A whopping 24 runners turned up to GoodGym this evening!

An amazing turnout of 24 runners showed up to GoodGym tonight - A fantastic number! A HUGE welcome to Katie, from GoodGym Barnett/Camden and MASSIVE welcome to Peter who was joining GoodGym for his FIRST EVER GoodGym run - We always love seeing new faces at GoodGym. Don't forget to bring your mates / family members... we want them all to come!

Ben, the trainer of GoodGym was very considerate of the current climate and so, instead of shaking everyone's hand when they arrived, he bumped their elbows, as advised by health experts! At the start of the run, Ben also reminded everyone of the current guidelines re: attending GoodGym activities. You can view the guidelines by clicking here. NB: As this is a rapidly changing situation, GoodGym are constantly monitoring this to ensure they are responsive to the latest advice.

Welsh Dave led a warm up that involved no physical contact! He was very mindful of the current climate. He had planned a warm-up that involved passing a ball over heads and between legs, however changed the plan in the final hour to minimise the risks of germs spreading. What a hero!

Acknowledgments

• Mikey led a fantastic run on the weekend to help set up the international women's day banquet at the Wales Millennium Centre.
• Nathan took part in a race over the weekend - Woopee! He is really loving his races.

Let's run to the task

After Welsh Dave got everyone warmed up, it was time to head to Grangemoor Park, the entrance to the park located by Ikea. Welsh Dave led the speedy group and Ben led more of a relaxed pace group. Despite the task being about 2 miles away, it wasn't long before we had all arrived with our high levels of enthusiasm ready for the task that lay before us.

*Welcome GoodGym! Tonight's task will involve cutting back the overgrown bushes and litterpicking *

Claire from Sustrans gave us a very warm welcome. Sustrans is a UK walking and cycling charity and custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created 16,575 miles of signed cycle routes throughout the UK including 5,273 mi of traffic-free paths - Pretty cool eh!?!

Claire then armed the first group that arrived with litter picking tools and provided the second group that arrived with tools to cut back the overgrowth. Emma was in fierce combat with the thorny bushes that's for sure, and despite an anxious wait to see who would win, Emma was able to cut back the overgrowth and claim victory.

We spent a total of 30 minutes helping and after this time you could tell we had made a huge impact. The bushes were no longer encroaching onto the paths and the hedges, now free of litter, were looking GORGEOUS!

We had a LOVELY group photo with some of the other Sustrans volunteers.

Thank you so much GoodGym

Claire thanked us for our hard efforts. She then bid us farewell before we ran back to Big Moose. We then ran back, navigating the streets of Grangetown, turning left then turning right, it was quite a maze, actually!

Once we had arrived back at Big Moose it was time to warm down and reflect on the run. We did our stretches whilst discussing what we enjoyed about the run and what was coming up at GoodGym over the next few weeks.

After the run we headed for post run drinks and a chat (AKA. Drinkypoos).

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2020 Tweet Off

Unfortunately Martin did not win the tweet off this week. Marie took this birthday present opportunity from him! Good luck for next week everyone. Let's see if someone else can get on the leaderboard.

• MOH - 6
• MJ - 4
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

This week Lowri came up with the Pun! A HUGE well done to you. Da Iawn!

• BA - 5
• MO- 1
• IH - 1
• EW - 2
• AS - 3
• MG - 1
• GD -1
• LD -1

Can you spot all of the Oasis song titles? - There are quite a few!

It was wonderwall to see so many runners at GoodGym this evening. There were 22 in fact!

We gradually did our warm up this evening. progressively making the warm ups more active, little by little some might say. We played a game of 'Captain's coming', A fantastic game that gets hearts racing and ready for exercise.

We said a humongous welcome to Lexi who joined us this week for her FIRST EVER GoodGym run! Lexi is from America and was introduced to GoodGym by Skye. This means Skye has earned herself a red lace #LifesGoals #FashionAccessory

Ben also mentioned some important information relating to the coronavirus and the current outbreak that is causing concern All Around The World as it is no longer half the world away. Click here to read about the GoodGym information concerning coronavirus.

Achievements this week

• A huge well done to Lucy who ran a half marathon in Paris despite the Paris Half marathon event being canceled due to the Coronavirus concerns. #RunNoMatterWhat
• A MASSIVE well done to Mikey who was presented with his 250 good deed t-shirt (Check out the photos - It looks good!) #250Legend
• Lowri has no reached 100 good deeds!!! Llongyfarchiadau. Lowri has earned her wings and this evening ran with the multicoloured wings #WhatAStar
• Imy made the most scrumptious Welsh Cakes for St. David's day for us all to try - There was vegan and non-vegan... Nom Nom Nom!

Let's get our run on

Ellen led the walk runners and Ben led those who wanted more of a continuous running pace.

Let's get good deeding!

