We turned TWO (well officially its on Wednesday)… but we decided to celebrate it with a training session supporting #runwithpride and a community mission - all good things come in two’s! and a few days early…

Read our superstar runner Harsha’s report here on our epic run today : - https://www.goodgym.org/reports/somewhere-over-the-rainbow-goodgym-fly

Two-riffic Two

The absolute best thing about being the Area Activator for Slough is having the team that we have. There’s an age old saying that there is no I in TEAM and that’s especially true when you get involved in Goodgym. The comradery, the friendships formed, the company of different people on tasks and the feel good factor of knowing you have done something good for someone else is what keeps bringing us all back.

There are two things that stick in my mind about our second year. The first one was our epic win at the Get Berkshire Active Awards and the second is COVID-19!

2020 is going to be known as the year pre-lockdown and post-lockdown type of year…Lets look at the pre first!

Nineteen going on Twenty

In the pre world we did 30 Group runs…taking on new task owners such as the Air Cadets and Wexham Parish Hall, we hit milestones (more about that later), attracted new runners and lost a few to other areas (Rachel and Michelle…we still miss you!)

• Jean wrote a beautiful poem
• Sandy delivered her epic speech at the 10 Year Goodgym Birthday celebrations
• We beat the boat
• Had that Ealing Feeling
• Reached 1000 Good Deeds
• Did a Spartan Sprint - Aroo
• Had three Goodgym babies (they just kept popping out)
• A few too many merry nights out
• Did 137 good deeds in January alone
• Won an award! Did I mention that?

Goodgym Bag an Award (GBA Awards)

Life is not all about winning, but sometimes you know you deserve it and boy did we deserve this win!. Getting all glammed up and going to a posh(ish) Hotel with a kinda free bar…for most that would have been enough, but we were there for the win and I think we make an impression! No way we were going to ‘pipe down’!

And the award for Physical Activity for Health goes to…..

Roar, cheer, clap….. what did he say? Goodgym Slough? Best go on stage and get that award then..

20/20 Covid and out

If Coronavirus was a race it would be an Ultra Marathon that you :-

• Didn’t sign up for
• Didn’t train for
• Didn’t want to do
• Didn’t have enough food for
• Didn’t have enough loo roll for
• One where you hit a brick wall every few km’s
• No supporters en route
• Water stations with no water
• And definitely no goody bag or finishers medal

What kind of race is this!

When that initial email came out in mid March from the central team saying we had to suspend all running activities, we thought our days were numbered. No more running, no more group activities, no more face to face coach runs…ziltch, nada, zero, diddly-squat, iota. You can keep your corona….I’m like Jack more!

Mission (im)possible

The lockdown period could be seen as a make or break type of situation…and for us it made us stronger. Prior to C-19 we had hardly any older person missions. The referrals just weren’t coming in. We then went from just 4 in our first year of operating to 33 just in the lockdown period alone!

Sut, Sara, Jen, Ifhaz, Anthony and Chris must take the credit for these. Beds moved, gardens cleared, endless shopping and prescription tasks…even cat food was on the menu…purrrfect!

It good two talk

Harsha, Nisha, Chrissy, Jen, Sut, Naomi, Jenny and I have been making weekly calls to shielding residents now since March. These are very much like our coach calls expect not all are older persons.

With each one of these calls one thing we can safely say is that they put life into perspective.

Stories of homelessness, domestic abuse, loneliness, dementia, chronic illnesses, cancer to name just a few!

The one that sticks out though is the extra effort Jenny went to on VE Day, when she called her gentleman back and had a long chat with him all about this life as a soldier. He was upset at not being able to out on the parade like he had in previous years. No doubt that call from Jenny would have made his day.

Abs-tract training

Exercising went viral! Zoom, You-Tube, Insta Live was the way to go. In total we did 13 training sessions where we:

• Danced with Tanya, Sahib, Moby and Pharell – Cos we got the moves..
• Did alphabet challenges – as easy as A B C
• Decked up for the cards challenge – got trumped
• Flipped coins - easy peasy
• Elimin8ed ourselves – bloody hard!
• Core-some effot in the month of May
• Chased delivery vans, police cars, ambulances in our key worker challenge
• S’miled all round our Slough Half Marathon (race that wasn’t a race)
• 128k in the bag with our Pride Birthday Run

And to top it off we won TWO of the June training challenges!

Zoom Zoom lets shake the room!

We did fortnightly quizzes which started off with the old-fashioned way…one quiz master, 20 questions and pen/paper. This slowly evolved to sharing screen, presentations, 40 questions, catch 22, KAHOOT and even an epic scavenger hunt.

Jen seemed to be on top leader board for most of the quizzes, followed by Sara, Keira and Ciaran.

Sut and I were happy at the bottom….its much closer to the ground down here..though I was on top form for the GG rounds…its just 1980 I struggled with.

