This morning was our annual January Saturday Group Run. It felt strange doing a Group Run this time of year in daylight.

A few people had come straight from Parkrun, that is good dedication!

Congratulations Jasmine who was completing her 50th good deed!

Once we arrived at EACH Charity Shop, they were very organised in giving us specific roles, this helped so it didn't end up just being a free for all in a tight for space shop.

There were lots of tasks to do: culling old stock, sorting hangers, re-organising the book shelf, steaming clothes (Elizabeth), sorting new donations and more!

Time flew by and before we knew it we'd been there for 45 minutes so it was time to head off... not before Katy proved that the January Challenge was successful in losing weight as you can see by her jeans in the photo haha.

On Monday we are visiting Ellacombe Care Home.

It's bank holiday, it's rained most of the day, Norwich City had their promotion parade in the city - you think everyone would go home and put their feet up for the evening... but no, not the 23 amazing volunteers who wanted to do a litter pick on Marriott's Way to make the city cleaner.

It was Becky and Laurie's 1st GoodGym experience so a big welcome to them both.

Hayley has now completed 50 good deeds so a black t-shirt should be on its way to you soon.

It was great to see Darren and Jen back after their virgin marathons at London and Bungay.

Being a shorter distance task tonight, there was a walk option so Robert kindly volunteered to be Walk Leader with Catherine/Katy back runners for the running pack.

We arrived on Marriott's Way to see their lovely new entrance gate, styled like a railway station like it used to be years ago. Adrian from Friends of Train Wood met us there with litter pickers, gloves and bin bags.

The team assembled into pairs and off they went round different parts to collect as much litter as they could. It was a difficult task as lots of the nettles and greenery have suddenly shot up over the last 2 weeks, making it more difficult to spot the lurking litter.

One group did find a little party area full of interesting things, one which influenced the pun but I shall not go into anymore details on that!

45 minutes later the team reassembled at the starting point and gathered all of the bags of rubbish ready for the council to collect.

We still had around 20 minutes so we ran up Grapes Hill on the way back before finishing in Chapelfield Gardens for the time trial, which we hadn't done for a while. Just as I was about to get the group lined up, Katy kindly reminded me last time we did it she said she would time it next time so I could run it... much to my original disgust haha, it was quite nice to actually be able to have a go at it myself.

At the end of the session, Bill & Katy handed out some of their home grown rhubarb before Bill found an old photo of him that looks like a spitting image of Elliott, so we all know what Elliott will look like when he's 70!

Next week we're visiting Eaton Park.

Hmmm you must be thinking what on earth did GoodGym Norwich get up to this evening...

... well continue to read and you'll find out.

It was our last Group Run of 2018 and what an unbelievable year it has been, I can't wait for the exciting community groups and projects we'll help out in 2019.

Laurence was making his 1st GoodGym appearance so a big welcome!

Tonight's task was to visit The Feed to make mince pies (now you get the pun yeah?) which they are selling at an event tomorrow.

Katy and Calum led the runners so myself and fellow cold/cough victim Sandra could walk... get your violins out for us.

Lucy greeted us there and explained the process. Each runner washed their hands and then off to their stations they went, which included greasing trays, making pastry shapes, DEEP filling the pies with mince meat, putting the lids on (look out for the photo of the GoodGym mince pies), preparing the boxes, loading the boxes with mince pies, dusting them with icing sugar, putting allergen details in the boxes and labelling them also. You never probably thought there was such a process to it

After the mince pies were put in the oven, most of the gang were left taskless, what could they possibly do? Light Bulb Moment - they could go and run up Gas Hill and back again... so off they went with sheer excitement and 15 mins later they returned with beaming smiles on their faces.

At this point the mince pies were cooking thick and fast (not related to the pun). We managed to get more boxed up and after having a taster of them (I have to say they were bl00dy delicious!) we headed back to The Forum and Katy led the stretches.

Thanks again for an awesome 2018.

For those of you I won't see at the Community Mission on Wednesday, have a Merry Christmas and see you in 2019.

Hats off to Darren for the pun this week. It was a tight call between that and...

Oh my, look at the girth of that wood.

There were 2 tasks tonight. Myself and the bulk of the group were heading to Cooper Lane Scout Hut to help clear a fallen tree (see where the other pun idea came from) and Catherine took a small group to Grapes Hill Community Garden to help them prep for Norwich in Bloom.

We had 5 new runners this evening in Kevin, Maddy, Zara, Martin and Didier.

A good warm up was needed before both groups headed off, for some reason it felt really cold last night after weeks of glorious warmthness.

So it was time to say an emotional farewell to the smaller group as we embarked on routes on opposite sides of the city for the evening.

My group seemed to fly by on one of our quickest journeys... we found out why later as on the way back it all seemed to be uphill!

We arrived at Cooper Lane Scout Hut and Alun had tools already laid out by a large fallen tree, the job was to chop and break it up and move it to a different area. It took no time at all for the GoodGym-ers to be in full swing and there was wood flapping about left, right and centre.

I turned my back for 1 minute and in that time Jack managed to trip over and land butt-down in some stinging nettles... ouchy, but as always he took it like a man.

