9 GoodGym volunteers ran to Bath Organic Group near the Victoria Park play area to do some path maintenance and apple pressing. We had a lot of fun and we can't wait to go back again!

We met at the leisure centre and after a warm-up we ran through town, through Victoria Park and down to the allotments at Lower Common West. We met our host Len who gave us an overview of Bath Organic Group and the task ahead.

The community project there has been running for over 30 years. They grow and sell a variety of fruit and veg. Anyone is welcome to come and help out at the garden and they are always looking for new volunteers to join their community. They meet on Tuesday and Saturday mornings and are a very welcoming and social group. You can find more information on their website.

Task 1: Repairing a sickly path!

Our first task was to cut back some of the overgrown paths with some sickles. We made the path wider and a lot clearer so people can more easily get a wheelbarrow down there and pick more fruit.

Task 2: Keep chipping away at it!

The second task of the evening was laying down a bark chip path around the allotment. Last October we came along to BOG and laid down some bark but over the year, with all the visitors and volunteers they have there, the path has thinned. We worked in a team to load up wheelbarrows, transport the bark and then mould the path with a rake.

Task 3: Time for more pressing matters!

Our final task of the night was to pick apples and prepare them for juicing. We picked apples from the trees and then set up a production chain. We washed the apples, quartered them (taking care to remove any bugs hiding in there!), 'scratted' them (i.e. grinding them) and then pressed them.

It was a lot of fun and the fresh apple juice tasted amazing! It was also a great energy boost for the run back to the leisure centre!

Thanks!

Thanks to Len and the team at Bath Organic Group for hosting us last night. Thanks to Emily for backmarking and thanks to Rob for the awesome pun this week. Two in a row!

Upcoming runs:

• Next week we are running up to [St Phillips and St James' Church in Odd Down].(https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/maintenance-work-at-st-phillips-and-st-james-church) This is a hilly run and great training!

17 GoodGym volunteers ran to Victoria Park to tidy the play area and the skatepark. We did some litter picking and raked the sand in the play areas. Lots of people and young families use this space and we were proud to help keep it safe and clean for all to use.

All hail Clean Mary!

We met at the leisure centre and crossed our fingers that the rain wouldn't come back! Firstly, we awarded Mary a custom t-shirt to celebrate her 200 runs milestone that she recently smashed. Now she has two 'Clean Mary' t-shirts to wear when she goes out running! Well done Mary! Keep up the running!!

I then shared running news from the past weekend. Several of took part in a fantastic Running Omnium that was part of the Top of the Gorge festival in Cheddar. It was great fun and we got really cool medals! Hopefully see some of you there next year.

We also got involved in a great Community Mission at the weekend where we ran to help out at the annual Sunday Funday organised by the team at St James and St Phillips' church.

The Great Get Together

I talked about The Great Get Together which is a project that GoodGym groups across the country are partnering with this week. The project was set up to remember Jo Cox who was killed three years ago. The aim of the initiative is to celebrate the things that bring us together and what we have in common and to reject divisive politics that tear our communities apart.

We all reflected that although we are from different walks of life the one thing we all have in common is a love of running and helping our community. We wore some stickers and wristbands to show our support for coming together and being part of an inclusive community.

After our warm-up we took the scenic route to the play park. We ran through Bath city centre, around The Circus and past the Royal Crescent. What beautiful city we get to run in!

The Rake Get Together

We made it to the park and surveyed the task ahead. After passing out the pickers some of the runners got on their way picking litter from all around the park. There hasn't been too much rubbish dropped lately because of the poor weather ... but there was still too much for us to bear and so we took action!

In for a penny in for a pound

Some of the more interesting things we found were a £1 coin, half of a lego person and a bike chain. We also found a plastic 'skate' on wheels in the bushes. Unsure exactly how this got there (or even what it is for!?) but we dug it out and safely removed it anyway!

Come and give us a sand with this work!

Lots of sand escapes from the play areas out onto the path which can make it slippery and dangerous to walk across. We shovelled a load of it from the path back into the sand pit and then raked it in.

At the end of the task we admired our hard work from the vantage point of one of the climbing frames. We climbed up and had a picture looking out across the sands.

Upcoming runs

• This Sunday there is a fun and FREE 10km race for all in GG South-West to celebrate GG Swindon's 1st birthday. More info here.
• Next week we are running to help out at Cleveland Pools
• Next Thursday we are taking part in our monthly pub quiz. Even if you just started to coming to GoodGym it is a great way to get to know other runners and have some fun!

Not letting the hills put us off, 15 of us ran up Bloomfield Drive to do a 'deep clean' of a community space at St Phillips and St James's Church. We managed to achieve a massive amount and, despite the rain, we ran a huge 7.2km!

Welcome Emily, Emma and Kathryn!

At our usual meeting spot at the Leisure Centre we welcomed three new runners: Emily, Emma and Kathryn. They had heard about GoodGym through a friend and were keen to come and try our fantastic combination of keeping fit while doing good in the community. It was great to have you join us and we hope you will return!

Bloom(field)-in' heck, that was hilly!

