Well done to everyone who helped out at the Maidenhead Easter Ten race. The sun shone, we welcomed GoodGym Portsmouth to Maidenhead, we had a great time helping out, and we had lots of positive comments and smiles from runners.

Sheila, Diya and Kanika joined me in cycling to the water station at mile 6. We did important jobs like decorating the hedge with bunting and making the GoodGym logo out of water cups, and even more important jobs like cheering on and hydrating lots of runners and picking up all the cups and other litter.

Mark was also on water duty, joining Maidenhead's Running Sisters (including our Gillian!) on their busy station, which supports runners at miles 1, 3 and 9. Welcome to Maidenhead Mark! We can't promise to send our MP to greet you every time but we might be able to conjure up Gillian again .

Kelley and Kate were on marshal duty. Kelley saved the day by heroically stepping into the lead marshal role at the last minute, and Kate did whatever her big sister Jen told her to do, since Jen (also a GoodGymer) was the Race Director.

Eggcellent work team!

4 helpful GoodGymers headed up to Tesco North Harbour to help collect donations for the food bank.

Lots of people were very generous and many trolleys were filled. Tesco also donate another 20% in addition to what's collected.

Great news for the Food Bank.

We'll need a li-down after all our hard work

On a hot and humid night we completed our longest run to a task so far - 4ish km each way. By the time you count the walking around at the task site it added up to a total distance of almost 10km. Well done team!

A big Portsmouth welcome to GoodGym for Jason, hope you enjoyed your first task.

This evening, Mel, Maura and Amanda led an advance party and got to the Lido before us. We were met by Sabrina who looks after the venue and was extremely grateful for any help we could give. We split into a watering team and a sanding team - all very appropriate for our seaside location. The water team transported cans of water to give the parched plants a good drink - there were a lot of plants! The sanding team got to work on the old paint of the Blue Lagoon ready for it to be given a new coat of paint. Most of the sand team ended up with blue hands to prove they'd been working hard. The volunteers who are at the site regularly were very thankful for our help. If you want to know more about the Lido, check out their website, there are even some pictures there from way back when which are fantastic - the diving board was epic!

The lure of the pool was too much for Michelle who jumped in - all for the big camera shot which my photography skills were not up to (sorry!). And Amanda and Andria stayed for a post-task swim - how many lengths did you do ladies?

We are back to the Lido again on the 25th July and 15th August (I will be listing that one on the website soon).

Next week it's our 10th Wednesday night group run! We have a shorter run to the foodbank, if you want to bring a couple of tins with you as donations they would be more than happy to accept them - one in each hand will give your arms a bit of a workout on the way down too. Our planned social afterwards will still be going ahead too whatever happens in the World Cup! We have been given permission to use the TV in our room to watch the 2nd half of the match if we want to.

Tonight we were joined by GoodGym tourists, Deb and Paul, all the way from Bristol. We hope you enjoyed your little tour of Portsmouth! Check out their GG profile pages if you want an idea of all the different badges you can earn!

Also welcome back to Elly and Mark who have been busy for the last few weeks working (Elly) and holidaying (Mark!). Good luck to you both for the summer XC next Wednesday. Shakira was missing tonight as she has an IT exam... we all sent positive clever vibes her way for that! 1110000111010100011 <- good luck in binary (maybe)

Despite thinking I had carried LOADS of flyers down to GoodGym, the dream team quickly got to work whizzing down the streets of Baffins and popping fun day flyers through the doors of local residents. Next week I will bring some more so that you can flyer your block of flats / street / work.

Holly also needs people to help set up at 9:30 and pack down at 3pm on the day (Saturday 21st July)... this will count towards your good deed totals if you sign up as a community mission (2 links above).

Holly has already left us this message:

You guys are all amazing!! Thank you so much for leaflet dropping!! Ickle Pickles rely heavily on volunteers and we really appreciate your support. We are only a small charity but the equipment the neonatal units receive is fantastic!!

The efficient execution of the task meant that we had plenty of time for a snake around Baffins Pond - frightening the ducks and geese in the process! And a mexican wave plank circle (no tequila). We then headed along New Road and George Street for some last flyer drops before finishing in the church yard for a little bit of sprints and core work. Topically, with it being the world cup and everything, we were joined in the sprints by Ronaldino in his Barcelona shirt - or a young local lad who took on the mantle of pace setter!

Next week is a relatively short run so if you know anyone who is new to running this would be a good one for them. And all runners who are more experienced will also get a chance to stretch out.... something for everyone!

A big GoodGym welcome to our new recruits tonight: Dan, Amber, Mel, Daisy, Rebecca, Kirsty and Lucy! And welcome back to Ashley, Elly, Mark, Jo and Alison - very nice to see you again. Great to see a couple of the red GoodGym T-shirts on display too!

This evening the majority of the group opted for the shorter run to Buckland Community Centre where we were put to work clearing the yard outside and moving lots of bags of rubbish all the way around the building to the bins. The super team were so efficient that we were also asked to clean round the front of the building and in the car park. Buckland Community Centre now looks clean and tidy from the outside! Thank you Mark for back marking (and coming up with this week's pun) - good luck to you and Elly at the Clanfield Challenge on Sunday.

Jo and Dan clocked up some mileage doing a leaflet drop in Southsea for the Ickle Pickles scavenger hunt. (It's on Sunday 24th June if you fancy going along - info here)

We finished off with a few little circuits to improve core and glute strength...

Next week we're on a garden clearing task at St Judes Primary School. Sign up here, see you then!

Welcome to GoodGym Portsmouth!

What a great first night we had. We started out from our new home at Fratton Community Centre with a brief send off from the Deputy Lord Mayor of Portsmouth - he'd even worn a bow tie for the occasion (OK, so it might have been for the dinner he was off to after he'd popped in to see us!)

After a brief warm up in the grounds of St Mary's Church we headed north to Manor Infant School where Ashley & Anna had plenty of things for us to do. Many hands set to work on the "Global Garden" - digging over old flower beds, weeding, rescuing plants, digging new beds, avoiding killing worms and snails. To make sure the garden didn't get all the attention there were also a couple of fences that needed painting - a group of ladies set to work on that along with George. And the playground boundary got a great clean up too.

Many hands make light work

I think we were all pleasantly surprised at just how much we managed to do in our 45 minutes. Newly painted fences, a garden looking tidier and ready for planting and let's not forget about the playground clear of dirt. Nice work everyone.

We ran back to the community centre via Kingston Rec and a 500m (or half a kilometer - sounds further!) time trial. Hopefully everyone will build up their fitness over the coming weeks so that the lap feels easier. Unfortunately the new playground still had children in it but I'm sure we will get a go sometime! Finally we did a few stretches and gained Dom's top tip for a quad stretch - imagine you're holding a pint.

Welcome to all the new runners (that's pretty much everyone) and I look forward to seeing you again for another run - please remember to sign up on the website!

Next week we're at Buckland or there's the option of a longer run to Southsea. Sign up here.

Don't forget to follow us on facebook or twitter and tell your friends about how much fun you had tonight! I will put more photos on facebook - please feel free to share any you took!

Happy running everyone, see you soon!