One of our longer runs tonight but it was totally worth it for the warm welcome we receive at the destination, the wonderful The Bevy.

The Bevy is Britain’s first and only community owned pub on an estate and not only is it a great boozer its so much more! There is so much going on from a dementia club to a Friday Friends group to talks from academics at the university to cheap and often home grown food. So much of what happens there is to reduce loneliness and isolation amongst not just the elderly but young families and any one else who just needs a cheap, friendly and welcoming community hub.

Before we set off we congratulated Michael on running the Munich half marathon at the weekend and shared the news that Helena is yet again the most cheered, most cheering and most good deeding member for April. Come on guys , get cheering and good deeding to win May’s leaderboard. Most kms ran went to yours truly, which may have helped me to my unexpected parkrun PB (personal best) on Saturday! Forgive me for bigging up myself but when you’ve been running for a while those PBs become a lot harder to get and I’m feeling pretty chuffed about mine!!

The 4kms to the task flew by tonight, although the route is slightly uphill the wind was behind us and we made good time. Waiting for us at the task were Tabitha, who called in on her way home from work, Ashley, who lives locally and Rikesh who wanted to come along and see what the Bevy was all about. Gardeners Jonathon and Dave split us into two groups with half working on weeding the raised bank in the pub garden. They are so grateful for our help on this area as access is difficult and you did a fantastic job of filling 4 bin bags with weeds and not falling off the edge! Phew!!

The other half were tasked with tidying up the yard leading to the kitchen garden on the other side of the pub. The kitchen garden has had some big improvements over winter with some steps being built to improve access to the steep bank but this had left the yard in a bit of a mess, which was quickly tidied up by us. This was achieved in less than half an hour and would have taken Dave & Jonathon a good few hours so again they were most grateful.

On the run home most of you peeled off when nearing your own homes so by the end there were only 3 left to cool down.

Great work tonight guys and if you like the sound of The Bevy but missed out this week, don’t worry we’re going back next week to help them clear up after redecorating. You can sign up for that one here.

Keep on running!

Tonight we welcomed back Rachael & Louise for there first Goodgyms since completing their marathons so we were able to congratulate them in person for their fantastic achievements. It was also great to welcome Rikash for his second Goodgym run but first with us in Brighton. And it turns out he had recently met Amro so I sense a firm friendship forming there! We also congratulated Roy on his new parkrun PB!

Way back last summer I first met with the good people at One Church to discuss how we could help them with their rusty railings. “Should take about 3 visits,” I said “1 to prep, 1 to prime and 1 to top coat.” Well I’ve just checked through our run reports and I can confirm that this was our 5th visit!!!

But all the hard prep is done and tonight it was prime time! We were met by Andrew who filled us in on some of the great and diverse things that happen at One Church including pole dancing classes and The Real Junk Food Project! With a big group of 15 painters but only 8 brushes we split the group in two with half painting and half taking on tonight’s fitness session in the car park behind the church. We did 4 rounds of 45 seconds of sprints, plank & a squat with a side leg raise using a mini band before swapping over with the painters. Thanks to Helena for supervising the painting whilst I cracked the whip on the fitness sessions!

We nearly got the priming done but alas not quite so about another 3 visits I reckon!! This is the task that just keeps on giving!!

We headed off as a group to the Level for a quick fitness game, a bit like stuck in the mud but with a cone collecting competition thrown in. Lots of fun!

Next week we’ll be going to one of our favourite tasks…The Bevy. See you then!