A super sunny summer Sunday morning, GoodGymers from Bath, Bristol, Oxford and Swindon coming together to run the Avebury Trust 10.

Trust 10’s are free 10Km runs in National Trust venues, held on the 4th Sunday each month from April to October.

Was great to see Alice, Darren, Martha, Matt and Zdeni from Bristol, Alison from Bath and Anwen from Oxford join Swindon regulars Sam, Kirsty, Adam, Simon, Andrew, Rhoda, Clare, Cath,Alethia and the National Trusts own Mike for a scenic run around Avebury.

All runners signed in then gathered for the pre run briefing. The Avebury Trust 10 run starts a ‘stones throw’ from, well, the stones and follows rough track trails out into the Wiltshire countryside. Soon it was time to rock and roll and get going!

It was not long before we were climbing up and descending down the rolling hills. If the run wasn’t breath taking enough, the views at the top certainly were! This was a day for enjoying the weather and the views more than concentrating on achieving times!

Just over half way and we came across the big one! A steep hill which seemed to go on forever! We were all glad when greeted by enthusiastic cheering from Tracey and Jason near the top. The run down the hill was hair raising, it would have been, if I had any! If anyone managed voiding running head first into the bushes, it wasn’t long before we were on tarmac and running towards Silbury Hill. Stone me, if Tracey and Jason popped up again on the final run into the finish, where the lure of National Trust Coffee and cake dragged us over the line.

Everyone did a fantastic job running in the heat and up those uneven climbs and certainly deserved the post run refreshments.

We ‘rocked’ up for the obligatory landscape and portrait photoshoot before ‘rock’ing and rolling home.

The next 'GoodGym West' gathering will be on Sunday 18th August; something not to be missed! Check it out HERE! and then it will be the most amazing half marathon EVER...in scenic Swindon! For more details - click HERE!

Having established that Tom, visiting from GoodGym York hadn’t run from York, we started the evening discussing our favourite Easter Eggs. Although Clare and Ashleigh claimed that any chocolate would do, it quickly turned out that Ashleigh has a particular liking for some very posh 85% chocolate – though we hope that she won’t be taking that to the chippy to be deep-fried; yes the deep-fried Crème Egg has arrived in Swindon! This eggciting news led to a heated debate about Crème Eggs with the group divided almost 50:50…let’s move swiftly on before any one draws any comparisons to Breggxit.

Every GoodGym Swindon run is chatty and tonight was no eggception as we headed out to the home of the Swindon Shock Wheelchair Basketball team. This was our third visit and tonight’s task was more painting – not because we did a SHOCKing job last time, but because there is a lot of painting to be done. Tonight Ben set us to work painting blue bits blue and red bits white – we were soon up and rolling, well…

Let’s be clear - some of us were rollering and some were rolling as the opportunity to try wheelchair basketball proved too good to miss. Under the eggcellent tuition of Wes, there were soon some wheelie good moves and even some hoops being shot by Team GoodGym with Kirsty H, Emily, Emma the Trainer, ‘Sandy’ Sam and Jason leading the way. Meanwhile the painting crew – including Lily, Kirsty W, Carly, Sam and Lynette, supported by members of the rapidly growing Task Force team, including new Task Force member Graham - was hard at work and soon the spectator area was transformed. Next up could be the huge green walls of the sports hall – we like a challenge after all!

Every GoodGym group run needs a group photo – landscape! it must be landscape! – and once that was done we headed back along the Eastern flyer to the Oasis. ‘Sandy’ Sam, after sitting down on the job for so long, shared some innovative moves to get her knee working again, and we soon arrived back for stretching, catching up on race plans for the weekend (10k and half marathon news will soon be filling the ever busy group WhatsApp chat – keep those phone chargers to hand!) and then it was time to say our goodbyes or head inside for a coffee or a water of dubious vintage.

Next week wheel meet again at the usual time and place – why not join us by signing up here!

With three tasks lined up, it was brilliant that we had a large group to tackle it all. Special mention to Sharon, Kirsty H and Tracey who despite injuries met us there and Jo who seemed to teleport straight from work.

Round the group we heard about everyone's weekend running exploits: parkrunners, 10k first timers, Lungbusters and half marathon pacers...oh and birthday weekends off. Will let you away with that one Emma. Happy Birthday to our hard working trainer and Simon for supporting.

Now we are Toothill regulars, Paul could actually find his way without getting lost. Outstanding from our new runner Clare who had never run more than 5km before and kept up over the 7km through hard effort. The power of running in a group.

The flower boat was looking good in the light, weed-free, that didn't need any attention but that didn't stop the injured crew from completing some gardening before we had even arrived! Mavis had set up some picnic tables inside for sanding (Sandy Sam's eyes lit up) and painting. A second group took on the green paint: fences, doors, any other random green articles that needed a coat. Carly decided that included her forehead, as well as the fence.

Meanwhile something else was going on upstairs, I'm not too sure what. The only picture to surface was Stuart playing basketball, I think it was "filing" officially. Of course there was also lots of time for tea and coffee drinking and biscuit eating, hearing about the issues Toothill Farmhouse still has with the lease.

The final task was an inspection of the teddy bear playhouse. Windows intact - check. Base intact - check. Teddy bears on front - check. No time to sort it out this time but that is first on the to-do list for our next visit. Sheddy, Teddy, Go!

Want to join us next time? The good news is that there are two tasks in the next week: a Community Mission on Saturday to Swindon Night Shelter; and our Group Run next Tuesday to Swindon Shock Wheelchair Basketball Club. Don't delay - sign up today!