Share Bower, our task organiser this week, unfortunately wasn't able to be at the centre to do the Talk Tonight (explain about the charity itself), however Ben explained on her behalf. Ben also explained that Share Bower actually gave us a reason to run when we helped out Cardiff Foodbank in early 2019.

Anyway, this week's task was to help advertise one of Oasis Cardiff's upcoming events by handing out leaflets to the local community. Oasis Cardiff is an non profit charity that aims to help Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Cardiff. The aim of Oasis main aim and vision is to help Refugees and Asylum Seekers integrate within their local community. Not only do they encourage integration within our own community and culture but they are also keen to learn and be inspired by the cultures and traditions of the individuals who use the facilities at Oasis.

Inspired by the Oasis initiative we couldn't wait to get stuck in. We split into 2 separate groups and then quickly got stuck into the task. It was Darren's team vs. Ellen and Ben's team. The question was... who could post all the leaflets the quickest?

Darren's team got back first! Wow, speedy work... Supersonic work, even! Well done guys. Ellen and Ben's team got distracted by a husky... It was worth the distraction though, Ben said, who is a BIG lover of huskies.

Fitness exercise

After handing out leaflets promoting Oasis runners were then invited to decide individually whether they wanted to do the normal, but still challenging fitness activity, or up the ante and do the more difficult one. After runners decided which group they wanted to be in the task was then announced. It was the Bring Sally up, Bring Sally down challenge. Normal = Squats; Increased Difficulty = Press ups. Doing this activity felt like 10 minutes and certainly not 3 minutes 24 seconds. It was painful but we stopped crying our hearts out.

Time to go home!

Now it was time to head back. Running up and down many streets in Splott before reaching Newport road and continuing on into town.

After the run we headed to the Glassworks, as is the tradition, for post run drinks and a chat.

Anyway, don't go away! Join GoodGym again next week when we will be helping out Sustrans.

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2020 Tweet Off

Marie is back in the lead, for now! That won't sit well with Megan, though, who will up her game next week. Good luck for next week everyone. Let's see if someone else can get on the leaderboard.

• MOH - 5
• MJ - 4
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

This week Lowri came up with the Pun! A HUGE well done to you. Da Iawn!

• LD
• BA - 4
• MO- 1
• IH - 1
• EW - 2
• AS - 3
• MG - 1
• GD -1

Happy Pancake Day

What is your favorite things to have with your pancake? As we did our headcount, each runner shared with the group what their favorite topping was to accompany their pancake. Stuart loves to have spicy beans with his pancake, whereas I like blueberries and cream... nom nom nom! Lowri even made pancakes for the run this week, using her grandmother's secret recipe! The feedback was unanimously positive - Diolch yn fawr Lowri.

Achievements

• Mikey reached 250 good deeds - soon he will be getting a GoodGym knighthood. It's super tough to keep up with all of these milestones.
• Lucy, Ellen, Emma, Darren, Nathan and Martin all ran half marathons on the weekend. Some of them are still recovering. We are so proud of you all.
• On the weekend there was a community mission cleanup in Bute Park - There was an overwhelming positive response from the Cardiff community who are all super impressed with our efforts. Read about it here

Let's get our run on

This evening, Ellen led the walk running group, Ben led those wanting a more relaxed pace and Darren led the speedy runners!

We've arrived

Lorraine greeted us with a warm welcome. She invited us in for a drink of water to rehydrate and after a couple of minutes then brought us into the hall area. Lorraine told us that the centre is currently celebrating the Tibetan New Year, also known as Lhochhar. Lorraine facilitated a 5 minute mindfulness practice with the group.

Our tasks this evening included:

• Weeding
• Painting the doors of the flats
• Painting the banisters in the building
• Hoovering the steps
• Planting Strawberry Plants

We managed to do all of the above within 30 minutes - Lorraine and Yin were both super impressed!

Memorable moments during tonight's task:

• I have this horn that I occasionally use for fitness exercises at GoodGym. Whilst in conversation with Lorraine the horn fell out of my pocket and onto the floor, Lorraine said "What on earth is that?" to which I replied in a manner that tried to normalize the situation "It's my horn."
• Sue's legs dangling from the attic... and I set Lorraine the challenge of identifying who's legs they were
• Do you have another memorable moment from the run? Write it in the comments below!

It's time to head back

As much as we love helping at Samye, we can't stay there all night (However they do have 2 vacant flats at the moment).

After the run we went for drinkypoos at the Glassworks.

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2020 Tweet Off

Marie has upped her game and scored another point by retweeting first this week.

• MJ - 4
• MOH - 4
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

This week Imy and Marie collaboratively came up with the pun for the run! Wooppeee. Well done. A point to each of you!

• BA - 4
• MO- 1
• IH - 1
• EW - 2
• AS - 3
• MG - 1
• GD -1

Whatever the weather... we shall attend GoodGym together!

The weather at the moment is VERY Welsh. Within the past 2 weeks we have had 2 storms, Ciara and Dennis, and it feels as though the rain has been non stop! Today Cardiff had more rain but, undeterred by this, 34 runners showed up to GoodGym ready to walk/run to do good!

