This evening, 26 GoodGym runners turned up to help the Samye Foundation

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is fast approaching and there is no getting away from the fact I simply LOVE Christmas. I apologise for all the times I am going to be making referencing it over the next months... how I make the most of Christmas is by enjoying the lead up to the 25th December as much as I can - Be prepared for lots of Christmas themed tasks and social events over the next month! Anyway...

26 runners showed up to GoodGym tonight. Another awesome turnout. Ms Sue Fernandez spent over an hour queuing in traffic in order to be able to get to GG this evening - More kudos for your perseverance . We had 2 new faces at GoodGym this week too - WELCOME CURTIS AND FLO! We hope you loved this evening's run and we encourage you to come back... every run IS so different.

To warm up we can a quick game of stuck in the dance... Everyone is certainly 'upping their game' now it's getting closer and closer to the Christmas party.

Let's get our run on!

Mikey led the sexy runners; there were definitely some heads turning by members of the public... we our running form was THAT good! Welsh Dave led the speedy runners; he took them through Bute park. Fortunately they all made it out despite the darkness.

Welcome to the Samye Foundation!

Lorraine was tonight's task organiser. She welcomed us in like she always does; with a big smile that makes you feel warm to the core! She explained to us what the centre needs our help with. We were tasked with;

• Distributing 200 leaflets to all of the homes on Clive Street, Canton
• Litter picking the streets of Canton
• Weeding and collecting all of the leaves in the centre's car park

Afterwards runners were invited to dig into some nibbles. The selection consisted of great grapes, delicious vegan cakes, the most scrumptious avocado dip to go with crackers and raw coconut cake... Nom nom Nom! I was almost having to drag runners away from the nibbles... Lewis was a HUGE fan of the raw cake.

Thank you so much, now hundreds of people know about the events we have coming up at the centre because of your help

We then ran back, stopping outside Cardiff Castle for a photo by the Christmas tree. After arriving back at Big Moose we warmed down whilst reflecting on the evening.

After the run everyone headed to the Glassworks pub for drinkypoos and a chinwag.

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The Tweet off

Ring a ding ding ding. Meg has claimed another point on the tweet off leaderboard! Well done! ALL points count and there are less and less opportunities to move up the leaderboard as each week goes by.

• LM 12
• MO 9
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• MJ 4
• NS 2
• RJ 1
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

Tuesday evening is my favourite time of the week. It's a chance to get fit, do good, have a laugh and have fun :)

This week the plan was to help out at Samye Mindfulness and Wellbeing Foundation. Samye Foundation Wales is a compassion-based mindfulness training centre in Cardiff. They've have been providing mindfulness training to individuals and organisations for more than ten years and have helped thousands of people to improve their well-being through mindfulness.

Before setting off to Samye we had to get warmed up. Ben led part one of the warm up, did the headcount and celebrated everyone's achievements over the past week;

• Nathan ran the Oxford Half Marathon
• 8 runners from GoodGym Cardiff and Bristol took part in the Cross Country Challenge / Gwent League - It was awesome!
• Mike and Bri complete a mission to help an older person
• Alice did parkrun!

There were no new runners this week -Sad Face! However we saw some faces who we haven't seen at GoodGym for a while, including the lovely Alison Ling - Smiley Face!

Running to the Samye Foundation

Welsh Dave led the speedy runners to the Samye Foundation. Darren led the sexy group and Ben led the walky talky group.

We're here

Anthony and John were both at the Samye Centre. With smiles on their faces, they greeted us with the warmest of welcomes. They gave us our tasks for the evening which included;

• Weeding in the car park
• Varnishing the eternal knots
• Moving furniture
• Painting the inside toilet
• Planting a maple tree

Everyone got stuck straight in!

After the task was completed Anthony and John invited us in for some lovely nibbles to refuel before we ran back. We tasted the BEST and most scrumptious cupcakes that I have ever tasted - Get this... you actually injected caramel into them - Incredible!

Time to run back guys!

After a wonderful 40 minutes of helping at the Samye Foundation Centre it was time to head back. We waved goodbye and then ran and walked off into the night :) We had smiles on our faces and warmth in our hearts knowing that we'd made good use of our run.

Drinky poos

At the pub we then had discussions about who Pete was appointing to different roles to help him with his Sub 4 hour marathon attempt dressed as a star. If he completes the challenge that he has set himself then he will be in the Guiness Book of World Records for the fastest person to run a marathon dressed as a star, a feat that Eliud Kipchoge is yet to accomplish.

Mali also announced that she is keen to take on a marathon and was asking for opinions about which marathon she should do.

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The Tweet off

Marie won the tweet off this evening. We caught Marie for a brief interview afterwards. She said "I've been training for the tweet off for months. I've enrolled onto further training so I can retweet even quicker."

• LM 11
• MO 8
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1

I often wonder how many runners will turn up to GoodGym on a rainy day and I'm so pleased that loads of you still turn up even when you know you're going to get soaked. This evening 17 runners showed up to help at the YMCA Store on Colchester Avenue. Keep reading to find out what went on...

This evening we were joined by Hansh. Hansh develop content for social media and publicise it on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. They joined the GoodGym run to create content about GoodGym because they heard about how awesome we are and wanted to create a piece on us.

We had one new runner come along to the GoodGym run this evening. Welcome George to GoodGym Cardiff! We hope you had a fantastic time and come back.

What else is worthy of a mention;

• Darren ran Berlin Marathon on Sunday
• Pete ran Budapest Marathon on Sunday
• Ben, Lucy, Martin and Fiona all attended the Big Social Run
• Mali participated in Parkrun in the rain

Warm up - Runners, let's get those legs moving, arms driving and hearts pumping

We played two warm up games to get our hearts pumping. We played;

• Rock, paper, scissors - There were 3 exercises depicting each action. The game involves people winning games, losing games and running about.
• Fish and chips - Contrary to what you might expect, this game is renown at GoodGym for burning calories. People run around in a space and when Ben, the game organiser, shouts "Fish and chips", runners find a partner and say either "fish" or "chips." If runners say the same they do 20 jumping jacks, say different and it's 10 squat jumps.

Time to run to the YMCA Store on Colchester Avenue

We headed to the YMCA store as one group. Crossing roads and doing fitness exercises so that we could all regroup, and because the fitness exercises strengthen our core.

Welcome to the YMCA store on Colchester Avenue

Matt and Bab's gave us a warm welcome to the YMCA Store. They had refreshments waiting for us so that we could rehydrate. Matt explained about the YMCA's initiative and then told us the tasks that needed doing that evening.

• To sort the donations into bags
• To build two beds
• Hoover the store

Runners we given 25 minutes to complete the tasks.

"Thank you so much everyone. You helped us out massively in such a short space of time. We can't wait to see you again soon!

We then ran back along Newport Road and made our way back to Big Moose. After collecting our belongings from Big Moose we headed to the Glassworks pub. There Darren got ID'd for ordering an alcoholic drink :) Bless him.

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The Tweet Off

Marie won the tweet off this evening. We caught her for a brief interview afterwards. She said "I'm so pleased that I am now in second place. This is what dreams are made of... tweet off wins."

• LM 11
• MO 6
• EW 5
• DRN 4
• MG 4
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1