14 people ran 6k to clear rubbish from a driveway into a skip for a homeless hostel

It was great to have a virtually tropical evening for tonight’s run. It was great to see first time GoodGym’er Sandy at tonight’s gathering. After the intro, we were on our way, running through the city centre, passing the bull ring, down the steps and on to Highgate. Nearly at the hostel we added in a couple of ‘lung busting hill sprints’ before arriving at our destination.

"What a stink!!"

The task was to move all the rubbish which included mattresses, Tv’s, chairs amongst other items into a large skip. Unfortunately, there was a little surprise, a big plastic bin was full of water, which spilled over the drive, causing one hell of a stink!! I think the water must have been in there since the 19th century!! Oh well Goodgymer’s are not fazed by this sort of thing (though I did think for a moment a few might pass out!), so we took it in turns in going back and forth to the tap to fill a bucket with water and swill the ‘stinky’ water away. There you are an extra work out! Once the task was completed and the skip couldn’t take anymore rubbish we were on are way back.

"Time to burn"

On are way back, again we incorporated a few sprints on the hills, James showing great determination powering up those hills and Phil showing his 400-metre runner speed. After that we ended up in St Paul’s square we got those thighs and bums burning with some lunges and a 1 minute wall squat and we even threw in a few tuck jumps to get that heart racing! Chan showing a great technique, Charlotte getting nice and deep with those lunges and Suki offering great encouragement as always

We then finished up with a short jog back to base, finishing with the all important stretching.

Next week we are going to be cleaning a gym at the Salvation Army, it would be great if you could join us sign up here

Ps. Thanks to Chan for the couple of ‘task photos’ top man!

A great group of 32 people joined us for the Birmingham Goodgym Launch, running 6.2k to clear glass and litter from a school sports pitch in Balsall Heath

GoodGym launch was supported by Run Birmingham and GoodGym's national sponsor is BT - so it was very exciting to be able to bring the two together.

On a rather ‘nippy’ night, everyone was keen to get moving, so we set off from the BT offices in Birmingham city centre and made our way to Balsall Heath. Arriving at the task everyone either took a brush, litter picker or shovel and got to work clearing the nearby sports pitch belonging to Nelson Mandela Primary School.

"two time Paralympic gold medallist Jonnie Peacock"

As if that was't exciting enough on it's own, we had a two time Paralympic gold medallist Jonnie Peacock (thanks for the Selfie!) joining us at the task as part of the GoodGym Brum launch celebrations. We spent 25 minutes clearing the pitch and I reckon we removed atleast 23kg of glass ;-)

"thighs and bums burning"

Once we had finished the task, Jonnie Peacock gave a speech showing appreciation for what were doing, then we did a little fitness session involving some high intensity high knees, running to get the heart rate soaring and then a bit of leg conditioning work, by getting those thighs and bums burning with some lunges.

We then ran back to base finishing with a bit of stretching and that was job done!

Huge thanks to everyone; the feedback from the Balsall Heath Forum was massively postive; though we didn't get every grain of glass of the pitch it's lightened the load for the next effort.

"our new base of **1000 Trades in the Jewellery Quarter, at 6pm."

Next week we are going to be helping the Guide association and running from our new base of 1000 Trades in the Jewellery Quarter, at 6pm. Sign up here