The smaller group on the other hand were enjoying doing some weeding and a litter pick and were also treated some lovely refreshments.

We arrived back about 5 minutes later than them but Beks took them through some Yoga.

Next week we're visiting Redmayne View Care Home.

Tonight's run was part of Coops Fortnight and the job in hand was to go and clean each of the 50 GoGoHares that are scattered across the city centre.

It was quite an emotional evening as it was Tom and Sarah's final good deed before they jet off to New Zealand for their future lives. It's been a pleasure having you both with us and you will be greatly missed by everyone.

We had 5 new runners this week in Jacob, David, Fleur, Kate & Cyrus.

A well done to Sam and Jack on doing their 10th good deed this evening.

I did then make the group aware that we had a photographer at the start taking photos for an EDP article and it wasn't just a random guy taking photos of everyone haha.

After the warm up the 35 GoodGym-ers were put into 6 groups and allocated certain GoGoHares to clean from the plan I'd made earlier, luckily I did make a plan otherwise they could have ended up running anywhere! Each group had around 8-9 GoGoHares to clean between them to cover the whole 50. One group headed to Riverside area, one to the Catholic Cathedral area, one to the Norwich Cathedral area, one to the Norwich Museum area, one around The Forum and the other around Chapelfields.

After all the groups set off I was stuck between the decision of going to watch the football down the pub (jokes) or try and find each group... I headed to the train station with the photographer to get some photos of the Coop sponsored GoGoHare then stumbled across 2 of the groups on my way back.

Once all the groups returned I beasted them through a fitness session (to help burn off the calories consumed at the GoodGym Norwich 1st BBQ party yesterday), which was our 1st for a while and we finished with a stretch.

Another great task was completed. Enjoy the photos of the GoGoHares.

Next week we have 2 tasks to do!

This week marked Norwich GoodyGym’s 1st birthday.

Soon it will be walking, talking and heading off in to the big bad world, forgetting those who raised it, loved it and cared for it. Still we thought we would mark this momentous occasion with a little BBQ. We headed to our Grand Poobah’s home/mini estate and got down to business. Mountains of salad was revealed, from pasta and potato to rice and barley (we are right fancy and varied here in Norfolk). Tonnes of meat and vegan substitute burgers complimented the flowing drinks and witty repartee. With the sun out, the swing ball set up and Steve on the barby, we were all set for the best group task we’ve done to date.

After eating our weight in food we relaxed on blankets, under a shady oak to listen to Steve relive some of our favourite GoodGym moments, puns and runs. After a jog down memory lane Steve awarded Jasmine with “most improved runner”, whilst Bill and Katy won “GoodGym-er of the year”. Well-deserved all around. Unbeknownst to Steve, the team had went behind his back to make him a special card and thank you bag in recognition of all the effort he has put in to help create our wonderful running family.

Leaving the sappy stuff behind, it was time to get stuck into some games. A hybrid game of relay sack croquet was under way, with rules too convoluted for any to follow. However, if you were hungering for drama you need have looked no further than the mӧllky field. No idea what mӧllky is?! Well neither did we. Still it created a level of excitement and drama on par to the most tense world cup final. So if you still haven’t googled mӧllky, you probably should.

With the afternoon finally winding down we unveiled the deserts! A lovely summer pudding was provided by Bill and Katy, and two cakes were baked by Calum. To celebrate Sarah and Tom moving to New Zealand next week (with some travelling first mind you) one of the cakes featured a kiwi. Some say the cake contained actual kiwi bird, but these claims have remained unsubstantiated. Still there were mutters that the GoodGym birthday cake was too delicious for words, and birthday orders have already been placed.

With GoodGym’s birthday well and truly celebrated, the team finished their epic game of mӧllky (because a good mӧllky game takes hours) and retired, weary but happy, to their homes. Resting so they are prepared for tomorrows run.

P.s. – With Tom and Sarah leaving our running family I wanted to leave you with this:

Somehow you'll escape all that waiting and staying. You'll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you'll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you're those kind of a guys. And will they succeed? Yes! They will indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed!)

Calum wrote all of the above by the way.

... racing through the all terrain; and I just can't contain, the weeding that remains.

More bank holiday shenanigans this evening with a great turnout of 21, probably our bank holiday record.

We welcomed 3 more new runners in Trevor, Justine and Phillippa.

Bill volunteered to be backrunner.

Tonight's task was helping out at Marlpit Community Gardens, a nice 4.25km each way trip (I did buy biscuits as a motivational tool).

I was very impressed in the time it took us to get there, a sign that everyone is improving their running ability.

On arrival we dished out some hoes and shears and got weeding, a trimming.

40 minutes later there was heck of a lot of weeds etc. turfed up and massive pile had been formed... very impressive indeed.

On the journey back we stopped for a bit of flossing, which in my case was probably the worst flossing you will see so don't worry, have a go at it because you'll never look as silly as I did... I think someone called me a massive flosser.

To top off the longer run we finished up with Grapes Hill before stretching it out at The Forum and of course topped off with a biscuit or two.

Next week is our longest run as we head to The Grow Organisation in Bowthorpe.