Tonight was our yearly Halloween run.

Michael had promised that if others came in some kind of costume, he would wear the inflatable dinosaur costume.

We met at our usual start location in the City Centre, after a quick chat we welcomed our newest person Deborah, who had joined us at a goodgym run at Love Trails.

CROESO

After a brief moment inflating, and some strange looks from the pub behind us, it was time to set off on our run.

We had cheers of dinosaur, t-rex, there were beeping cars and lots of waves. Maybe we should have a T-Rex more often.

The task tonight was helping at Cwtch Together, a charity run disability play project, which promotes inclusive play and socialisation for disabled children and their families.

They are holding 2 Halloween parties, Friday and Saturday, and our fun task was to help set up the spooktacular event.

Everyone got into the spirit as we dressed tables, got pumpkins ready, built a play house, decorated the hall and carried in sand pits and black boards.

As we ended our evening with the usual group photo, the t-rex returned for the jog back.

Join us next week as we begin our Xmas tasks for 3 weeks.

Tonight's mission for the Cardiff crew, the same as usual

Do Good, Get Fit

Our task, helping at the Salvation Army with the overgrown bushes and grass. The "Northlands Life House" is a hostel run by the Salvation Army, its objectives;

We offer a safe, supportive environment for individuals, helping them make positive choices about their current circumstances. As part of our Young Person’s contract, The Salvation Army provides support and accommodation for young people who are experiencing homelessness, across a range of services in Cardiff

There was a lot of work going on at the hostel, with upgrades to windows and doors. The bushes had been left for a while, so needed some TLC to tidy up the look. Michael was double hatted for this task, as both the run leader and the task organiser. The jobs that were on for the day were,

• Tidying the buses
• Removing ivy from walls
• Cutting back bramles
• Strimming the grass section
• Collecting the trimmings in wheelbarrows
• Running the wheelbarrows to the compost heap

The team went straight into volunteer mode, as Michael passed out the tools for the night (he even jumped in to help, in between photos). 30 hard minutes later, we looked back at the work achieved, it was a great help to see things looking tidier with just the tops of the hedges left to trim.

We even had a special goodgym bush now, after the hard work of Jonathan and Lucy to create our heart bush.

Thanks to all for coming out on these darker nights, the hostel appreciates the hard work. See you next time.

Tonight the goodgymers got together to help out our friends at Samye Foundation. One of the originals for Cardiff, and one dearest to our hearts.

We were split, the walkers meeting us at the task and the runners as usual from the Glassworks.

We had our warm up, counted the runners in and said our welcome to the newest person - Lucy.

CROESO

During the run a message came through for Michael, and it all changed. Due to dental issues, our organiser had to leave the location for the task. But as we know.......

goodgym doesn't quit

Upon arrival at the Samye Foundation, Michael had a quick look around, and hey presto, a task was born.

Gloves on, volunteers ready, let's go!

We weeded all along the raised bed at the front of the yard, around the seating area and in front of the building. We cleared up all of the fallen leaves, and then we used all of this natural material as a mulch back on the soil, just as nature planned.

Weeds became mulch

Leaves became worm food

And then it was time for home.

We got plenty done, considering the last minute change. Thanks to all for coming, and hope to see you again next time.

Goodgym Cardiff Met as usual for our Tuesday group session, outside the Glassworks. Our destination was over to Sport Wales, where we would pick up anyone meeting at the task. Our task, a final farewell litterpick to the Summer, and boy did it get dark fast... Running lights needed next week.

We made our way into the depths of the park, over to the rugby car park, up to Western Avenue and back again to the start. It was quite a distance for the litterpick, but we cleaned up.

And Now

A quick ditty from Bugsy Malone,

We could've been anything
That we wanted to be
And I'm not saying we should
But if we tried it, we'd learn to abide it
We could be the best at being good
....

See you next time.

Disclaimer - if you have never heard the Jessie J song 'Price Tag', please go and listen to it first if you want this report to make sense!

8 Goodgym folks ran, walked and cycled through the pouring rain to help out at the Samye Foundation.

Lorraine at Samye was pleased to see Michael, Adam, Emma, Aimee, Darren, Rosie, Dylan and Jonny arrive; she had pinned a task list to the door for us to crack on with!

Jonny and Aimee got on with pricing up items for the upcoming plant and book sale.....they under took the....

Price Task

Seems like everybody’s rushin’

Runnin’ through the rain, no hushin’

Volunteers with soggy shoes

Still smiling, got things to do

Why is everyone so serious?

Why am I leaf-clearing in shorts?

Can we slow down and just breathe?

Or at least get a towel, please?

It’s not about the price task, task, task

It’s all about the give back, back, back

We wanna make the world run

Forget about the rain splash, splash, splash

Just focus on the impact, impact

GG just wanna make it count

Even if we’re soaked and worn out

A little kindness, a little sweat

Volunteering with no regret

I ain't writing a song for every task.... :o)

There was plenty of vacuuming to be done so Adam and Emma (and Henry!) cracked on with that. Adam also washed the walls down in the hall to de-scuff them.

Some nominative determinism was in play as Rosie cut back the roses at the front of the foundation!...ably assisted by Dylan. Michael floated around (quite literally with the rain!) helping everyone, taking pics in the process.

The group were re-leaved to leaf Darren alone to sweep and clear up the.....you guessed it - leaves.

A little sodden we all really appreciated the piping hot Carrot and Coriander soup Lorraine had made to say thank you.

We all had a chat.........mainly about the old test card (click here if you are too young for this reference!) and dried off a little.

You may have noticed a non red runner amongst the pack, Jonny was being a good sport by wearing a Norwich City jersey as he lost a friendly wager with Darren and had to spend the evening in his rivals jersey! As you can tell from the pictures he was delighted! ;o)

The rain had got a lot harder but we ventured out running, walking and cycling back home or to the pub.