The new year continues with a boom with another fantastic turnout.

A big welcome to several new runners this week in Lillian, Lisa, Sirilak, Chen and Fatima.

Janice was backrunner and Hayley photographer, which was a great help as I could split the group during the task and run with half of them.

The milestones this week were Janice & Raffy completing their 10th good deeds.

We had another very productive task this week. It was a 3km each-way run to the Norwich Foodbank, a great organisation who always welcome our help to keep them on top of things. With the influx of donations we needed the influx of GoodGymers!

It was quite chaotic at times I'm not going to lie haha. As we couldn't fit 40+ in the warehouse we paired up again so one person would be helping out while the other would do a little running/walking loop... it pretty much worked ;-)

As always, time flew by, especially with the added running/walking included but we made a massive impact none the less and got plenty done.

There was the added challenge of Grapes Hill we had to conquer towards the end of the run back.

There's an additional Group Run this Saturday as we visit EACH Charity Shop and Monday's Group Run we are visiting Ellacombe Care Home. There will be a walk option at both of them.

2020 is here and GoodGym Norwich is back to do more amazing good deeds this year.

The 1st Group Run of the year was to do a litter pick around the Riverside area of Norwich, something I'd noticed had got quite messy over the festive period. A big thank you to Voluntary Norfolk who lent us litter pickers and high vis jackets through the LUMi platform.

Becky and George were taking part in their 1st GoodGym ventures.

A big wow to Beks who was completing her 100th good deed! What a way to start the year.

Thank you to Katy for being back runner and Sandra for being walk leader.

After a gentle 1.5km jog/walk down to Riverside, the GoodGymers assembled in small groups and armed themselves with a litter picker, gloves and a bin bag and headed off to make the area much cleaner... which they sure did!

After 40 minutes, we had many bags of rubbish that Morrisons kindly disposed of for us.

A great little task to start 2020 with.

Next week we have a longer run as we visit Baby Bank Norfolk.

Tonight was a special occasion as Liz was completing her 50th good deed and Robert his 100th good deed!!! What an achievement :-)

Mike and Kain were taking part in their first GoodGym encounters... your first steps in achieving the above.

Thanks to Bill & Elizabeth (who was completing her unofficial milestone of 150 good deeds) for being backrunners and Hayley for her amazing photography skills.

Tonight's task was to visit Norwich Food Bank, in what is a very busy and important time of year for them so giving a good 16 hours of volunteering time to them is invaluable.

After a much needed warm-up in the cold (buy hey, it didn't rain for once!) we set off on the 3.25km trip with the topic of discussion being 'what is your favourite Xmas food?'

The main task was to create Xmas Bags for families in need during the festive season. The WI had kindly donated all of the bags and then our job was filling them with all the essential festive food.

There was also some other date sorting to do with other food items.

The evening was finished with a brownie or mince pie from Robert followed up by a trip to the pub... if Carlsberg did Monday evenings.

Next week we're Making Mince Pies at The Feed for Keeping Abreast.

Despite Hitch being away on a well deserved holiday and the group having to put up with me leading, we had a great turn out tonight for our task at Catton Park. Several of the group had arranged to meet us at the task. For the rest of us, after a welcome warm up (the front steps of the Forum can get very chilly at times) we set off for a nice 4km(ish) run each way (I'd worked out a few short cuts to save us a little time!)

Thank you to kate and Beks for being back runners.

Rebecca was doing her 10th good deed this week and we congratulated her when she met us at the task, despite her being chased by a wasp at the time!

Tonight's tasks were to paint the tractor shed and the smaller Park Run storage shed. The task owner was unable to be there this evening but had left equipment out for us so that we could get stuck in. As usual Goodgymers didn't waste time in getting on with the task and we quickly shared out the various tasks that needed attention. Whilst there was a bit of a conflab going on working out how to open the tubs of paint, and pouring it into buckets, others quickly got to work brushing cobwebs out of the way to help make it easier for painting. Some gutter clearing also got done.

Those who were painting were rather amused at the size of the brushes for doing the job and much innuendo ensued (well in one corner at least) as to size versus technique! As we had such a good turn out some Goodgymers also took the opportunity of jogging round the Park, litter picking and trimming back any greenery growing too far over the paths to help Park users, including of course those of us who do the Park Runs at Catton! As usual Goodgymers didn't like to leave the task unfinished and I almost had to prise the brushes out of their hands so we could clear up and head back!

It was satisfying to see so much done in such a short time and to know that the Park was clearer and cleaner for people to walk and run along!

Next week we will be heading out to Eaton Park.....

We did it!!! For our 100th Group Run at GoodGym Norwich, I set a target of 50 people attending and we smashed it with our new record of 54!

If it hadn't of rained all day how many would we have had?!

Lots of new faces this evening so a big GoodGym welcome to Richard T, Jenny, Emily B, Lucy, Julia, Pete, Tricia, Paulo, Andy, Jade, Teresa, Shiralee & Caroline.

Emma M was completing her 10th good deed, Mel was completing her 50th good deed and Elizabeth was completing her 100th good deed - very well timed Elizabeth!

Trying to brief over 50 people and getting them in what was a very large circle was a mission in itself, we needed the whole of The Forum.

Hayley volunteered to be photographer, Bill was walk leader and Mel was back runner.

We caught up on race news and I thanked everyone again who volunteered and ran the EPIC Aylsham 5K on Friday evening. Don't forget on Friday 28th June you can volunteer at the EPIC North Walsham 5K or run the EPIC North Walsham 5K. It'll be worth it just for the medal.

