It's the most wonderful time of the year!... Especially when 30 GoodGym runners show up to get fit and do good in Cardiff

Only 8 sleeps left until Christmas! Isn't that exciting? At GoodGym Cardiff it still feels like we had a big Christmas present early, winning the Getting Wales Active award!

To start the night we did a warm up and said what our favourite thing about Christmas was. Some people said presents, some said Christmas dinners and others said spending time with family.

We acknowledged achievements / goings on over the past week, which included:

• Community Mission to help erect a tent at the Samye Foundation
• Community Mission to help paint a flat ready for Refugees to move in
• Nathan and Ellen completed a mission to help an older person!
• Hike up Pen Y Fan!
• A social outing to Winter Wonderland ice skating
• On Saturday 36 of us celebrated Christmas at the GoodGym Cardiff Christmas party at The Classroom

First good deeds of the night

The walking group walked around town, spreading Christmas cheer for all to hear. They were handing out Christmas cards to members of the public saying "Merry Christmas". They reported a mixed response and some people thought there was a catch! There was no catch and we just wanted to make people smile :).

Whilst the walking talking group were handing out Christmas Cards in town, the runners, with presents in arms - quite literally -were heading over to Nightingale House to deliver gifts to the residents. Sophie Hastings, a GoodGym runner, had her work kindly donate gifts this year and we got to run them to Nightingale House.

Onto the next good deed of the night

We arrived back to Big Moose about 7.25pm. Now was the time to do another good deed of the night! Matt, a lovely employee of Big Moose, gave us lots of tasks that the charity needed our help with. Tasks we helped with included:

• Baking cookies and biscuits
• Making framed certificates for the attendees of the Big Moose Supertri event
• Putting lush products and framed certificates inside goodie bags
• Sorting and stock counting Big Moose Merchandise
• Giving Big Moose a touch up of paint to keep it looking fabulous!

Matt couldn't believe the speed at which we worked. It was safe to say we were very busy efficient GoodGym elves.

** Post run**

After the evenings events we headed to the Glassworks for a social drink of water, coffee and for some something stronger Ahem Two pint tuesday for some...

Well done tonight. It was our final group run of the year and boy did we go out with a bang! Nightingale House were so grateful for the gifts... we were more than 3 kings bringing gold frankincense and myrrh that's for sure! Big Moose were immensely thankful for our help (Matt was in disbelief with how much we got done and how quickly we did it). The members of the public who have received cards wishing them a Merry Christmas, well who knows, we may have brightened someones Christmas... we may even be the only person wishing them a Merry Christmas - we may never know.

Happy New Year everyone - You are the best x

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Tweet off Leaderboard 2020

There was a special opportunity for one runner to get ahead on the 2020 tweet off leaderboard. The competition was fierce. Can Lucy retain the tweet off crown? Only time we will tell. The winner tonight however was Marie! A huge well done. The scores are as follows:

• MOH - 1

Tonight, 23 runners braved the rain, exposing themselves to the elements, and joined in the GoodGym run to help the Samye Foundation

At 12.30pm today we were notified that our planned task wouldn't be able to happen due to unforeseen circumstances. This left us in a dilemma as we run to get fit and do good and help in the community and at the moment we were without the good deed. At 5pm Ben called the Samye Foundation, he let them know that if they wanted us to run and give them a hand then we had availability this evening. This was music to their ears and they said "Yes please!".

At 6pm people began gathering at the Big Moose Cafe ready for the evening's run, excited about the prospect of another good deed and running with the nicest people around.

At 6.30pm it was all systems go. Ben directed everyone outside and got them warming up. He played a game of Captain's Coming which got people running around, jumping about and squatting - It certainly got their hearts racing. After the warm up we did a headcount and acknowledged achievements that have happened over the past week. Aimee organised and led the community mission to help set up Coryton Primary School autumn fair. Lewis ran an INCREDIBLE 65 miles over the weekend. We then acknowledged the achievements of the current run. Andrew reached his 50 good deed milestone and is now eligible to claim his 50 good deed t-shirt. We had James joining us for his FIRST EVER GoodGym run!

It's now time to get our run on

Aimee led a walking group this evening! So much kudos to her for making these GoodGym runs accessible to more people.

Ben led the main group to the Samye Foundation.

Welcome runners to the Samye Mindfulness and Wellbeing Foundation!

As runners arrived at the Samye Foundation they were greeted by Lorraine. Lorraine was so pleased that so many runners had turned up keen to help out and had planned last minute tasks that she needed help with. The list included:

• Painting a wooden radiator cover
• Weeding the car park and back garden area
• Cutting the bushes on top of the perimeter walls
• Moving objects and chairs from the upstairs flat in one of the buildings
• Painting a bathroom

Runners were given 30 minutes to complete the listed tasks.

Thank you so much everyone. You've helped me out a huge amount

Lorraine thanked everyone for their efforts and kindly invited us in for some snacks.

Aimee then led the walking group back to Big Moose followed soon after by Ben who led the runners back.

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The Tweet Off

Lucy managed to extend her lead again tonight, winning the tweet off by retweeting before anyone else.

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

Coryton Primary School needed setting up and so 6 GoodGym runners were on hand to do just that!

• We put bunting around trees and a stage
• We moved the inflatable castle and obstacles from a van to the area where it was to be built
• We moved tables and chairs to the school playground
• We set up an area to stop children from running into ponies - Yes, apparently that can happen
• And we moved items that were going to be sold at the fair from inside the school to their designated stall.

After we helped out we had delicious flapjacks that Wendy had made and gathered on the ship for a group photo.

Happy #GGSuperSaturday everyone

Goodgym C&V hit the streets to flyer for an upcoming post-contemporary circus show support by NoFit State Circus, a charity that champions circus performers and performances in Wales.

Abandoning the initial plan of handing flyers out to passers by in the city centre (it seems noone wants a flyer shoved in their hand when they are headed home after a long day and it's starting to rain) the group headed to pontcanna to drop some flyers door to door.

These GG heroes clearly made an impression in the area and one lady pleaded with Darren to take time out and save her from the horrid spider taunting her from her sink. He duly removed the critter and took in a long way from the house so it couldn't find its way back - earning himself some free opera tickets as a thank you.

An hour passed, 1000s of steps were added to the pedometer, 100s of flyers were posted, and another good deed was accomplished.