Whatever the weather... we shall attend GoodGym together!

The weather at the moment is VERY Welsh. Within the past 2 weeks we have had 2 storms, Ciara and Dennis, and it feels as though the rain has been non stop! Today Cardiff had more rain but, undeterred by this, 34 runners showed up to GoodGym ready to walk/run to do good!

Welsh Dave started the warm up this week. He got everyone doing high knees, butt kicks, side steps, you name it he did it. We had 4 new runners this week! A HUGE welcome to Sylvie, Beatrice, Bethan and Helene :D It was so lovely having you join this week and we really hope you come back!

Achievements this week

• A HUGE well done to Nathan who has reached the 100 good deed milestone!
• Congratulations to Ted who earned himself a red lace for bringing a friend to GG this week #LifesGoals
• Welsh Dave and Matt got engaged - Congratulations :D
• Darren turned 40 - but he doesn't look it!

Let's head to the task!

This week we planned to meet Ash Wales, our task organisers, at Cardiff Castle. To get warmed up, we had a 10 minute run before meeting there.

Hello GoodGym, we are the Charity 'Ash Wales'. It is lovely to meet you!

Kimberly greeted us at Cardiff's iconic landmark, Cardiff Castle. She was there with her team from Ash Wales. They had warm smiles on their faces which warmed us all up in the cold weather conditions. Kimberly then told us about Ash Wales and explained to us that the Ash Wales charity aims to increase awareness of the health, social and economic effects of smoking in Wales - The mission of Ash Wales is to achieve a smokefree Wales!

Did you know? 83% of the population of Wales is smoke free and, of those who smoke, 60% want to quit.

The Ash Wales team then kitted us up with gloves, bags and cigarette butt picker uppers. It was safe to say we looked like a force to be reckoned with.

Before heading off we had a quick group photo... Smiles! And, of course, HANDS IN THE AIR! hahaha

Off we go!

Continuing in the 4 teams, each group still led by Ben, Aimee, Welsh Dave and Ellen, we began picking the cigarette butts off the streets of Cardiff. Each group targeted different areas of Cardiff city centre. Ben's group went down Womanby Street. Nathan, with his wings, was flying around from butt to butt, just like when he plays his Pokemon Go, he was collecting them all!

"I couldn't believe how many cigarette butts there were. We could have spent the whole of the time on just one street" One of the runners said.

Thank you GoodGym

The whole of the Ash Wales team thanked us for our efforts. They said they couldn't wait to team up with us again in hopefully warmer and less wet weather conditions.

After we stretched to cool down, Nathan reminded everyone that we go for "drinkypoos" at the Glassworks to celebrate doing good in the community, Peter and Nathan both brought delicious treats this week which we subsequently devoured at the pub... Nom Nom Nom!

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2020 Tweet Off

Jiminy cricket - Marie is a fighter! Well done Marie for retweeting quickest this week. Let's see if next week someone else can get their name on the leaderboard.

• MJ - 4
• MOH - 3
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

A triple whammy! The combined efforts of Ben, Andrew and Martin made this weeks pun possible, a point for each of you!

• BA - 4
• EW - 2
• AS - 3
• MG - 1
• GD -1

All hail GoodGym Cardiff

Being prepared is about expecting the unexpected. And today, unexpectedly, the unexpected that we expected happened, Unfortunately the YMCA couldn't have us help there this evening.

Let's get warmed up

Runners ran up and down the street outside Big Moose, touching the wall by Trespass and then Prince Harry. Runners then did butt kicks, high knees and some old style 90's dance moves to get warmed up.

We run as one!

We headed to the Samye Foundation as a group, Ben led the way and Emma backmarked. Seconds after we started running it started hailing.

The good deeds this week

This week Mikey and Welsh Dave were leading plogs. 'Litter'ally the best people for the job! Ben looked after the runners helping at the Samye Foundation.

A message from Lorraine

Unfortunately Lorraine couldn't be at the Samye Foundation this evening to give us our tasks, however Lorraine had wrote out a list of tasks for us to complete. There is a picture of the tasks she had for us in the slide show above. Unfortunately, due to mother nature, we were unable to do much of the painting tasks.

Our tasks this evening included:

• Hoovering the office and stairwell in the first building
• Installing tarpaulin on the shed in the back garden
• Weeding
• Tidying the side of the building and more!

