We are living in strange times, so it’s good to know that our GoodGym Family are always on hand, or to be more accurate, on WhatsApp when we need them. Group runs may be on hold for now, but that doesn’t stop us being physically distanced and socially close. After an impromptu non-group group run last week, when we pulled on our red tops almost on autopilot and headed out, on our own but sharing our runs on WhatsApp, we planned ahead this week. And just as well – with only one outdoor exercise session a day allowed at the moment, we wanted to make the most it and the beautiful spring sunshine.

So our virtual, non-group group gathering took shape…running, jogging or walking and particularly for those of us (all of us?) who need to take extra care of our health at the moment, some self-care too. With a constant stream of news, it’s good to take extra care of our mental health too – especially when we are missing out on meeting up and all the kindness and hugs that we normally share. Best hugger in the world Jo is going to be in high demand once we can all be together again!

You can’t have a group run without an icebreaker, and soon we were sharing our dream jobs…ranging from space cowboy to dustman to chocolate taster. Far more exciting though was news from Hannah and David…just what we needed to give us hope for the future! Congratulations!

And with that, we headed out on our solo runs, finding new routes, enjoying the evening sun and noticing that the pace of life has slowed and calmed with fewer cars and people out there. You may be running solo, but you’ll never run alone with GoodGym Swindon as pictures of runs came flooding in, quickly followed by news and pictures of wine, cake, illicit wine gums, and bargain pulled pork sausage rolls as we moved swiftly on to self-care.

There was even mention of pasta from Ann Summers but no photographic evidence was provided…you’ve got to get your carbs where you can these days!

By this point, we were in danger of RSI in our thumbs and breaking WhatsApp. An evening of very social social distancing had whizzed by. The Task Force is busy planning more shared activities, so don’t stray too far from your phone for news of these. Until then, stay home, keep safe, keep your distance, keep washing your hands, and if you can, do the new Coronavirus Safety Training here to support those who need support during the outbreak.

Twelve hardy souls braved the back end of storm Dennis to run the 8K to the familiar and a favourite venue, Swindon Shock Wheelchair Basketball Club for some wheelchair maintenance, touch up painting and a little surprise!

We gathered outside the Oasis to welcome first timer John and celebrate two new inductees, namely Paul and Lily into the 50 deeds club.

One ‘L” of an achievement, as the Romans would say!

The Ice Breaker related around the Magic Roundabout and what magical things brought people to Swindon and what is magical for those born and bred here. Responses, from those who moved to the town, ranged from easy access to countryside, mesmerized by employment opportunities within the council, closing of eyes and sticking a needle into a map to being near to a motorway!

Those born here were struggling to associate magic with Swindon, apart from the Town’s ability to make a lot of friends disappear to other locations when they were old enough.

We set off with ‘Safety First’ Simon leading the run, Jo back marking and plenty of good humour running in between.

With the threat of a flooded underpass we changed the usual route and ran past the County Ground, along Shrivenham Road, down Drakes Way and along Marlow Avenue to the venue.

We were greeted with a wheely warm welcome from Ben and Basketballer Wes who gave an overview of the club and our jobs for the evening.

We split, with some ad ‘shock’ touching up of the previously painted spectator area while others were given a chair, a pair of wheels, some cleaning equipment for basic wheelchair maintenance. Tracey soon found out the chairs are easier to move once the wheels are on!!

Once all the chairs were wiped, squirted and de-'pubed' we were given the opportunity to have a go for ourselves. Wes put us through our paces with a 'who can push in a straight line going forwards and backwards, before shooting practice'. The basket was not threatened, although Paul ‘the Scientist’ had a nifty ‘chair’ of hands when it came 3 point attempts!!

And then it was time for photos.

We soon realised it was easier for the group to position ourselves around Tracey, than for Tracey to reverse the 6 feet to get herself into position!!!

Next week we are heading to Age UK at Toothill Community Centre for some more painting. Why not check it out here and sign up today!