Running laps around us

Early on in lockdown, Jean told me that she wanted to keep up with the running but as she’s our national treasure, she wasn’t taking the risk of going out so she would do all her runs in her back garden.

Each day she increased the number of laps she was doing by 1 and because Jean is Jean she wanted to still give back to those in need, so we set up a fundraising page supporting Thames Hospice.

By the time lockdown restrictions eased, Jean had ran 3570 laps raising a whopping £1323!

It’s a numbers game

A year of milestones!

• Ricky, Darren, Sandy, Milly, Kam, Pam, Meera and Sara all joined the 50 Club
• Nisha and Jen hit 50 during lockdown
• Sut reached 100 in July
• Emily hit 100 last week with her almost daily missions in Ealing during lockdown
• And I hit 200 on Wednesday

Special mention time: Sara, Sut and Emily have done so much to help their local communities with almost daily mission tasks – Our Hero’s!

To put it into perspective…Sara achieved her 50th Good Deed milestone on 9th March 2020 (that’s around 20 months since launch) yet in lockdown alone she’s racked up a massive additional 39 good deeds! Amaze-balls! 100 is coming to get ya!

Mascot competition

It was a no brainer really wasn’t it….One of our three babies had to win the mascot competition. Sut-Min came a close 4th, but the single googly eye was too much from the cornea of my eye to handle.

Happy Birthday Two You

As part of this Super Sunday Birthday Celebrations we did a community litter pick. Whilst the first wave of runners were out for their Boris’ Den….the man alive teams were out getting plenty in their 20 minutes of picking! Each team picked and plogged their way around the park, doubling up as Cheerleaders with pickers as pom poms!

Happy 2nd Birthday to us!

Sum-azing Stats!

I like statistics and clearly bingo so here are our stats for Year 2 – see if you can work them out (if you read the report…there are some clues in there)

• Missions (one off tasks for older persons) – Dirty knee
• Missions (well being calls) – Turn on the screw
• Community Missions – (Hit me baby) One more time
• Coach visits/calls – PC
• Training sessions – Unlucky for some
• Group Runs – Dirty Gertie
• Awards ceremony – Kelly’s Eye
• Quizzes – Garden Gate

In total we’ve done over 1700 Good Deeds….There is no Bingo number for that but in Goodgym terms….Stop the press, Look away, Bazinga, Put your phone away, Feel it and BOOM! Its an EPIC number of Goodness!

Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers who have made #TeamGGSlough the success that it is.

Looking forward to seeing what our third year brings for us..

Manjit x

Super Sunday

Sunday is a day of rest but not for Goodgym Slough with 21 runners taking on our 100km team challenge to celebrate Pride and our 2nd Birthday. With the success of our Slough Half Marathon Relay we wanted to get out as a team, follow the social distancing measures and arrange something for all abilities. Manjit mentioned the idea of a team challenge with distances from 2.5Km, 5km and 10km and everyone put up their virtual hand. We understand the importance of exercise for physical and mental health and taking part as a community is at the heart and soul of Goodgym Slough. So in true Goodgym Slough and Pride style we got our colours on and celebrated the rainbow.

Stride with Pride

The rainbow colors reflect both the immense diversity and the unity of the LGBTQ community. With pride events cancelled due to Covid 19 we wanted to show our support and celebrate. And the team didn’t let us down with rainbow socks from Sut and Nisha and rainbow sweatbands from Rosin and Keira. And ohhh the tutut’s well done Sut, Milly, Ruth, Manjit for bringing some cheers. However I have to mention my favourite outfits were Sara rainbow wig (it really did suit her), Suts rainbow bowtie, Sandy’s amazing cloud and rainbow leggings and her spinning hat and the wonderful Jean who outdid us all and had sown homemade bunting to the bottom of her Goodgym t-shirt.

He's coming home, he's coming, Ricky's coming home

Manjit and myself got to Upton Court Park bright and early to set up the event and got a few kms in to get the ball rolling. Ricky joined us and was encouraged to add some rainbow face painting to his completely black outfit. Ricky has been training for London Marathon and is unsure if the event will go ahead. However he has been doing longer runs in the weekend so wanted get in 21km’s and help towards our 100km goal.

Do we relay have to do a warm up?

We split out the runners into groups based on distance and to ensure we had enough space and kept socially distanced from each other. Everyone was given a briefing and before we started Manjit had a warm up for us. We thought it would be a bit of a light stretch however she had something else in mind and set us off in 3 teams with a relay including, heel kicks, side steps and sprints….. we are a competitive bunch and everyone went out in full force…. It was great cheering each other on and getting our hearts pumping.

