*The sun shines on GoodGym Worthing

On a sunny and breezy evening we all convened at Splashpoint for a pre run chat and catch up . It was especially nice to welcome some familiar faces back in the shape of Elisa ,Roisin and Duncan together with 3 new ones, Sue ,Alex and Martin . A special mention to my top regular duo Belinda and Gill who were unavoidably detained at the last minute . You were both missed . A huge GG cheer is coming to all of you good people :)

*Dying to get there

Wowser ! After a warm up round through the town the group arrived promptly and eagerly awaiting our first visit to Heene Cemetery in St Michael's road. We were given a warm welcome from Sue and Peter who are organisers of the friends of Heene cemetery and also from our trusty park ranger , Duncan.

*There was a lot of soul searching and 'raking the dead ( grass)'

There were plenty of tasks and plenty of people this evening which was a joy for me to be part of. We set about raking the recently strimmed grass with plenty of wheelbarrow shuttles to dispose of the grass. This was combined with chopping up previous pruning activity as well as sieving soil for back filling of the graves which have subsided in time.

*Everyone, including the locals entered into the spirit of the task

There was the usual warm glow from everyone this evening and absolutely no grave talk whatsoever :) Beth was up to her usual antics climbing in to a wheelbarrow for a ride with Nick encouraging her!

After a busy and fruitful 35 mins we finished with some group photos , applause and thanks before setting off for a run back along the seafront culminating in a fitness session in Beach house gardens.

• Stars in the making

The fitness session was short but sharp this evening with a series of lamppost and tree sprints together with some slippery mountain climbers , star jumps , squats and plank work with some dodgy hip mobility moves thrown in for fun.

Many thanks to all my team this evening ! Another wonderful GG experience .

You all make my Mondays ! Looking forward to the next one already and I hope to see you all there.

Julia

:) :) :)

Banishing bindweed in Victoria Park was tonight’s task and we had a go at some ivy whilst we were at it!

We ran a steady 2 km run to Victoria Park, during which Gill told us about the Lunatic marathon she completed at the weekend. Named as such as it is run at night by the light of the moon! Crazy if you ask me!! But blimmin' well done to Gill for doing it and loving every minute of it.

We were met by Duncan & Heather who set us to work on what looked like a solid hedge of bindweed. But 30 minutes and 2 huge builder’s sacks of bindweed later the shrub emerged from underneath. As did a toad, spotted by newly qualified run leader Beth.

We spent some time thinking of the pun which in the end was a group effort, I think Belinda came up with ‘Ivy damned’ and on someone suggesting we get Victoria in there, we emerged Victoria’s with tonight’s effort. That meant my brain was released from the toil of endless searching for rhymes and puns (bind, mind, find, weed, need seed, ties that bind…don’t bind if i do… bind over matter… hmm.. worthy Worthing, swerving over to Worthing…..) ah sweet release!!!

As Gill was understandably a bit cream crackered from the weekend and Belinda’s foot is a bit dodge we decided to keep the run short and go for some fitness work in the park. We worked on our balance and stability with some one legged squats, single leg deadlifts and what I call Impatient Ponies! They really helped us keep stable! (Thanks Beth!) Then some core work courtesy of Mr Tabata we headed back the way we came with a couple of extra efforts for the fresh legged Michelle & Beth.

And we stopped for some angelic photos on the way back.

Thanks for having me Worthing, please come and see us in Brighton soon.