyprus I believe? I do love Cyprus, and weddings! I wonder if that invite is in the post already?! Only joking; how can I take a week off in September with GoodGym to organise?! Anyway, a big welcome to Kirsty and Adam was followed by an icebreaker – GG’ers had to tell the group about one of their phobias. We found out that Teresa doesn’t get invited to parties; she can’t stand balloons; Tracey has a problem with slugs (how funny that I put Tracey on ‘leaf collecting duty’ later on that evening!); Mike – moths (it’s to do with their wings apparently); and Paul struggles to open parcels if the contents are covered in polystyrene. Isn’t it great finding out a bit more about one another?!

With the other Kirsty (Kirsty W) backmarking tonight, we soon got going, taking the shortest route via the old canal path (like we did last week) splashing in as many puddles as possible. I was lucky enough to run with Graham whose head torch produces almost daylight conditions (yay – I could now detect those puddles a little easier!). Apparently, with the touch of a button it can also light up like a police siren – in blue! Really? I had to see this! So when we arrived at the nursery – Graham gave a demonstration while we waited for Kirsty W; what we couldn’t believe was that there was an actual police car in the car park?! What a coincidence!

We entered the building, keen to crack on with the task of course…but we also wanted to know why the police were outside?! We soon found out that Elroy; a super friendly PCSO had turned up a few minutes before we did, keen to find out more about GoodGym! Brilliant! So we met with Chris Edwards, Nursery Owner and followed him upstairs to the task in Hippos, the pre-school room with a high ceiling and tall windows! We were going to paint the window frames and window sills and there were five windows of varying sizes to paint in 45 minutes! Yikes! So in no time at all, GG’ers were grabbing window cleaner, paint and paint brushes to get the job done. Ashleigh did a great job of cleaning the biggest window in the room (I have no idea how she reached the top of that window?!) and Graham – the smallest window! Elroy did some great acrobatics; balancing on a book case while painting. It soon became apparent, though, that there wasn’t enough paint brushes to go around, so the Leaf Collecting Team (Sharon, Teresa and Tracey) took to the Great Outdoors instead, rather than fight over paint brushes. This was a tricky task in the dark, but with many of us now owning new ‘body torches’ thanks to a fantastic Black Friday ‘deal’ found by Paul (a bargain at £7), those leaves were soon scooped up and binned in no time at all!

Before we knew it, the time had come to clear up (Andrew was particularly good at this perhaps the constant tidying up at home with 3 boys under 5 and one-on-the-way means that Andrew never stops tidying?!); have a group photo and put on our waterproof jackets ‘just in case’ that rain made another appearance. We thanked Elroy for his company (we hope to see him and his colleagues again soon?); said goodbye to Chris and took a slightly longer route back to the Oasis via the puddles under the railway bridge. Paul had kindly offered to do a fun exercise session in Crazy Leg’s absence…in the BMX park behind the Oasis, so we all gathered in anticipation wondering what was next?! An Indian Running Drill with us pretending to be Space Invaders. Brilliant – we get to be kids yet again while getting fitter!

What a fabulous evening! Even the rain stayed away! I do hope you can join us again next week? The Scientist will be leading the group to Penhill, to deliver flyers for the Prospect Hospice. It’s a longer run, about 6km in total; a great opportunity to burn some calories before the Christmas indulgence begins!!! We need LOTS of help as we have LOTS of flyers to deliver!!! Please check it out here and sign up today. And if you can’t make it next Tuesday, why not go along to our first ever Community Mission on Saturday instead? Glynis needs some help planting some trees at the Haven; even if you can only make it for half an hour or so, please do consider going along? You know you want to?! Click here for more info!