The task tonight was to visit the Oxfam Charity Shop of Magdalen Street. Due to the weather, painting was out of the equation but there was still plenty to do. The had a small team stripping the wall ready to be painted when its dry, sweeping the shop floor, stairs & upstairs, sorting through CD & book sections, sorting through clothes donations and general cleaning up of the shop floor.

Due to the sheer amount of people, I made it an active night so those running were put into pairs and there was a 800-metre loop relay taking place so we didn't over crowd the shop so one of the pair had to do the loop then tag the other in when they got back.

There was a bit of a cat walk going on, with a few of us trialling some of the donations... some may be a little concerned with my attire but don't dis it until you try it haha.

After a good 35 minutes (which equates to over 30 hours of volunteering time!) those running headed off and we'd meet Bill and the walkers back at The Forum. The reason for this is that the runners were in for a treat... a little run up Grapes Hill and then the sprint loop in Chapelfield Gardens.

Back at The Forum we had a stretch and Elizabeth had kindly brought some cakes.

After that 18 of us finished the evening off down the pub before the heavens opened on the way home.

Thank you all for making the 1st 100 Group Runs a phenomenal experience, I can't wait for the next 100 :-)

Next week we're visiting Catton Park. If you don't want to run the whole distance you can meet us halfway or at the task.

There were some GoodGym visitors this week. Firstly, the one and only Ed Field, one of the senior managers from the GG Central in London joined us. Kristina was visiting Norwich from Manchester and then baby Jasper met us at the task, with Sam of course who was getting good deed withdrawal symptoms.

Kristina was also doing her 1st GoodGym deed along with Kate so a big welcome to both of you.

A thanks to Katy and Lizzy for being backrunners this week.

Well done to Kevin B and Sarah who have now completed their 10th GoodGym deeds!

We had our longest run tonight (just a little matter of 12km in total!) so it was incredible that 31 people came out in attendance.

Considering the distance we actually had one of our quickest ever speeds on the way there, it was very impressive.

Sally and her team greeted us with an array of drinks and fruit, which was very kind of them.

We had half an hour to get as much done as we could and this included turning over the compost, clearing the overgrown path, painting the fence and weeding the gravel area. Even I contributed when Sally asked if she could have a strong man for 5 minutes... no pun intended! I helped saw through some old fence which had a tree growing through it that needed to be preserved.

It was such a beautiful evening for it with the sunset over the buildings in the background.

Everyone did a great job and got loads done, the team from the community garden were clearly overjoyed with the hard work everyone had put in.

It was then time for the grueling trip back that started with about half a mile up hill! Everyone gritted and got through it, even the last uphill slog up Earlham Road.

Luckily Katy and Bill provided some goodies left over from Bill's 70th birthday for people to refuel once we got back to The Forum.

Check out the Group Run page to sign up to next week's run when we do a litter pick for Train Wood on Marriotts Way.

Well it's hard to imagine doing a Group Run in Norwich without our Run Leader Hitch being at the helm but even he's allowed to take holiday now and then (as long as he doesn't get too carried away) so instead the lovely Goodgymers had to cope with me being Run Leader for the evening! It was the first time I've had to lead a whole session so I found myself feeling a bit nervous beforehand, not wanting to mess up for everyone. I even made myself a crib sheet so I wouldn't forget any bits of the intro!

As there were no new runners this week, we went straight into marking milestones. Well done to Elliot for achieving his 10th Good deed.

We then took a moment to congratulate those taking part in races at the weekend. Several Goodgymers had battled the grotty weather the previous day to run the Norwich Half Marathon and David did a muddy run somewhere I keep forgetting which involved wearing a pink tutu! That man does like to dress up :)

A special shout out also goes to those Goodgymers who did a Community Mission volunteering at the Norwich Half in the pouring rain!

I then made sure I went through Hitch's Risk Assessment for the task - his instruction 'Don't wave your tools around!' brought much amusement, especially as we know that he always likes to keep his well tucked in when out with us!

We then went outside for a quick warm up session before heading off to the task. Bill kindly volunteered to be back runner.

After a 3km run to the Catton Grove Community Centre, we were met at the task by Linda who was well organised with all the equipment we might need to carry out the various tasks required and which involved litter picking, cutting back overgrown greenery, weeding the flower beds as well as the grooves in the brick weave paving. As usual the Goodgymers quickly got stuck into the tasks needed and after 30 minutes there was a massive mound of greenery and several bags of rubbish to show for it.

We then headed back to the Forum, stopping briefly for a photoshoot. No doubt everyone was relieved that there wasn't enough time to do any extra fitness session!

Hopefully normal service will be resumed next week, which will incidentally be Hitch's 100th Good Deed. We're looking forward to the celebrations!

It was time for our quarterly visit to Eaton Park. This week we had a few cleaning tasks to do.

1) there was an old disused hut that needs to be brushed down and cleaned ready to be used as a cafe/coffee point in the summer 2) cleaning the benches around the mini railway line 3) cleaning some benches and welcome signs towards the play area

A big welcome to Maisie on her 1st GoodGym run.

Congratulations to Brad on completing his 25th good deed

After a warm-up (which was gate crashed by a member of the public - but to be fair she did some decent squats, same can't be said about her running haha), we embarked on the 3km trip to Eaton Park and thank you to Helen for being back runner.

The different tasks were then explained and the team split into groups, got themselves some gloves, buckets of warm water and clothes then headed across the park to crack on with making it look sparkling and appealing to users.

We won't mention when I tried to take a photo of the bench cleaning, that I didn't notice the slope and took a little tumble down it... shhh.

On arrival back at The Forum we sang happy birthday to Helen for Saturday and Catherine brought her older sister a cake... as well as goodies Helen brought so it was a win win situation at the end of the night!

Next week we're visiting Hayden Court.