It was a super warm night tonight but it didn’t stop 10 committed Goodgym runners from coming together for their weekly run and task.

Tonight, runners made their way to the task – some cycling and some walking. It was definitely a nice night for bike ride as the breeze was very welcome!

We met at the old Manchester University building – now used for other purposes, more recently acting as the bustling COVID vaccine hub. For many of our volunteers, they were very familiar with the surroundings having spent so much time volunteering there during lockdown!

We started our evening with a warmup – as the children have recently returned to school, we gave it a school playground theme (not sure how happy everyone was about that, lol!). Our exercises included skipping, hopscotch, jumping (like we used to do in the sack race!) and a good old run (I didn’t go so far as to make them play ‘tick’). And based on last week’s community mission, I thought Nigel might appreciate some kiddie-based activities!

We had two groups tonight – a running group and a walking group. It was a hot evening, so we had a very steady run around the business park. It doesn’t sound very exciting but actually, it’s quite a green business park with lots of trees and greenery (maybe next time, we’ll take in the woodland area).

After our exercise, we headed across to Autism Inclusive where we started the task of apple picking. Some of us collected apples from the floor, while others picked straight from the tree. Apples had to be sorted into 3 categories – rotten, slightly inedible but not too bad, and good. The rotten apples were collected and went straight to compost, the slightly inedible apples were collected by a local cider company (reducing waste) and the good apples were going to the food bank.

It was a lovely evening, and it was wonderful to see other members of the community coming together to support this task. We worked alongside co-cop pioneers, local volunteers as well as the Town Council Mayor. We had good conversation and good fun. It was another successful evening filled with fun, friendship, fitness and the feel-good factor.

Hopefully the children that use the facilities of Autism Inclusive will no longer have to dodge the apples as they play!

Well done everyone. Amazing community spirit as always!

xxxx

Welcome

It was fab to see Emily back for her second run and truly getting stuck into the nitty gritty of the task. Great running too Emily. Hope to see you back again for another task soon. Great to see Pam back with us again after a few weeks off following doctors orders ;-)

Kudos

Wow, it was great to see so many of you at tonight’s task. Huge kudos to you all for coming out in force to get stuck in to a really physical task!!!

Thank You

Huge thanks to Amanda for becoming the 6th member of the Taskforce. Thanks so much Amanda! Big thanks to everyone to helped out with tools - we’d have been stuck without them. And thank you to Shavington Primary School for having us this evening.

Tonight’s Task

Tonight was a pretty big night for GoodGym Crewe. The task was a big one and the run was our longest to date! Would we be able to pull it off?.........

We started the evening with a little bit of sugar to prepare us for our extra long run (the fruit jellies seemed to go down well). Needs must!!

The sky was crystal clear tonight as we headed out to warm up. Not a drop of rain or a breath of wind to be seen or felt. Perfect running conditions. We didn’t get up to our usual shenanigans this week as time was of the essence, but we did some high knees, star jumps and a gentle jog to get our heart rates up.

Our route tonight took us further out than we’d ever been - passing a couple of Crewe’s ‘landmarks’ (if that’s the right description – probably not!) en route..... Crewe Alexander Football Ground and Mornflake Oats (mmm, the smell that comes from that factory is amazing!). Everyone did fabulously with our longest run so far and it was lovely to hear the chatter on the way. As we were running, we saw a man who's car had broken down and needed a push. Our lovely runners instinctively stepped right in and helped him out without being asked. He was really grateful.

We arrived at the task to a very grateful Deputy Head Teacher. We set up our lights (genius little things that they are!!!) and set to work clearing 4 large overgrown plots that were full of marestail (a very very stubborn weed!) and lifting and carrying the sleepers across the playground to the skip. With 20 willing volunteers and the flexing of some strong muscles, we managed to clear all the sleepers (at least 16 but I think possibly more). Some of them were super super heavy and took at least 4 of our runners to carry and lift into the skip. It was a real team effort, with everyone pulling their weight. In 50 minutes, we’d cleared all the sleepers and removed a substantial amount of the marestail. It really was a job well done and the school were delighted and extremely grateful for our efforts. Oh, and if there was a prize for the dirtiest runner, I think it definitely would go to Alex (see pics!). Hope you've got plenty of Daz in!!!