Welsh Dave started the warm up this week. He got everyone doing high knees, butt kicks, side steps, you name it he did it. We had 4 new runners this week! A HUGE welcome to Sylvie, Beatrice, Bethan and Helene :D It was so lovely having you join this week and we really hope you come back!

Achievements this week

• A HUGE well done to Nathan who has reached the 100 good deed milestone!
• Congratulations to Ted who earned himself a red lace for bringing a friend to GG this week #LifesGoals
• Welsh Dave and Matt got engaged - Congratulations :D
• Darren turned 40 - but he doesn't look it!

Let's head to the task!

This week we planned to meet Ash Wales, our task organisers, at Cardiff Castle. To get warmed up, we had a 10 minute run before meeting there.

Hello GoodGym, we are the Charity 'Ash Wales'. It is lovely to meet you!

Kimberly greeted us at Cardiff's iconic landmark, Cardiff Castle. She was there with her team from Ash Wales. They had warm smiles on their faces which warmed us all up in the cold weather conditions. Kimberly then told us about Ash Wales and explained to us that the Ash Wales charity aims to increase awareness of the health, social and economic effects of smoking in Wales - The mission of Ash Wales is to achieve a smokefree Wales!

Did you know? 83% of the population of Wales is smoke free and, of those who smoke, 60% want to quit.

The Ash Wales team then kitted us up with gloves, bags and cigarette butt picker uppers. It was safe to say we looked like a force to be reckoned with.

Before heading off we had a quick group photo... Smiles! And, of course, HANDS IN THE AIR! hahaha

Off we go!

Continuing in the 4 teams, each group still led by Ben, Aimee, Welsh Dave and Ellen, we began picking the cigarette butts off the streets of Cardiff. Each group targeted different areas of Cardiff city centre. Ben's group went down Womanby Street. Nathan, with his wings, was flying around from butt to butt, just like when he plays his Pokemon Go, he was collecting them all!

"I couldn't believe how many cigarette butts there were. We could have spent the whole of the time on just one street" One of the runners said.

Thank you GoodGym

The whole of the Ash Wales team thanked us for our efforts. They said they couldn't wait to team up with us again in hopefully warmer and less wet weather conditions.

After we stretched to cool down, Nathan reminded everyone that we go for "drinkypoos" at the Glassworks to celebrate doing good in the community, Peter and Nathan both brought delicious treats this week which we subsequently devoured at the pub... Nom Nom Nom!

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2020 Tweet Off

Jiminy cricket - Marie is a fighter! Well done Marie for retweeting quickest this week. Let's see if next week someone else can get their name on the leaderboard.

• MJ - 4
• MOH - 3
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

A triple whammy! The combined efforts of Ben, Andrew and Martin made this weeks pun possible, a point for each of you!

• BA - 4
• EW - 2
• AS - 3
• MG - 1
• GD -1

All hail GoodGym Cardiff

Being prepared is about expecting the unexpected. And today, unexpectedly, the unexpected that we expected happened, Unfortunately the YMCA couldn't have us help there this evening.

Let's get warmed up

Runners ran up and down the street outside Big Moose, touching the wall by Trespass and then Prince Harry. Runners then did butt kicks, high knees and some old style 90's dance moves to get warmed up.

We run as one!

We headed to the Samye Foundation as a group, Ben led the way and Emma backmarked. Seconds after we started running it started hailing.

The good deeds this week

This week Mikey and Welsh Dave were leading plogs. 'Litter'ally the best people for the job! Ben looked after the runners helping at the Samye Foundation.

A message from Lorraine

Unfortunately Lorraine couldn't be at the Samye Foundation this evening to give us our tasks, however Lorraine had wrote out a list of tasks for us to complete. There is a picture of the tasks she had for us in the slide show above. Unfortunately, due to mother nature, we were unable to do much of the painting tasks.

Our tasks this evening included:

• Hoovering the office and stairwell in the first building
• Installing tarpaulin on the shed in the back garden
• Weeding
• Tidying the side of the building and more!

Whilst some of the walkers/runners were doing this at Mindfulness centre, Mikey and Welsh Dave both set off leading 2 separate groups to litterpick the streets of Riverside and Pontcanna. They managed to collect over 5 bags of litter combined - What a superb effort!

That's a wrap!

After helping out for 25 minutes the time had come for us to run off and back to Big Moose. After arriving back the time had come to warm back.

After the run, as per usual, walkers/runners headed to the Glassworks pubs for drinkypoos.

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2020 Tweet Off

WAHOO! Megan you have won the tweet off FOUR consecutive times and are extending your lead. Marie is going to have to up her game. It looks like we are going to have a new winner this year!

• MJ - 4
• MOH - 2
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

Woopahhhhhh Ben,yes that's me, came up with the pun for the run this week!

• BA - 3
• EW - 2
• AS - 2
• GD -1