An inside task in January? Yes please!

11 started from The Showroom and once at Ship Shape we met up with an additional 2 runners to make 13 on tonights run.

We met with Nur who told us all about Ship Shape's fantastic work in the community and how we could help. We got straight to it with the following tasks:

1. Vinyl wrapping the ladies bathroom to make them sparkle!
2. Putting up mirrors in the bathrooms and taking some time to reflect..
3. Screwing table legs to make broken tables good again.
4. Sorting the activity/food bank room so the table tennis/wiff waff/ping pong table can be used again.

When we left the pingers table was clear and good to go, the toilets sparkling, the tables well and truely screwed and the mirrors looking incredible (or was that just our reflections).

Into the night once more we ran and back to base to stretch off and rehydrate.

Until next time, happy running :)

The task at hand this evening was to leaflet for Hope in Community. They are opening a new charity shop in a matter of days and want to get the word out about what they do The leaflets we were to distribute were picked up from Peter before the run, instead of picking up mid run as previously planned, so as to save time. We had around 400 leaflets to deliver with two different ones to be posted through each door. Thinking that this would amount to around 100 leaflets each, however the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and we ended up with more attendees than expected; not that this is a bad thing mind, quite the opposite! It simply meant that we would finish a wee bit earlier than expected.

Don't flyer too close to the sun!

The ironic adage (pun) of 'don't flyer too close to the sun' sprang to mind, though there wasn't much chance of this happening tonight! When did we last even see the sun up here in the north?!

I had planned a route to cover the streets just north of Locke Park, so we started our delivery run with a long uphill effort climbing Racecommon Road; never the easiest start so good job running up this straight out of the gates everyone! We paused at Longcar Lane where the leaflets were handed out to each goodgymer, along with a map of the planned route. Our first dwellings to deliver to were in Blenheim Gardens, just off of Longcar Lane. We split into to teams of 'high-flyers', each taking a different side of the road, and made our way around the crescent to rejoin Longcar further along it's route. We then carried on along Longcar Ln until Blenheim Rd which we worked our way up, turning left at the top and posting along the A6133 before turning left down Locke Ave; we then turned right back onto Longcar Ln and right again onto Park Grove, posting to all houses we passed. We delivered down Spencer St, turning left onto St John's Rd, left along Park St, down Charles St, left again onto St John's Rd, right onto Nursery St and right again onto Castle St before running out of leaflets.

Thinking outside the letterbox

Some houses this evening, as usual, presented challenges. They either didn't have letterboxes (which forced us to think outside of the letterbox) or we had to avoid door-guarding dogs snapping at our fingertips! Though, for the most part, I suspect that their barks are worse than their bites... says the 7-fingered man!

Upon completing our route the gang were given a choice of fitness activities, and a choice of two locations within which to do them. The choices included timed wall-sits, the 'Sally Up' challenge doing tricep dips, press-ups/planks or squats. We could do these in Locke Park, mid-run, or back near Glasshouse in Sparrow Park. The wall-sits were quickly vetoed and it was agreed to be preferable to do the exercise session near the finish in a blaze of glory! Sally's sparrow dips were now on the menu/agenda.

On reaching Sparrow Park we scouted out a couple of benches to tricep-dip on (or press-up if you're called James!) and fired up 'Bring Sally Up' on the mini-boombox. We completed the 3 minutes and 30 seconds of 'fun' then, upon finishing the challenge, we immediately got back into the stress positions to pose for photographs... sorry guys!

After this pump-session it was unanimously decided to stretch off in the park. Celine led a couple of stretches to start with, utilizing the shelter to get some raised leg work in. James then took over for the usual array of running stretches- shoulders, triceps, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, hip flexors, iliotibial bands, piriformis, glutes and adductors.

Thanks to everyone for attending and to Celine for back-marking us splendidly!

Also, why not take a leaflet out of my book and visit the Hope in Community website? www.hopeincommunity.co.uk We'll be back with them next month for an alternative task.

Keep racking up the miles and deeds for the January Challenge everyone, and I'll see you for more fun running next week!

This week we were back up at Heeley People's Park to help Parky Rob with air-rating the grass on the top field before he soed it with grass and sand to keep the birds away and to help with drainage.

We got straight to it after an excellent demo from Rob, shaking and wiggling to make the most of each stab into the grass.

After a good while we downed tools and moved on, stopping via an underpass for some paired work that involved wall sits and hill sprints, always good fun!

Once back at base we stretched off and head home.

Until next time, happy running :)

5 glorious goodgymers gathered gleefully to garden at the YMCA allotment. Unfortunately, the folks from the YMCA were unable to join us as our visit coincided with their monthly meeting, but we were left instructions on what was to be done along with a handy map.

There were two specified jobs on the cards for the evening:

1. Moving bricks from the side of the site where the old polytunnel used to be and stacking them near the fence at the far end of the site.
2. Chopping back the stalks of willow overhanging the pavement.

First off, we got to moving the bricks. As a chain-gang we formed a line to pass the bricks from Point A to Point B. This was a distance of around 3 meters which suited us dandily; the 5 of us fitted this space perfectly as a rock moving chain! Charly picked the rocks, passed them to James, who passed them to Kirsty, who passed them to Rosie, who passed them to Celine to restack.

It was wall to wall fun!

Relocation of bricks achieved; it was onto task 2: willow chopping. We gathered loppers, secateurs, and containers from the lock-up and hit the road(side). The stalks of willow border the pavement by the road and the overhanging ones were to be chopped back. Kirsty and Celine were chief wall-straddlers chopping at the top. Branching out in other roles Rosie and Charly were terrestrially chopping, gathering and bucketing up the lopped branches. Another task in the bag (bucket), and we still had a little time left... time for a spontaneous task 3: weeding a section of the woodchipped path in between the raised beds. With trowels and trugs, we uprooted the unwelcome weeds, getting to the root of the problem!

We got to the root of the problem!

No rest for the wicked though, we packed up tools, locked up and headed off up the road to Penny Pie Park for some fitness frolicking. We ran through the park to the exercise equipment, and everyone took up a place on the 4-person multigym (except coach/timekeeper Jim). Each person did 30 seconds on a piece before rotating round to the next until all folk had done all pieces of equipment. After this it was getting down to the wire, the evening getting ever darker, but we thought it only right to have a mess around on the zipwire adjacent before leaving for the all-downhill run to Sparrow Park stretching zone.

Once at the pocket park, all of the key muscles we used during the evening were stretched off, some announcements chatted about and then goodbyes for another week were said.

Until next time!