Tonight’s task was working alongside our lovely Town Councillor, Hazel Faddes. We’ve done quite a few tasks in the Crewe area that support the part of the town that Hazel looks after. Hazel works so hard on behalf of the people in her local area and she really does go the extra mile – she really gets stuck in with the projects she’s supporting, so it was a pleasure to be able to help her with this task tonight and to try and help make an impact to a local alleyway that is in need of some TLC.

Maurice, Nicola, Hazel and Phoenix got stuck into the weeding. It was quite an undertaking and even though we were small in numbers, we made a fair dent into the weeds. The idea of helping to improve this alleyway is to try and encourage residents to look after the area that they live in, and in particular, the small section outside their own back gates. Hazel did a sterling job of trying to recruit the residents to help and one man did actually get stuck into the weeding for a while.

We had a good natter as we worked, chatted about all sorts, studied various insects that Phoenix found, and did a bit of motorcycle dodging! All in all, it was a happy and productive night. AND….. the rain held off – mostly. Just the odd bit of drizzle but not enough to write home about!

Well done everyone. It was lovely to spend the evening with you all.

Have a great week. Lots of love, Nicola xxx

It was lovely to be back at Goodgym this evening for our weekly fix with our lovely bunch of members – all eager to get running and get helping once again.

Karen, Nigel, Maurice and I met at Coronation Crescent where we did our warmup before heading out for our run. The weather still felt warm and muggy but obviously nowhere near as hot as it had been the week before thank goodness. Tonight, we did a completely different route to anything we’ve done before… we took on some lovely country lanes (bit of a busy road but we survived! Eek!!). It was 3.5 km in total, so I’ve rounded up to 4 for the report! 😉 Well, it’s not my fault that the system doesn’t let me put in 3.5!

We had a chatty run – it was nice to catch up with Maurice after him being away for on his holidays.

Back at the task, it was lovely to join up with Hazel and Phoenix as well as a couple of lovely residents who’d popped out to help. The task tonight was to help to clear an area at the back of the local shops/flats. Unfortunately, this area has been prone to some antisocial behaviour and the area had become untidy and uncared for. Some of the work had already been done by amazing local residents, so our job tonight was to help with the weeding and general tidying up. We set to work with our trowels, spades and weeding tools and within an hour had made quite a difference. We cleared most of the weeds and filled the brown bin!

As always, it was a lovely, chatty, social evening in lovely company. The rain held off until just at the very end when we felt a few small drops starting to come down.

Well done everyone – amazing as always! Look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Have a great week. Love always, Nicola xxx

Welcome

Firslty, a huge welcome to our new runners this evening, Louise, Daniel and Suzanne. We hope you enjoyed your first run and that you'll be back for more. We hope to see you in your lovely red T-Shirts soon!

Get Your Marigolds On! Our evening started with a fun balloon relay on the green (that sounds rather posh!). Two teams, one headed up by Alex and the other by Louise. A bit of sprinting with a bit of balloon clenching and some star jumps and high knees thrown in for good measure. The relay was a close call, so we called it a draw (a real cop out on my part!).

We headed off on our run (a very indirect route to make the miles up!). Again, blessed with lovely weather! We arrived at Jubilee house and had a lovely welcome from Gill at the Wishing Well Project. We had a quick induction to the kitchen (did she really say it serves a whopping 160 meals a day?!) and some of the work they do there. We donned our Marigolds (I thought the purple ones were particularly fetching!) and cracked on. A real team effort in cleaning all the tiles and surfaces. As always, a lovely group of people creating a lovely atmosphere. Tonight saw Jazz posing as the Statue of Liberty with her nice colander hat and Chris who looked like he was about to be extracted up the cooker hood! (he wasn't!!). We completed the task and left the tiles gleaming.

We took a shorter route home via 'The Rocky Steps' and we did our fitness session - tricep dips, some wall push-ups and some step aerobics! Everyone joined in and embraced the exercises (high five!!).

Thank You Huge thank you to Pam and Barry for being our back markers tonight and for the awesome support to other runners. Huge kudos goes to Alex for being the first person brave enough to try the 'sweaty' flapjacks! Eek! Thanks Alex! Lol!

Dates for your Diary We will be heading back to the Wishing Well Project next week (via another different route!) to tidy up the outside of the building including cleaning the windows etc. Please bring a head torch if you have one. AND, DON'T FORGET - it's our first social, so for those who would like to, we'll be heading to Hops Bar after our cool down for our first post run tipple (or soft drink!). Hope you'll join us. Oh, and it will almost be Halloween, so there's going to be some spooky fun too!

9th November - Parkrun Takeover - please let me know if you're attending so that I can add you to the roster - thank you.

Good Luck Good luck to Phil who is running a half marathon this weekend. Please do let us know if you're taking part in races etc, so that we can support and celebrate with you. We will be looking at doing some GoodGym races in the coming months, so let me know if there's something particular that you fancy. We'll probably do Crewe Parkrun as a warm up event.

I really do love Wednesday nights and hanging out with such a totally awesome bunch of people.

Have a fab week everyone.

Love and hugs to you all

See you soon, Nicola xxx

23 Volunteers (including one slightly nervous Trainer) were super excited for the launch of GoodGym Crewe tonight!!

Runners & Walkers gathered at the (lovely & warm) Town Council offices in the Town Centre in anticipation of the very first run for GoodGym Crewe. We were extremely lucky to have the Mayor of Cheshire East, Barry Burkhill in attendance, along with Mayor of Crewe Town Council, Benn Minshall and Councillor Jill Rhodes. We really appreciate you taking the time to join us on this very special evening.

Wall of Honour

• A huge shout out to John Putt who completed the Berlin Marathon on Sunday in spite of an ongoing injury. John, you are an inspiration!
• Mega Kudos to everyone who came and completed their first GoodGym run tonight (which was pretty much everyone!!) and in particular, to those who really pushed themselves out of their running comfort zones.

And We're Off We started the evening with a warm up on the green of the lovely Christchurch right next to our start location. Everyone had a laugh at Nicola's expense when she realised she couldn't work out which way was clockwise!! We then headed off to our task with John & Rich leading the walkers and Nicola & Ed leading and back marking the runners. We were blessed with wonderful weather and were lucky enough to see a beautiful sunset as we ran through the streets.

The task in hand was to clean up the front of Ruskin Community High School as well as the pavements along the road outside the school. With all hands to the pump, shovels and rakes at the ready, we cleared the moss, swept the leaves, unblocked the drains and picked litter. The greatest haul of all on the litter pick was a pair of trainers found by Jazz - we left those on the wall with the hope of sparing a student a stern telling off from his or her parents!!! Everyone did a sterling job and the team work and camaraderie was a delight to see. When it came to clearing away the rubbish, John pulled it out of the bag with his Spiderman impression ;-)

We finished the task with a short fitness session (counting in 3 different languages while we did - you're impressed, I can tell!) before we headed back to base for our cool down. I think it's fair to say that a great night was had by all.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone that has made GoodGym Crewe Possible. We are thrilled to be at the start of this incredible journey and look forward to many more successful and fun Group Runs.

Next Week We hope you can join us for next week's task when we will be working with the Lighthouse Centre sorting clothes for the homeless. Many hands make light work......

Have a great weekend everyone.

Nicola X