Whilst some of the walkers/runners were doing this at Mindfulness centre, Mikey and Welsh Dave both set off leading 2 separate groups to litterpick the streets of Riverside and Pontcanna. They managed to collect over 5 bags of litter combined - What a superb effort!

That's a wrap!

After helping out for 25 minutes the time had come for us to run off and back to Big Moose. After arriving back the time had come to warm back.

After the run, as per usual, walkers/runners headed to the Glassworks pubs for drinkypoos.

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2020 Tweet Off

WAHOO! Megan you have won the tweet off FOUR consecutive times and are extending your lead. Marie is going to have to up her game. It looks like we are going to have a new winner this year!

• MJ - 4
• MOH - 2
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

Woopahhhhhh Ben,yes that's me, came up with the pun for the run this week!

• BA - 3
• EW - 2
• AS - 2
• GD -1

The world is hearing about what GoodGym Cardiff and The Vale is doing and they are inspired!

The temperature has dropped in Wales over the past week and we've been having temperatures sub zero. Fortunately that didn't stop 32 GoodGym Cardiff runners showing up to GoodGym this evening, though. Tonight at GoodGym we had one new runner, Gareth. Gareth heard about GoodGym a while ago and has been meaning to come for some time - It was so nice to have you join us this evening and we also look forward to meeting your colleague next week too!

Acknowledgements

• Congratulations to Darren and Nicola who are having a GoodGym Cardiff baby. Darren and Nicola met through GoodGym. Serendipity in its truest form.
• A HUGE well done to GoodGym Cardiff Trainer Ben Annear who has reached the 200 good deed milestone
• Well done to Marie for reaching 50 good deeds!
• Clap Clap Clap to Mike for reaching 50 good deeds!
• Hip hip hooray to Lewis who also reached 50 good deeds!

Don't forget; when you reach 50 good deeds you are able to claim your black goodgym milestone tee

Which group will you choose?

We had 3 separate groups tonight. Aimee led the walk run group, Ellen led the relaxed pace group and Ben led the speedy group. Aimee and Ellen took their respective groups along Newport road, up towards Albany road and then straight to St. Edward's Church, whilst Ben took the speedy group through Cathays, up Richmond Road, along Albany road and then up some hills in Roath before heading to the task.

Welcome to St. Edward's Church. The meeting place of Forget-Me-Not

Forget-Me-Not are a support group and Cafe for people feeling isolated and vulnerable with Dementia, Memory loss or Stroke, carers and relatives. Their support groups run every Tuesday 2pm until 4pm at St Edward's Church. They provide a friendly and welcoming environment. They encourage people to come in and have a chat and to make themselves at home.

In order to be able to help this wonderful organisation we had to complete the tasks they had set us. Here were the tasks we were set:

• Move all of the chairs from the church hall onto the raised area, sweep, mop and dry the floor and return all of the chairs back to their original positions
• Cut back the overgrown bushes in the church gardens, whilst paying close attention not to disturb the Terrence the hedgehog's home.
• Clean and sort mugs
• Clean the church windowsills

Many hands make light work as they say. It took only minutes for everyone to move the chairs. Once the chairs were moved a group of rapid goodgym runners assembled to clean and dry the floor. Once this was done all of the chairs were returned back in their original positions. It was so quick! You know that saying, "blink and you will miss it", well it was almost that quick!

Whilst all that was going on inside the church, outside there was a team cutting back the overgrown bushes. It was cold out but at the speed they were working they wouldn't have noticed.

"Thank you so much. We cannot believe you managed to do all this so quickly. It's remarkable."

Kathie and Alan were both amazed by how quickly we got everything done. They were so thankful and were smiling cheek to cheek. This made the task feel worthwhile.

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2020 Tweet Off

Well done Megan! You are now on the leaderboard!

• MOH - 2
• MJ - 1
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

Come up with the title of the run report and be in with the chance of winning the RunPunStiltskin award. Well done to EW - You're in the lead!

• EW - 2
• BA - 1

Lucy... "Here". Emily... "Here" Darren... No answer Peter..."Here" Stuart... "Here" Nathan...Nathan... "Hi miss, it's Andrew, Nathan told me he was going to miss School today to plan his 2020 challenge."