We headed back to base at a slightly slower pace than our outward journey – but hardly any wonder after such a physical task! When we arrived back, we headed over to our local and enjoyed a nice drink and some more banter and laughs for our month end social.

A fabulous night all round and one thing’s for sure – we totally pulled it off!!! Shavington Primary School is now 'Sleeper-less!'. Well done everyone!!!! Absolute legends (as always!). I expect you’ll all sleep well tonight!!

I always have the BEST time when I’m with all of you and tonight, was no exception. I hope to see you all next week! Have a fab weekend everyone!

Stay safe, Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

Welcome

A massive welcome to Sam who joined us for her first GoodGym experience tonight! We hope you had a great night Sam and enjoyed the craziness that is GoodGym Crewe! Hope to see you back again soon.

Kudos

Great to see Michelle back for her second task, even though her new hairdo completely threw me and I re-introduced myself like a total numpty!! (sorry Michelle!!). Great to have Barry, Louise and Phil back with us after a bit of a break (no pun intended Barry!!!). We’ve missed you!

Thank You

Huge kudos to Sophie for becoming the 4th member of the Taskforce and for taking on the role of walk leader along with Maurice to lead tonight’s walking group. Thank you Sophie and Maurice. Big thanks to Karl who took on the role of back-marker this evening, ensuring nobody was left behind. A massive thank you to Cheryl & Rob at St. Pauls for taking 22 runners into the foodbank this evening and allowing us the responsibility of sorting and organising your shelves!

Tonight’s Task

This week is Valentines, so naturally, we had to have a Valentines Theme! It started with the pre-run refreshments (or should I say pre-run nutrition…….erm) – jammy dodgems and love hearts (very healthy) with a few chocolate fingers thrown in for good measure (and to cater for us chocoholics!!).

Our warmup was meet and greet (basically, you have two teams. One person from each team sets off and runs in a big circle until they meet the person from the other team, they high-five each other and return to swap with the next person). I think it’s fair to say that we’ve all become good friends since GoodGym launched in October so I couldn’t understand their reluctance when I suggested they kiss their partner as they swapped over (well, it is Valentines after all!) ;-0)))) LOL! In the end, we settled for shouting out the name of a song with the word ‘LOVE’ in the title instead – they seemed happier with this – no idea why! ;-0)

Once suitably warmed up we set off into the (once again) dry night (so lucky). We had a large walking group this evening (7 in total which is fantastic!) with the rest of us running. The runners took a slightly longer route to the foodbank, heading up through the town centre. I always love to see the sea of red t-shirts as they weave their way along the pavement – we never fail to get a reaction from passers-by (even though people do sometimes look a bit like a rabbit in headlights when they see us all coming!!). I always love to see the reactions!

We were greeted with a wonderful welcome from the lovely Cheryl and Rob at the foodbank. They showed us all the food that had been generously donated by the people of Crewe and needed to be sorted (481kg in total!!!). We set to work like a team of worker ants – sorting, stacking, carrying and organising tins, packets, jars and boxes until they were on the shelves where they needed to be. As there were 22 pairs of hands tonight, we had spare capacity to sort some of the bric-a-brac that had also been donated to the church. We had great fun trying to inflate an airbed, adorning ourselves with large diamond rings and making conversation with pottery ducks – as you do! We even had time for a brew and a biscuit that had been kindly laid on by Cheryl and Rob. Michelle and Karen were chief brew pourers as I can’t be trusted apparently (can I Karl? ;-0)))

Once our work was complete, we set off back to base via the infamous ‘Rocky Steps’ (well Crewe’s version at least!) for a short workout. We were ‘encouraged’ in our exercise session by some local youths. Everyone took their encouragement in good humour as we did our one-legged squats, plie squats and a couple of circuits around the perimeter of the steps. We made sure that our ‘supporters’ knew who we were and what we were doing, so who knows… maybe they’ll look us up when they’re old enough…

Another amazing turnout tonight and such a huge credit to each of you for being genuinely wonderful human beings, who come out on cold nights week in week out to put something back into your community. Not only is it truly inspiring but it restores my faith in people and our society. There’s a lot of good in our local community and it’s a huge privilege to be a small part of it. Thank you for making my Wednesday evenings so wonderful and for making Crewe a better place to live.

Hope to see you all next week! Have a fab weekend everyone!