The intros this week were all about us sharing where we going on our holidays. Plenty of exciting plans; some relief for those who'd been thinking about China(!); and others who are still making plans but for now hot and distant shores remain, well, distant! We're looking forward to seeing lots of GoodGym t-shirts on tour this year! We have a Mission Run coming up and there was a call out for one more volunteer to pair up with Teresa on some unpacking as well as fitting a blind. Lily to the rescue and all sorted! We also welcomed Vic to her first Group Run. We hope you had a great night Vic and that this will be the first of many!

This is the busiest time of the year for our hosts, the Swindon Night Shelter. The Winter Housing Provision is set within the grounds of the Haven, and right up until the end of March there will be up to 12 guests staying at the centre each night. We have been asked to help out as there is lots of cleaning, especially window cleaning, to do.

Tonight we were led by Simon, backmarked by Sandy Sam and our walk leader was Trainer Emma. After a short run/walk through the busy town roads (it's always amusing to see the curious looks on people's faces when they see us!) we arrived at the Haven. Task one was to clean as many windows as possible, both inside and out, in the kitchen area and the gym. Photographic evidence suggests that having cleaned the windows, we may have got a little distracted by the gym equipment before we left! We'd add some barbell puns but those will have to weight!

Task two was to give the sleeping areas a bit of a clean. It's great to see this up and running as we've spent evenings in these rooms, in the days before there was even electricity, when they housed food and clothing donations. Now it's a functional but cosy sleeping space. Sadly, there had been a not insignificant water related incident! The carpets were being dried out as quickly as possible and the extra heating had caused some temporary tropical conditions. Carol asked for a few heat resistant volunteers. Sandy Sam and Tracey stepped forward, with offers to be relieved by the window cleaners if it got too much. It was a tad toasty but the carpet was almost dry so we were able to crack on with a bit of hoovering and washing up.

Another great task completed ...... but with a few unanswered questions:

1. Was the hoover turned on in that photo of Sandy Sam, or was it all an act for the camera? 📸

2. Can Jason really clean windows that fast? 💦

3. Just how much weight were Gaby and Rachel lifting? Rector Richard certainly looked impressed 💪

4. Is Tracey actually getting shorter? Lily seems to thinks so! 📏

Next week we'll be running approximately 8km in total; to Youth First and back, home of Swindon Shock Wheelcharir Basketball Club. We'll be painting part of the main hall that the team use to train in. We've done the red bits and blue bits and this time we will paint the green bits! On previous occasions we have had a lovely run out along the Eastern Flyer, a well-lit cycle path that follows some of the old canal route in Swindon. Something not to be missed! Sign up here

We proved we're a hardy bunch last week, battling through Storm Brendan, and braving the freezing temperatures at our takeover of Seven Fields parkrun. So the freezing temperatures and icy pavements weren't going to stop our group run to the Swindon MS and Neuro Therapy Centre - even if we did have to skate our way into the Oasis, our regular gathering point.

It was all worth it though to see the fab new GoodGym Swindon banner that will guide people to our meeting point and will help us promote GoodGym at events around Swindon. Thanks to Andrew for preparing it!

Following Blue Monday, we decided to have Red Tuesday and focus on positive things that had happened recently. Not surprisingly, running featured a lot - whether it was running or volunteering at parkrun and junior parkrun, long run Sundays or perhaps the start of a new run streak. There was also talk of trips to warmer climates, Jason's proud dad moment watching his son play rugby, Carly successfully delivering her project so she can run with us again, Richard The Vicar's excitement at being asked to marry a family friend he has known since she was two, and Lily's relief that her kettle still worked after boiling it dry!

With a warm glow from all this positivity, we headed out into the cold towards the Swindon MS and NeuroTherapy Centre, which offers a range of therapies and services to support those living with neurological conditions and there were plenty of jobs to do. What a contrast to our last group run there, which was on one of the hottest days of 2019 - no one was going to step up for an ice bucket challenge this time!

