Tonight was Poole Goodgym's first flyer drop!

It was great to welcome Andrew to our Tuesday runs, he joined us on Sunday, having been brought along by Christine, for our starter session and was back already - having already run this morning!

We also welcomed into the group, Anthony, Maria' husband, great to have you along Anthony!

Another new person (!) to join us finally was Sarah. We know it is pretty tricky you making it down to us, so pleased you could finally make a session! Hope you can join us again in future.

It felt bitter out there tonight so a warm up was in fact a run to start to get us all going. Richard was on a bit of a mission and kept us moving in the direction of Oakdale, passing Oakdale Runners along the way! However note to teach Richard how to Hopskotch - not dance! :)

Great to have Nicola join us for only the second time in 6 months or so, we hope to see more of you in future!

Just a note about Dorset Reclaim - They provide furniture for those who need it as low prices, they also make items and recycle old furniture to sell on the waste - eg wood chippings! None of us were fully aware of all what they do so a leaflet drop is really beneficial to spread the word! Go and check out the warehouse if you can!

Onto Stanley Green road and into two teams who were given equal amount of leaflets. 7 people per team, 1 team each side of road! It sounds simple, but there are a lot of side roads, empty spots of no houses, flats you cannot access and Closes that run into another Close! (Got that?!)! Onto the loop that is Christopher Crescent, despite a few moments when we lost one of the groups, a full circuit was done with all side roads and Preston Road.

Along Stanley Green Road again when leaflets was moved around till piles were less - Left and Right sides all gone now as we worked as a full team - finishing along Palmer Road till all leaflets were finished!

Sadly we don't know how many that was as leaflets had not been counted but let's say several hundred! Phew!

Learning points - long roads are best, have a leaflet count first and look at how we can compete a bit more - In the words of Patricia, we are all winners tonight!

It was great timing as we could head back to base for 7.50pm having run pretty much continuous for 7km+!

Home for a well deserved cuppa I'd say!

Happy New Year Everyone!

First one back and its a new location to start off the year with!

The mission tonight was also to talk about our individual plans for 2020 - We all know we don't need to be anyone new or change, as we are fabulous just the way we are - but a new SMART goal is a great way to keep improving!

Goals and targets tonight inc improving parkruns, 'upping' distance(half mara for Robert), running a set mileage (2020km for Nicola or just loosing that bit of extra weight!

It was amazing that finally Sarah managed to join us! She has had Goodgym on the rador for months so finally she was here for a run - great to have you along Sarah!

It was onto the Ashley Road for tonights task and a quick request to avoid North Road - The slow, gentle incline that can be a little um...breathy! Well its the first one back so this was accepted and instead a run through Ashley Cross.

St John's Church has a community choir that practices on a Tuesday evening and they were on their first rehearsal back ready for a performance on 22nd February in Wimborne so we had a little listen - pretty cool songs actually! (Don't forget we can always offer to do Flyers for local groups like this if it helps!)

We met Loeke just inside the door and she showed us where the cleaning items were and even that we could have a cuppa if we wanted! As there was so many of us tonight, it is also New Year so why not have a cuppa - Hilary and Patricia nominated themselves as the vertically challenged to do the brews whilst the others got cleaning to the higher heights!

We are pretty impressed with how clean the church is actually - Elizabeth took a look round for other potential tasks, cleaning wise or even leaves, gardening for future and it is all looking well looked after! We will of course offer our services for anything in future if needed. We did all the entrance windows, found some signs to clean and the outside pains of glass where reachable.

20 mins later, we could all enjoy a quick drink (and typically a couple of our friendly lot found some singers to have a little natter to!) before hitting the road again.

Return leg was just the direct route back for tonight - Don't worry folks, there will be some good chances to work on distance and pace in coming weeks!

Wow - This was a biggie and it was completed with a lot of help and hard work on the night!

This was a different type of task for Goodgym Poole.

So here is the story - A local gentleman, Mr Couzens asked the council if he could plant a bluebell wood opposite his flat in memory of his wife who had passed away a few years ago. They had done this and a few clumps of bluebells had come up but not the spread he had hoped for. He asked the council if he could have some more planted but they were not able to do this. Mr Couzens was happy to pay for the bulbs but is housebound so unable to plant or assist with planting and so the council approach us at Godogym to see if we can do the planting.

The initial contact came through a runner who also joined us tonight for her first Goodgym run - Judith - who was last seen running into the darkness on the return leg with Richard who I hear was on dinner duty! Even Shelley could not beat these two back to Daveena's even though she did half the distance in her Fiat 500!

For those who have come to Goodgym before, we usually have a task owner who meets us at the task and directs us, so this was a little different and took a lot more planning with equipment and bulbs!

So first of all big shout out to the support crew helping to make this happen tonight! Lisa, who usually goes to Goodgym Bournemouth, came to the task for 6.30 so she could set up the task for us. Patricia, who thought she maybe injured, agreed to take all the bulbs, tools and lights to the task ready for 6.30pm so it could be ready for us all. Thank you for her husband for helping too! Louise, (a qualified leader) who had never yet got to a Goodgym, met a group of runners at a mid way point so they could take a shorter route. Elizabeth, collected a bag of tools from all her gardening friends, labelled them and leaving for me to collect for Pat to take to task. Even my mum's garage was emptied of garden tools (thanks mum!) Both Lisa and Louise met at the task on Saturday so we could take a daylight look at the wood as it was feeling a little overwhelming knowing where to start with this.

To add to the planning, our planned local supplier was not able to give us the bulbs needed and on Saturday it was a last minute order from Amazon Prime to get it delivered in time. The bulbs arrived at 2pm on the day of the task so it was a pretty nerve wracking morning.

Due to the number of bulbs that needed planting it was important to get as many people as possible to attend so there was three groups. An opportunity to come direct to the task for any non runners, A shorter run meeting half way and the usual group going from Daveena's as usual.

It was great to turn up after 5km run to the task, to see already 10 or so runners with lights in the wood working in pairs, planting away! Considering it is halloween this week, there was a slightly creepy air at times to see these moving lights amongst the darkness, not knowing who it was until you were closer. There was a shout from Elizabeth at one point to say, she had still not found the body, lets hope no one was passing at that point! ;) Sam, who had brought along her husband (purely to stand with a light!) was seen holding up a wriggling worm at one point giving a slightly creepy look with the light behind it!

We did have one spectator and that was from the balcony opposite which was Mr Couzens appartment!

It was very much get on and plant tonight and pairs worked closely together, a bag of bulbs between them, a tool or two and a head torch! As we got towards 30 minutes, first timers Mel and Nicki, were a little concerned they were the only ones with a big bag left! But quickly distributed amongst other runners, it was getting apparent that we would be able to finish! Last bag or so left and a handful each and 5 minutes later they were all planted! So there we have it - an empty box, bits of paperbags, a few broken tools from an over zealous runner (Lisa!!!) and 3000 bulbs had been planted!

On the side note - It was a slightly odd look to see Nicki and Judith running down the road, holding their own trowels in their hands!

Welcome to our other new runners Melody and Sally for finally making it down to join us! Kirsty, another local run leader also joined us at the task (thank goodness as meant she could take all the equipment back!). Finally one of the Poole parkrun core team members Mel came down! Bring a total of 8 new runners tonight.

Well done everyone for all efforts, it really was a complete team effort to make it happen.

We cannot wait till next spring to go back and see how the bluebells are growing!

PS: Once again my photo skills were lacking but it's dark, bulbs aren't pretty and we wanted to plant a lot of them! 😁