This week we had a photo theme to ‘show me your shoes’. We had been picking up some fantastic photos of scenery around the city on our solo runs, but it was a worry that we would have to push the limits of the guidance to continue finding new and interesting landscapes. So I opened up this theme to keep the motivation for running going, and everyone was still welcome to send in scenery if they chanced upon it.

Kicking Things Off

The first contact I had was from Nurjehan from Haringey, who showed off her social distancing running, her running shoes and some very not for running in shoes as well. Definitely showing a motto of work hard, play hard, party hard!

Liam kicked off the week in the WhatsApp group, showing that our home of 1000 Trades is keeping itself going with a takeaway service during lockdown. Morwenna then got the first shoe pictures in, as well as this sub-pun to boot, taking pictures in the sunshine and feet among the daisies.

I then took my pink inflected shoes across a zebra crossing, lamenting the lack of group runs to show them off in as Miriam described them as snazzy. Though it is probably holes in them as suspected. Rob found some stunning red flowers to show off his shoes, I found that my shoes matched the blossom outside the window and Laura showed off the flash of colour in her shoes against the brickwork of the pavement.

A Shoe In

The shoes in nature theme continued as Morwenna found some daffodils to complete the picture. Ben found some bright yellow flowers to compensate for the shoe colour. It was at this point that Miriam found some daisies for her picture and the awesome pun for the run report, entering a difficult fight with Liam's shoe in and Morwenna's kick off. Liam highlighted the great backgrounds to his runs in relaxed poses. Then Jonny joined in with Scrat the cat getting close enough to the shoes to be included. George gave an idea of the equipment he had improvised for a HIIT session, Fiona found some fantastic flowers and Rob blended his shoes in with the background. David shared his shoes on the increasingly isolated city centre streets and Ryan tried to capture the foot movement of ducks on the canal but their shoes were obscured underwater. Finally, Tousif found some Forget-Me-Nots as he rounded off a weekend of community missions.

Next week I am thinking of using one of the many fantastic themes used by other GoodGym areas, as inspiration for our motivation. Stay safe and active!

Our first week of isolation runs dates back further than a week, as we began sharing our run pictures at the excellent request of Annie, when we got the news that all GoodGym activity was being paused.

I’m sure we all take in lots of views as we rack up miles...

This also came on the week of the first anniversary of our friends at GoodGym Solihull. The suggestion was met with an instantly positive response to the disappointment of not being able to mark this anniversary or get together as a group. As you will be able to see from the photos shared, we have taken in a lot of good views as we have kept fit during isolation and social distancing. There were also plenty of tantalising hints of our group run venues, with our city centre dwellers finding our meeting point of 1000 Trades, as well as the spots where we do hill reps and time trials.

The first set of photos are really touching to look back on, especially as they tended to be shared with a ‘here you go, Annie’ comment. Through this we’ve also learned what a streak is, how good some photography skills are in the group and as time went on the photos became a ‘where am I’ quiz. They have already had a life beyond the group as Morwenna has done a great job of sharing them on the GG Birmingham Twitter page. At this point it was clear that the first photo of the day inspired others to get out and we were really appreciating the nature around us as we ran to stay fit.

Not all heroes wear (Lands)capes

We’ve seen how we have been able to keep each other motivated and encouraged during the hugely changeable early days of this crisis. The photos really do paint a picture of the changing landscape around us as we learn to keep healthy and safe for everyone.

It’s clear we will continue to be there for each other, through more of these sessions (hopefully not for too long) and through our support in the WhatsApp group. If you’re not in the group and want to be added, get in touch with me at johnhayes@goodgym.org and you will find a lot to keep you going.

There were lots of doubles and singles at parkrun this morning, as I’m sure there were last night in the New Year celebrations. Chris ran Sutton Park in 22:50 and volunteered at Perry Hall, managing the funnel. Lisa (37:35 & 36:29), John (22:10 & 20:34), Fiaz (27:42 & 30:08) and Rauul (33:15 & 35:12) did the double at Sutton Park and Perry Hall respectively. Chris did Brueton in 22:07 and Kingsbury in 22:36. Miriam did Perry Hall in 34:15, Slin in 49:27, Balal in 29:49, Kanchan in 41:14, Bal in 38:59 and Tousif in 32:51. It was great to see so many people out to make a great start to 2020!