Hey there fellow goodgymers!

Thankyou for your warm welcome back into the group this evening much appreciated and really good to see you all keeping healthy and have survived this pandemic, hopefully I can make up for my absence and also inspire any other runners who are thinking about joining :)

Tonight was a great task meeting school warden Warren who was very passionate about the school and its development so was inspiring to see meet him, they have the largest outdoor space of any Brighton school with over 40 different organisations chipping in to run different after schools clubs and activities which has created such a awe inspiring community effort, they raise money through these events and different organisations in order to be able to allow the less well wealthy local families to be able to afford sending thier child to this school which is everything myself and good gym are about promoting access so got down to nipping, tucking and deweeding the edge of thier forest school area which contained the infamous bug hotels projects which they try and encourage thier children to embrace through outdoor learning practices, taking out the loose dead grass, bind weed and grass surrounding the raspberry plants along the edge, leaving the snapdragon pants and creating a troul edging, after being able to chat and catch up with everyone we were finished in no time as it was all hands on deck and very much a team effort indeed, after putting his tools back in the man made straw roundhouse at the bottom of the playground we rallyed for a team photo and headed our seperate ways for a final jog home as a nicer task for some because we didn't meet up first at the YHA so individual runs could be sorted more depending on location making it more convenient for some members or able to get a longer run in, hoping to get out with the team more shortly and catch up properly.

Happy running, stay clear and stay safe everyone

From my android Kind regards Damian

The black t-shirts were out in force tonight with Sherman, Frannie, Helena, David & Juliet being joined by Roy sporting his at a group run for the first time. You all wear it well!

It certainly felt like summer is on the way out with the temperature several degrees down on last week’s scorcher. And nothing signals the changing of the seasons like going back to school , which was where we were headed tonight for our first visit to Cardinal Newman School, one of the biggest state schools in Brighton.

It was a tough 3km to get there with some challenging hills to keep us warm. On arrival we learnt the planned task of clearing a courtyard was postponed so instead we were armed with gloves and litter pickers to tackle the school playing field. We found small bits of litter all over the field but the richest pickings were found by going deep into the woody edges where we found the usual suspects of copious old plastic wrappers, bottles along with 2 cricket balls!

A slightly different route back took us the the sensory garden at St Anne’s Wells Park where David’s sound effects whilst completing a minutes worth of tricep dips were a treat for anyone’s ears! We also tackled some planks, some hurdling moves to increase hip flexibility and some rows with old bicycle inner tubes, all great exercises to work on posture and mobility for running.

Thanks to Roy who is back on top punning form and starts the new term at top of the class for tonight’s pun.

See you next week when we’ll be visiting another not visited before part of town and helping a neighbourhood group keep their pavements clear from encroaching vegetation.

See your there!

15 runners met on a ridiculously blustery night for late July. We welcomed Jay from Worthing Goodgym and welcomed back Nipun for one night only after her move away from Brighton which was a delightful surprise for us all.

After warming up out the back rather than our usual setting due to Pride shenanigans we ran off to Hanover & Elm Grove to meet Councillor David Gibson for another task of clearing litter, bindweed and covering graffiti. Micheal , Ellie & Bernard painted over the first lot while Sherman and Damian went north to do some weeding and then Jay and Kirsty covered some of the pesky tagging round the corner.

Meanwhile, the rest of us cleared bindweed by the almshouses...and I mean cleared...the stuff grows like wildfire and litter picked which included a large cardboard box with an old art deco style lampshade which had been dumped.

Having transformed the area we headed for the Level and did a series of triangular reps which consisted of press ups....run to the 2nd point of the triangle....jumping squats....run to the third point of the triangle....sit ups....run back again and repeat.....several times! We then ran and got blown back to base where some went for an extra social with Nipun once a venue could be decided!!

Was that the hottest Brighton Goodgym run ever? It certainly felt that way to me as we headed up the steeper than usual hill to the Community Kitchen for our regular monthly cleaning session.

Lots to talk about in the “Welcomes and News” section this evening as we were joined by Bernard & Sarah for their first run and we welcomed regular Stockport Goodgym runner Rachael, down south for a family visit and a bit of Goodgym tourism.

The big news tonight was all about Michael hitting the big 100 good deeds, becoming only the second Brighton runner to achieve this milestone. It’s a rare week that Michael doesn’t show up for the group run, he joined us for the first time on our 3rd run and has been to almost all of them since. He’s also done several missions and has risen to the dizzy heights of Run Leader. Well done Michael and thank you for all your input, support and commitment over the last 2 years. And with all the excitement of your 100th we didn’t even mention that you competed in the 5.30am race this week so well done for that too!

Back to the Community Kitchen and great work was done on chair cleaning, oven scrubbing, window wiping and surface cleaning and it only took about 20 minutes for us to leave the kitchen looking spick and span. If you are interested in the work they do then check out the community kitchen here and maybe even book yourself on a course to help them continue their great community work.

Up yet more hot and sweaty hills to get to our gym, St Nicholas Rest Garden has got to be one of the most charming outdoor spaces in Brighton. In groups of 3 you took turns to run, hold and rest with a series of static exercises especially chosen to prevent burn out in the heat.

Hopefully normal cooler service will be resumed next week when we visit Hanover & Elm Grove ward, meanwhile enjoy a good rest in the sun, stay hydrated and wear suncreen!