Given the icy conditions, one of jobs was to grit the pathway into the centre. Sam, Andrew and Gaby grabbed the shovels and got stuck in with gritted determination. Charles, Lily and Emma got stuck in to window cleaning and they smashed it (to be clear, the task and not the windows)! The rest of us took off our muddy shoes (revealing quite an assortment not socks...including odd ones to the horror of those who like structure and order) and got stuck in to scrubbing the floor of the gym. This really was a case of team work makes the dream work as we organised ourselves into scrubbers and moppers. We like to make the most of our fitness opportunities so while we were down on our hands and knees, we snuck in some yoga poses - pigeon pose and child's pose resulting in some unusual facial expressions from those around us...plenty of caption competition material for our next social!

Sadly Tracey's perfectly manicured nails, complete with GoodGym logo, didn't survive the evening but maybe she'll treat us to some more nail art next week? You'll have to join our run to Toothill Farmhouse to find out! More information can be found here. And if you can't wait that long for your next GoodGym fix, we will be supporting Brighter Futures on Saturday at the County Ground for our second Community Mission in January. Please sign up here if you can.

After all the rain of the last few weeks, which has left the new Seven Fields parkrun in Swindon underwater in parts, we were delighted to see the sun shining brightly this morning! Yes, it was frosty and a wee bit parky but with a GoodGym takeover planned, we knew the Ready Brek like glow of our (mostly) red tops would keep us warm!

This was the 9th Seven Fields parkrun and it was a real privilege for GoodGym Swindon to be asked to launch the pacing team and take over parkrun for the day. Together with friends from GoodGym Bristol – Melanie, Clo, and Darren, and Matt - we joined a Seven Fields record of 45 (yes, in true videprinter style, FORTY FIVE) volunteers who made sure the course was safe, first timers were briefed, and that we had a full complement of enthusiastic marshalls ready to hand out power boosting high fives, tailwalkers who multi-tasked with litter picking, funnel managers, time keepers and barcode scanners. Every week parkrun happens across the world thanks to thousands of volunteers – maybe you would like to be one? You can find out more here.

The first timers briefing on the grassy knoll was by Greg Wells, who also auditioned for the Royal Ballet, photobombing the GoodGym group photo with some very elegant (or so we were told) pirouetting. It was then time for Run Director Emma to bring her famous Lydiard parkrun silence to Seven Fields. Emma welcomed everyone to the run, including tourists and those achieving milestones, including GoodGym’s very own Tracey( who was celebrating her 50th (run, not birthday, just to be clear, Simon Sperring), Jo who was surprised to hear from Run Leader Sam that she had completed 50 good deeds, and Darren who joined the Cowell Club – he clearly likes to moo-ve around!

And with that we were off, 160 people running, jogging and walking the B route. Yes – that’s 160, an attendance record for Seven Fields, with 73 first timers. We hoped you enjoyed Seven Fields as much as we did and if it was your first parkrun, welcome to the family and we hope to see you again soon! Although it was a bit frosty underfoot, the marshalls did a fantastic job of making sure that we all stayed safe and encouraged us on our way. There was the odd bit of ice skating and a triple salchow or two – next call for some might be the Winter Olympics or Dancing on Ice? With Jo Stillman joining us for the day from Lydiard parkrun, every runner was loudly cheered home – I wonder if they could still hear you at Lydiard, Jo?! It must have worked as 25 people recorded new PBs – well done all! And, in case you missed it, though I’m pretty sure she told most people (they are very shy and retiring, the Wells family), Alex got token 106. Now it's in the report, maybe we won't hear any more about it?

Once everyone had made it back to base, it was time for a warming coffee for some while others sensibly decided to head off home into the warm. Fortunately, there were enough people around to help push the coffee van out of the mud – putting the Gym into GoodGym!

It was a fantastic morning – we loved it. Thank you to the Seven Fields Core Team for inviting us to join you, all the GoodGym volunteers, and all the runners, joggers and walkers who made it such a fabulous day. Please, please, please can we come back again soon for another takeover?