Tonight's task involved running to Gladstone Primary School. This school is very close to one of our GoodGymmer's hearts, Nathan's. He used to go to this school in his younger years... and rumor has it he wasn't always well behaved! But that's the Nathan we know and love.

So tonight started with a few warm up games. We played, 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' and 'North Pole, South Pole'

We then did a head count and welcomed two new runners to their first ever GoodGym run. A HUGE welcome to GoodGym Grace and Sioned.

Time to get our run on

Tonight we ran as one! Ben led the group and Lewis, the hero that he is, backmarked with a huge smile on his face.

Welcome to School year 9

Okay Okay, we are a bit older than year 9, but we thought by saying that we were year 9 if we displayed any immaturity we might be able to excuse it on this basis.

Donna welcomed us to Gladstone. She told us about the incredible school it is and then explained our task for the evening. Donna tasked us with painting the library. She knows we love a challenge, one could say, she read into us well.

The runners quickly armed themselves with paintbrushes and rollers. Andrew spotted a guitar and it wasn't long before he picked it up and began serenading everyone.

During the task Ben rolled a dice. Roll a 1 and you have to tell a joke; Roll a 2 and you have to state your favorite TV show; Roll a 3 and you have to tell everyone what your favourite book is; Roll a 4 and you have to pull a funny face; Roll a 5 and you have to answer a trivia question; Roll a 6 and you have to Roll again.

Thank you so much GoodGym. Once again you've proved yourselves and the children will be amazed with how much has changed overnight... it's like Christmas has come early!

Mikey then led the run back. Everyone had smiles on their faces and a warmth in their hearts, feeling pretty epic after helping out at an incredible school.

We're now nearing the end of 2019. Hasn't it been an amazing year? I hope you can make it to the final GoodGym runs of 2019 as you make them amazing!

Hope to see you next week!

Tweet Tweet

Ring a ding ding ding. Lucy loo has claimed another point on the tweet off leaderboard! Well done! ALL points count and there are less and less opportunities to move up the leaderboard as each week goes by.

• LM 13
• MO 9
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• MJ 4
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

This evening, 26 GoodGym runners turned up to help the Samye Foundation

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is fast approaching and there is no getting away from the fact I simply LOVE Christmas. I apologise for all the times I am going to be making referencing it over the next months... how I make the most of Christmas is by enjoying the lead up to the 25th December as much as I can - Be prepared for lots of Christmas themed tasks and social events over the next month! Anyway...

26 runners showed up to GoodGym tonight. Another awesome turnout. Ms Sue Fernandez spent over an hour queuing in traffic in order to be able to get to GG this evening - More kudos for your perseverance . We had 2 new faces at GoodGym this week too - WELCOME CURTIS AND FLO! We hope you loved this evening's run and we encourage you to come back... every run IS so different.

To warm up we can a quick game of stuck in the dance... Everyone is certainly 'upping their game' now it's getting closer and closer to the Christmas party.

Let's get our run on!

Mikey led the sexy runners; there were definitely some heads turning by members of the public... we our running form was THAT good! Welsh Dave led the speedy runners; he took them through Bute park. Fortunately they all made it out despite the darkness.

Welcome to the Samye Foundation!

Lorraine was tonight's task organiser. She welcomed us in like she always does; with a big smile that makes you feel warm to the core! She explained to us what the centre needs our help with. We were tasked with;

• Distributing 200 leaflets to all of the homes on Clive Street, Canton
• Litter picking the streets of Canton
• Weeding and collecting all of the leaves in the centre's car park

Afterwards runners were invited to dig into some nibbles. The selection consisted of great grapes, delicious vegan cakes, the most scrumptious avocado dip to go with crackers and raw coconut cake... Nom nom Nom! I was almost having to drag runners away from the nibbles... Lewis was a HUGE fan of the raw cake.

Thank you so much, now hundreds of people know about the events we have coming up at the centre because of your help

We then ran back, stopping outside Cardiff Castle for a photo by the Christmas tree. After arriving back at Big Moose we warmed down whilst reflecting on the evening.

After the run everyone headed to the Glassworks pub for drinkypoos and a chinwag.

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The Tweet off

Ring a ding ding ding. Meg has claimed another point on the tweet off leaderboard! Well done! ALL points count and there are less and less opportunities to move up the leaderboard as each week goes by.

• LM 12
• MO 9
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• MJ 4
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1