Stay safe, Lots of Love, Nicola xxxx

Welcome 18 Hardcore heroes were out in force tonight (despite the cold and the rain) to help Santa on his rounds in Crewe collecting money for 40 local charities. It was great to have Alex from GoodGym Central with us tonight. How brave (or possibly slightly mad!) were you in your shorts!! Go Alex!! It was great to welcome Sasha back for her second task. We hope you had a great night!

Kudos A huge well done to everyone who took part in the Nantwich Santa Dash last weekend. I’m sure you all looked fabulous in your Santa outfits. And huge kudos to each of you for coming out in the grotty weather so close to Christmas to do good in the community. You’re all superstars!!

The Main Event It was fabulous to see so many people tonight at GoodGym and lovely to see the festive attire, hats and sparkle! You really were a sight to beho-ho-hold!

Tonight’s task was joining Santa on his rounds as we went door to door collecting money for lots of local charities. We did our warm-up on the extremely festive square to Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. We basically had a bit of a festive boogie (with some sensational dance moves going on, it has to be said!!). We then ran across town to meet Santa on his rounds wishing everyone we passed a Merry Christmas. We had some lovely smiley responses, some reciprocated good wishes and lots of tooting horns!

Santa was delighted to see so many of us rock up to help. We all donned our high-viz and set out with our collection tubs on our mission to raise as much money as possible. The weather didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits and we happily went from door to door with Christmas music filling the streets while Santa followed us on his float stood up his chimney.

The spirit of Christmas and community was all around as we collected. Lovely people at the doors, children with wide eyes waiting in anticipation for Santa to pass by and a group of volunteers out in the cold and the rain giving up their time for local causes. If this couldn’t get you in the festive spirit, nothing could!

Time passed too quickly, and it was soon time to head back. We returned to the square and as we ran back, it was great to hear some lovely comments. Amanda said she’d never felt so Christmassy and Phil said it had really put him in the festive spirit (by his own admission, a feat he thought was impossible!).

Our fitness session consisted of some Santa squats (inc jump down the chimney of course), turkey feet, holly heel flicks, Snowmen Star jumps and sleigh ride sprints! It’s fair to say, we did a decent amount of exercise on our task tonight – well done everyone!

It was a real pleasure to spend some time with you all in Hops bar for our social. We played the somewhat confusing ‘left right’ game. Suzanne and Alex triumphed! We played Snowman pass the parcel (all 24 layers!). Pam took the star prize on that one (a no expense spared plastic spinning top if I remember correctly!!). Amanda wowed us all with her cracker joke knowledge! And, the showstopper of the night must be Ginnie’s party trick. If you didn’t witness it in person, have a close inspection of the pictures and you’ll be blown away at what she can do with her arm!!!! Unfortunately for you, I can’t remember Phil’s little sonnet about his toes but I think the words ‘trim my tallons’ were amongst them! It was a lovely night filled with fun, friendship, laughter and for me, the perfect way to start Christmas.

Thank You I’ve moved the thank you to the end tonight as I feel I have so much to say thanks for this week. Thank you for the extremely thoughtful and most unexpected gifts that you bought for me. I really am so touched and unusually for me, felt a little speechless! I truly feel I gain so much more than I give and that it’s each of you that I need to thank for being such lovely, awesome and thoroughly decent human beings. It’s only been a few weeks since GoodGym Crewe started but during that time, I’ve met so many lovely people, all of whom I now consider friends and my little GoodGym family. Wednesday nights with you guys genuinely are the highlight of my week. Thank you for your commitment, support and just simply for being amazing.

Huge thank you as always to Pam and Barry for being fabulous back markers again tonight. A big thank you to everyone who filled a shoe box for the elderly – they were very gratefully received, and I know they’ll be putting a smile on someone’s face this Christmas.

And of course, a huge thank you to Crewe Rotary for allowing us to be part of their ‘Team Santa’ this evening. We hope we made a difference and we will be back next year!! Extra special thanks to Ben for helping to make tonight possible and especially for the pre-task chips which were gratefully received by a freezing Alex and myself!

Have the most amazing Christmas everyone! Take care and I can’t wait to see you all in 2020!! Everything for our January tasks will be on social media, so keep a look out on there for our first task of 2020.

GoodGym Crewe has had an amazing start and that’s down to each of you. As Alex said during one of our meetings yesterday, if we can achieve all this in the winter, imagine what the summer will bring! Here’s to an amazing 2020!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Lots of love to you all Nicola xxxx