Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Wayne had to drop out of today's Brutal race event, which was scheduled as a training session for Woking Good Gym members. Fortunately, James stepped up as the run leader, allowing Kirsty to participate in her first 5K Brutal event while wearing her Good Gym t-shirt. He also agreed to transport Kirsty and Eva to and from Spider Hill in Aldershot and thoughtfully brought bananas and gels for both of them to consume before and after the race.

Kirsty and Eva were feeling extremely nervous as the event start time approached. Neither of them was sure what to expect, so they naturally assumed the worst possible course lay ahead. James reassured them that they could complete the 5K race distance and advised them to pick up their feet and run with high knees to avoid tripping or falling. This reminded Eva of the nursery rhyme "The Grand Old Duke of York," and they all agreed to sing it whenever a section of the route felt particularly tough. While the girls waited in the warm car, James went to the registration tent to collect everyone's run chips and sign them in.

At 9:45 AM, everyone left the comfort of the warm car and completed some warm-up exercises ahead of the 10 AM event start time. Grateful that the temperature had risen to 9 degrees and pretending not to notice the wind and rain, Kirsty and Eva began the 5K route while James took on the 10K route. Brutal events are known for offering tough off-road running, featuring water, mud, and hills. Spider Hill is a challenging course with many elevations, the highest of which reaches 197 meters! The group sang "The Grand Old Duke of York" during the climbs and descents, because, of course, you can't run down hills without first running up them. There was some debate about whether it was harder to run uphill or downhill. The terrain was tough without trail shoes, which Eva didn’t have, but she managed to stick close to Kirsty during the sharp descents.

In addition to the hills and the mud (there was so much mud), there was a section called Alligator Swamp. This stinky lake had no alligators but featured water that reached waist height. James had gleefully informed the girls that Alligator Swamp had been frozen the day before. They all took a deep breath and waded through it, thinking that ice baths are supposed to be good for you, right?

Forty-three minutes after starting, Kirsty and Eva finished the 5K distance to thunderous applause—or maybe that was just the sound of their teeth chattering! Together, they celebrated their first (and perhaps only?) Brutal event and cheered James to the finish line, which he crossed just 32 minutes later, with a 10K finish time of 1 hour and 14 minutes. All three of them, now very cold and soaking wet, had just enough time for a couple of quick photos before piling back into James' car to compare notes.

Leaflet Drop For Sam Beare Hospice

On this cold freezing night 9 GG members met to deliver leaflets for Sam Beare Hospice.

A big welcome to Viktoriia who we met at the volunteer for Woking event while she was there representing another charity. Viktoriia also happened to be a friend of Agathe 😀

Wayne, Adam, Katie, Alys, Agathe, Kirsty, Nadia, & Rebecca met at Woking leisure center all wrapped up 🥶

It was great seeing Rebecca who walked over to collect some leaflets to deliver, not quite ready to run as of yet after her surgery but not long now 😀.

After a warm up session by Adam which Quinn also got involved in 🐶 we headed out of the park towards Mount Hermon to hit the houses there we split up into two groups one on each side 🏃🏻‍♂️ including the Cul-du-Sacs.

It was so cold even with gloves it was very difficult & Wayne & Adam had shorts on the nutters 😮

Unfortunately we did not manage to do as many roads of we had planned due to the weather, but GG members between them will take leaflets and deliver them locally throughout the week and will also be handing them out on the weekend park runs until they have all gone 😀.

There was not a Good Gym task scheduled for us to participate in today. James decided tonight was the perfect opportunity to run an interval training session for us to participate in instead.

Unfortunately, the majority of Woking Good Gym were unable to attend the session for a variety of reasons and we hope our team mates who are unwell feel much better very soon!

Nadia and Kirsty overcame the temptation to remain at home and joined the interval training session held at Woking Park. After carefully listening to Nadia's personal goal of achieving a 30-minute parkrun James expertly and quickly calculated the correct running pace and distance both girls needed to complete during the interval training session to prepare them towards being able to achieve a 30-minute parkrun.

The session started with an easy pace jog covering a 2km distance to warm up (a Junior parkrun 2 laps of Woking Park). Nadia and Kirsty both listened intently to James as he explained the science behind the training.

Now completely warmed up, the intrepid threesome began the interval session. The intervals consisted of running 30 repetitions of 150m at a 5 minute km pace with a 10-second period of recovery in between each interval. Nadia and Kirsty quickly became suspicious about whether the 10-second brief respite breaks given were actually 10-seconds, it seems they were but to the girls who were adjusting to running at a faster pace than usual it didn't feel like it!

Nadia quickly regretted wearing her waterproof jacket and knitted headband while Kirsty regretted encouraging Nadia to set herself the challenge of achieving a 30-minute park run as this formed the basis for the training James had planned for the session!

Nadia's stamina and mental strength impressed the group as she managed to complete all 30 of the intervals without extending any of the 10-second rest breaks.

When Nadia first joined Good Gym Woking she declared she was not a runner, well, as so often happens at Good Gym Woking, she most definitely is now!

Kirsty completed 26 repetitions having decided to extend several of her 10-second respite breaks.

James proved a very entertaining and informative run leader as he shared his knowledge of 'the science' behind the session he had planned.

This was nicely distracting and interesting for his rapt audience; James also instructed them in guided breathing techniques and insisted on seeing them run with high knees to maximise both their performance and endurance.

'We don't pant at Good Gym!'. He was incredibly supportive and encouraging throughout the session and when the session was complete the endorphins were flooding everyone's systems.

Both girls expressed their gratitude to James for giving up his time tonight to plan and lead a session designed to help them improve their fitness and confidence and felt surprised and proud of their runs which totalled approximately 8 km covered in less than 50 minutes.

At the end of the session, James who has a running shoe collection Imelda Marcus would envy encouraged the girls to purchase some new running shoes to set them up for hitting sub-30 minute parkruns at Battersea park run on the 7th of December.

He has shared his discount code with Good Gym Woking so be sure to check his top pick out!

Upcoming Good Gym opportunities for members to sign up to include a gardening task at the Church of St John the Baptist on Saturday, Junior parkrun volunteering on Sunday morning (and every Sunday morning), All Aboard Club for SEN children also on Sunday.

Leaflet dropping for Sam Beare Hospice on Wednesday 20 November.

Thank you to all the members of this community-led Good Gym for promoting and organising so many events in support of local causes.

Don't forget to sign up for the 'Run up to Christmas' campaign to raise funds for mental health charities.

Please be aware this campaign has a cost of £17 per entry, but you will have the choice of receiving a participant medal or donating the contribution to the charity. Be sure to check the session page frequently as it is constantly being updated thanks to so many people's efforts.