We had a running plan

Ricky took out the first team with Ciaran, Jenni, Pete and Nit running 10km so off they go! Meera and Nisha also set off for one lap of the park. All our other runners were keen to complete 5km so they were put into 2 teams with Sut’s team running clockwise and my team running anti-clockwise. This ensured there was sufficient social distancing and runners could cheer each other on as they passed them. It was great to see the community together and a lot of our runners actually said they did more km’s than they would have if they had been on a solo run.

S'miles all round

The atmosphere was electric and the air was filled with positive vibes. Some members have found it difficult to stay motivated during lockdown with races and events cancelled and having the community behind you keeps you going with our team target of 100km everyone kept pushing on. We totalled a 128.5km’s and everyone did really well, it was great to be part of something together and what a great birthday celebration.

Somewhere over the rainbow Goodgym fly, they fly over the rainbow... Why then oh why can't I.

You can! Come and join us... Sign up with Goodgym Slough

Our task this evening was at one of our favourite local schools, Ryvers Primary School. We have done a few tasks here over the past year mainly in their learning garden, however tonight’s task was to revamp the playground area for the Reception and Year 1 children.

What's the time Mr Wolf?

I had a slight timing issue in getting to Salt Hill on time today so our two Run Leaders Ricky and Darren took charge and led the runners to the task location. Thank you guys for stepping in today.

With Chrissy (and bump) on walk leader role today, a few of us got to the task location to meet Meera and Helen, our task owners and get our heads around the task in order. By the time the runners got there we had some kind of plan of action.

Decimals have a point

And so did Meera with the ‘if it looks like it needs to go in the skip, then it needs to go in the skip’. Fair point, Meera. Don’t think anyone was going to disobey you tonight.

So we split into four teams and undertook the following tasks:

• Lifters and shifters
• Weeders
• Sweepers
• Sorters

To be honest, I’m not sure where Chrissy took the lifters – all I saw was a bike shed (?), but I’m guessing some level of activity was happening behind there!

The weeders couldn’t quite get into the fenced off area due to the HUGE spiders…oh wait they were just leaves, but none the less, Antonio was not going to risk it. However a great job was done on clearing all the weeds growing out of the drain pipes and ground in general. Pam, as always got stuck right into her gardening task – and she looked happy from her head to her tomatoes with her efforts.

Roisin and Emma were on sweeping duty – so many bits and bobs needed sweeping and both had the right idea of ‘sweepers keepers’…although why Emma didn’t want to keep the baby dolls, I do not know!

Denise, Chrissy, Meera and Louisa were on sorting duty. A few tough decisions made on what to keep and what to skip…with Chrissy and Denise both expecting soon, we think the ‘nesting’ phase may have started a little bit too soon.

Using a broken pencil is pointless

Within 40 minutes, the whole Reception/Year 1 area had been re-vamped. What wasn’t needed was skipped, weeds were pulled, broken toys were discarded and the whole play area was swept clean.

These children are going to be bowled over with their new play area – they are going to be so bright that the teachers will have to wear shades.

Meera and Helen were wheely happy with everything we achieved today.

Next week we are back at Parvaaz helping with their garden and car park areas. It’s a short 2km each way run/walk so please do come along.

Having the thyme of our lives

Now we've had the thyme of our lights... No I've never dug like this before... yes I swear it was Ruth... and I glow it all to you...

#EARTHHOUR

To celebrate Earth Hour 14 Goodgymer's descended on Hilton T5 to support their lights down event

Sut and Manjit took over a table at reception to spread the Goodgym word whilst the rest of the team helped plant some herbs that the hotel could regenerate and reuse within the kitchens

There was rosemary, parsley, lemon thyme and regular thyme

The team potted and planted in quick thyme and within 10 minutes they were back... I think the lure of drinks in the bar helped the speedy souls

At Earth Hour we all got together with our glow sticks and candles for the lights down event

I then did a reenactment of my last report and facts on plastics .. one change by each of us will have some positive impact on our Earth...

Well done to everyone for coming down, especially to Gauri for her first mission with us and to Sandy for burning the midnight oil and still making it to our Community Mission

So what do you do when you finish a parkrun takeover?

You go and little pick the park of course!

14 of us donned our gloves, put our nose pegs on and strolled down Upton Court Park to clear away as much trash as we could

When you have done a few of these litter pick tasks you kind of now what is coming up in the deep dark depths of the bushes...We expect the cans, the glass bottles, the crisp packets. What takes us by surprise each time are the knickers and wetwipes placed strategically next the said knickers and the boxers in the same vacinity! Clearly good times have been had.. but please! Dont be a critter , next time, take your smalls, warts and anything else you have kindly decided to share with the public and go do your deed elsewhere!

I can't tell you that we found any treasure (if we had I wouldn't be typing this report, I'd be off to Heathrow to catch a flight)...but what we did find was enough litter to fill 11 bags!