After a thorough warm-up we made our way along the river path, up Holloway and then all the way up Bloomfield Drive. This is one of our longer routes and is definitely the hilliest one we do and so I am really happy with how everyone kept on going and didn't give up on this one!

We met out host Andy at the church and he brought us round to 'Manna House' which is one of the rooms owned and run by the Church. This room is frequently rented out to community groups and gets a lot of wear and tear! Andy explained that although his team regularly clean the room after use, it rarely gets a thorough 'deep clean'. It sounded like exactly the kind of task that we GoodGym runners are awesome at doing!

We were done in a Flash!

We broke into small teams for this task. Andy had kindly set out some cleaning equipment like gloves, Flash cleaning fluid and bowls of warm water.

Some of us were down on our hands and knees scrubbing the floors with brushes and Flash to give it a really good clean. There was lots of dirt ingrained into the floor that doesn't come off with a standard wipe over, so we really had to work hard!

Other teams took everything (and I mean everything!) out of the cupboards and drawers and gave all the shelves and inner surfaces a thorough clean. Some were wiping, others were drying and another group was re-filling. Good teamwork everyone!

We all came back together at the end to make sure we left everything clean and tidy once again. We got so much done and Andy really appreciated the hard work we did for him and his team. We shall return soon!

Thanks!

Thanks to Ollie and Emma H for backmarking for us. And thanks to Andy for this week's cleaning-related pun!

Next runs

• This Sunday: Training run along the canal, lead by Emma H.
• Next week: Flyering around Bear Flat for charity places in RideLondon

It was a chilly evening in Bath but that didn't stop a fantastic force of 19 runners coming out to help clean toys at Oldfield Park Toddler Group.

We welcomed Chris, on tour from GoodGym Bristol, and Andreea who has joined Bath from GoodGym Hounslow.

After a quick warm up we ran out to Oldfield Park Baptist Church, where our host Katie was waiting to meet us with a huge pile of toys which needed cleaning. This has become a regular half-term task for us, as we can get the work done in 30 minutes whereas it takes the church volunteers at least a day! We split into two teams and got to work!

Esme, Chris, Katrin and Dora were the dishwasher team, who took care of all the small plastic items, including building blocks and an interesting array of plastic food, including a very realistic Pringle! We had to send in back up as there were so many small toys to dry and we ended up leaving some very soggy tea towels behind!

The rest of our mean, clean running machine took care of the larger items, using cloths and anti-bacterial spray to give everything a wipe down. Tom left his Maths PhD behind and went old school with an abacus, Dan resumed construction of the castle he built on a previous visit and Pascale was let loose with the steam cleaner to clean up some softer, squishy items! Tim even grew a tail?!

After cleaning up and a quick group photo, it was off on the run again and back to the Leisure Centre. Thanks to Pascale for back marking this week. Emily had to come up with the pun and can only apologise for lack of originality. We need a replacement pun-master while Joe is injured!

Happy running!

Upcoming runs

*Running the Bath Half? We have a series of weekend training runs. Next one is Sunday 3rd February and will be 12km. *Send A Cow have also offered us some FREE BATH HALF PLACES as a result of all our fantastic flyering. You just need to try and raise £200 for the charity. So get in touch with Emily or Sam if you're interested. *Next week we are helping to organise the store cupboard at 51st Bath Scouts

Socials

We're headed to St James Wine Vaults for the pub quiz next Thursday (31st January) for our end of the month social. Join us if you can!

Social Media

Please like/follow us on social media and share/retweet our content! We are on Facebook and Twitter. Organisations are getting in contact with us through these platforms and this means we are securing more varied tasks for you to enjoy!

A new task destination tonight for 17 fantastic runners at GOODGYM BATH on a 5k run out on the eastern side of Bath to RIVERSIDE YOUTH CENTRE. A great place helping to mentor young people, check it out for yourself and maybe get involved http://mentoringplus.net/

A good old warm up whilst Sam aka Paul changed into his superman outfit, well his does work for the Chronicle .

TWO TASKS TONIGHT

SHELF AND SAFETY

katie our task host was supervising her team of five on this one. They certainly made light work of this DIY task.

HOW DEEP IS YOUR GLOVE

Under my watchful eye doing a litter pick outside in the alleyway leading to the centre and what a lot of litter there was, in fact 4 BAGS FULL ranging from chocolate wrappers to cans and bottles plus some unidentified objects.

It took just 20 minutes to complete both tasks giving us time to enjoy some fitness fun and boy what fun the group had with

THE BLEEP TEST

on the basketball court with Steph enhancing the bleep so everyone could hear, Well done SAM on being the last man standing. We will definitely be doing this one again.

THEY MEASURED UP TONIGHT

Katie led the group back to the leisure centre for our stretch out and reminder we have group social on Thursday at The Boater for our monthly quiz at 7.45pm, so please try and come along everyone very welcome.

Lots of great puns glying around tonight but Sam and Mary combined both on the way home ..will defo keep the others for another day guys .

Half Marathon training Saturday at 10am from the leisure centre 11 miles approx.

Fab evening again at GOODGYM BATH