Oh and we also found the Slough Olympic flame! Ciaran, please can Active Slough now organise the Slough Olympics! We have the torch bearing team ready and waiting

Thank you to all our runners who stayed on to help with this task...true legends!

PS - We just smashed our January Good Deeds Challenge! 99 and counting!

19 Goodgymers did what 1,000’s of people do every Saturday morning…we volunteered as high vis heroes at our local parkrun at Upton Court Park.

I love a parkrun and try to come down as often as I can. I’ve thought about volunteering in the past however the desire to beat my last parkrun time always makes me want to run instead!

Today, however, we did the deed! Got out of bed earlier than usual and made our way to Upton Court Park. Michael was on Run Director duty today which was great for us as he’s joined us in many a Goodgym session.

With all the duties highlighted, key Health and Safety information digested, we were ready for the runners to start.

In true parkrun style I’m going to share some key facts about our high vis heroes today…they probably aren’t aware of some of these (amazing what you can find out by having a little snoop on the parkrun website)

The Timekeepers:

Harbhajan is in the 250 club for parkrun! We are in awe of you! It will take me 10 years to catch up with you!

Kam is on a 4:1 ratio, 4 times a parkrun volunteer and 1 times a parkrun runner....and a whopping 17 timer Goodgymer

The Finisher Token Giver

Ciaran only did 2 parkruns in 2018 but still achieved 1st place in both runs! How does that happen? Superstar status comes to mind…

The Barcode Scanners and Token Sorter

Sara is a 8 timer parkrunner and now 3 timer Goodgymer…Sara, like me needs a 5km just to warm up, so she’s eagerly awaiting a 10k parkrun to start

Darren’s 1st parkrun was 3rd March 2018 where he got a first timer PB of 35:09 and now 11 months on he is on a sub 25 PB. Darren, a bit like his running debut with Run With Active Slough, has made a massive impact within Goodgym. He is now one of our taskforce members and has completed 17 Good Deeds with us.

So bizarrely, Ricky’s 1st parkrun at Upton was also on the 3rd March 2018! Though we didn’t know Ricky then. Ricky is chasing his 50th parkrun and well on the way to also getting his 50th Goodgym T-shirt too…clearly, its all about the free tops

The Marshals and the Photographers

Sandy and Ruth are TWINS - they both have a parkrun PB of exactly 32 mins! And would you Adam and Eve it, they are on exactly the same number of Goodgym Good Deeds! A clear bond between these two soul sisters

A couple of weeks ago Meera was a virgin….now she’s a fully fledged parkrunner…well done Meera on your 1st parkrun a couple of weeks ago

Jenni is our good deed extraordinaire! She’s now done over 100 Goodgym good deeds and has earnt her wings...she will be flying soon! She’s a 11 timer parkrunner.. like her Goodgyming, she’s not fussed where she parkruns. She has spread her parkrunning over 7 parkrun locations.

Sutyee is my ever improving prodigy! She only started running last year and now is on 36 parkruns…in 2018 she achieved more PB’s than anyone I know

James – this guy is a legend in his own right. He’s on 234 parkruns! He may be on a ‘break’ from running but we know he will be back with vengeance and get his 250 very soon.

The Tailwalkers

Chrissy is chasing her sub 30! She’s so close. Tip – don’t run with Pete! He just holds you back. Chrissy is also one of our long term team members…she’s on 14 Good Deeds now and well on her way to her black T-shirt

Keira ran the exact same times in her parkrun in Sept 18 and October 18 – that’s pretty impressive! She’s on a 6 time parkrun roll and 11 times Goodgym roll

The Clear Up Man

Pete has being doing parkrun alphabet – he currently spells BUD in this endeavours… Pete has done 41 parkruns and we are slowly but surely getting him initiated into the Goodgym team…he’s on number 3 now

The Promoters

Harsha…well! What can I say about this lady’s running? She’s more a Spartan than a parkrunner, definitely a do gooder with all her Wolfpack challenges… a pleasure to have on the running team be it parkrun or Goodgym

Emma – This was Emma’s first trip to parkrun at Upton. Emma’s main sports are Netball and Rugby so she was well at home today in the club

My highest gender position has been 5! Darn those 4 faster ladies! I’m chasing my 50th (not in age!!!), 25 parkruns to go…though I reckon my next free t-shirt will be the black 50 Goodgym one..

A great start to the day, so good to see parkrun from the other side! Amazing to watch all the runners coming through the finisher’s tunnel with the look of pure grit and determination. Been a parkrunner may times but never been on the marshalling side. Massive kudos to all the volunteers at every parkrun who make it happen! And the added bonus of Upton Court parkrun is the tea/coffee/bacon sarnies available to purchase in the Rugby club…so next time you are free on a Saturday morning, why not give marshalling a chai! And have a look at the volunteer roster to see what you can muster…