19 GoodGym runners went to The Nest project in Lower Weston to sort a small mountain of toddler clothes and accessories. We sorted the items and boxed them up. This means it will be a lot easier when families come to take the clothes at their weekly collection meetings. We ran 7.7km in total.

Welcome Sarah, Tara and Rebecca!

We welcomed three new runners to our group: Sarah, Tara and Rebecca. I hope you had fun last night and thanks for your help. I hope to see you again soon!

News

Before we left for our run I shared some upcoming GG events and news:

• We have a GG social at the beginning of March after the group run. Please sign up so we can book tables etc!
• At the weekend is the Dark Horse 5km/10km event that is being run by Relish Running. Several GG runners have signed up so there will be some friendly faces to enjoy a drink and hog roast with afterwards!
• We have a GG WhatsApp group which you are welcome to join

On with the task!

The Nest Project provides good quality, new and second-hand children’s clothes and equipment (age 0-5) completely free of charge. This service is available to anyone in BANES who needs it regardless of income, faith or background. They get lots of donations and it takes their staff and volunteers a long time to sort it all. Last night we organised the clothes into different categories based on age and gender. There was a huge assortment of items in there, most notably a batman outfit and a robin bib which we all thought were adorable!

It was a night that involved a great deal of team work and coordination to make sure we got everything done effectively in a small space! I was really happy how everyone clubbed together to get the job done. In just 35 minutes we filled up 18 boxes of categorised clothes!

After the task we headed to The Stable in Kingsmeade Square for a cider and pizza. Thanks to Rachel for organising - it was a great reward after a long run!

Thanks

Thanks to Rachel for backmarking and thanks to Beth and her team for hosting us. We will return again in March!

Last night we were originally due to paint and reorganise a communal space at Pathways, but due to a change of plans we ran to Odd Down Sports Ground to paint the inside of their community cafe and clean their children's toys. The route we took was essentially one big hill and were all pleased to complete a steep 7km training run.

Welcome, Sophie, Luke and Stephen!

When we met at the leisure centre we welcomed three runners to their first run with GoodGym Bath. Sophie and Luke have run with other GoodGym groups before and it was Stephen's first ever GoodGym event. It was great to have you all along to join us and thanks for your help. I hope we see you again soon!

Latest GG News

• Thanks to Phoebe and Rachel for representing us at a Community Mission at the weekend with Dry Arch Growers. You can read about what they achieved and the interesting wassail ceremony here.
• Rachel has kindly set up a GoodGym social for next Tuesday after the run. Please sign up so we have an idea of numbers to book a table.
• There is still time to sign up to the Dark Horse, a fun nighttime 10km in Bath. Several GG runners have already signed up so there will be friendly faces to see there!
• Next week we are running to help The Nest.

A night of two tasks

The first main task was painting the walls around the room. The community space is used a lot by different sports groups and members of the public and so they get quite mucky. There were spills on the walls by the teas/coffee area and there were marks from where old posters have been removed. We split into teams to improve the walls: some of us covered the edges with frog tape, others cleaned the walls down, others used the big roller brushes to clean the main areas of the walls and finally other runners swept in behind to paint the edges and skirting board with finer brushes. It required a lot of team work and coordination to get it right in the short amount of time we had and we were really pleased to get it all done.

The second big task was to spray and wipe down as much as we could. The cafe has a large collection of plastic and wooden toys and there are lots of tables and high chairs. A group of runners put their gloves on and got to work. This was a really important job to keep the cafe clean and free from germs.

Finally, we thoroughly cleaned and tidied where we had been. We took a group picture and then ran back down the hill to the leisure centre.

Thanks!

Thanks to Ali and her team at the cafe for hosting us at such short notice. Thanks to everyone who turned out last night to make the task a success. It was a classic example of where we can make a huge difference in a short space of time. And also thanks in particular to Chris, Emily and Rachel for backmarking for us.

On the first run of the 2020 and of the decade GoodGym Bath ran to help out St John's Court, a sheltered living space in Bath. We had 15 runners volunteer their Tuesday evening to help take down and tidy away Christmas decorations. We finished early and went for a run around Victoria Park, making a total of 4.4km distance ran. Not bad for a January!

Welcome, Majid!

We met at the leisure centre, as we always do, at 6.15pm and welcomed a new runner, Majid, to the group. Majid spotted us before Christmas in our red t-shirts, proving that wearing the red tops proudly is the best form of advertising! Thanks for coming along last night, Majid, and we hope you will come and join us again soon.

Latest GoodGym news

Before we started I shared the latest news with everyone:

• Rachel has very kindly set up a GoodGym Bath Strava running club so that we can motivate each other more easily. It's a good way to find good running routes, too. Please follow the link and join us!
• Related to the above please connect your Strava account to your GoodGym account (you can do this in your settings on the GoodGym website). This will help us in the January challenge! In the challenge, we are competing with all other areas to try and get the most good deeds done and run the greatest distance in January. You can see the leaderboard here. Also: any runs you do outside of GoodGym count towards this if you link Strava to your GoodGym account.
• We have several fun Community Missions happening in Bath/Bristol over the coming weekend. Sign up and help us in the January challenge!

On to the task!

It was only a short run last night along the river Avon to St John's Court. We have helped them several times before with tasks like painting benches and garden furniture. In December we put up Christmas decorations for the Resident's Association around their communal spaces. Lots of the residents aren't able enough to take down the decorations and the staff and volunteers don't have the time to do it, so we came along and gave a helping hand!

We split into small groups to take down the festivities. There were teams wrestling Christmas trees into boxes, reaching up high to taken down hanging decorations and wrapping up long lines of beads. We then formed a chain and stored all of the boxes and bags upstairs for next year. Once we finished we gave the communal areas a good hoovering to clear up the explosion of glitter and pine needles that we left behind in our wake! We reset the main cafe area and got it ready for the coffee morning that is being hosted on Wednesday. Good work GoodGym!

We really got stuck into the task at hand and we ended up finishing much earlier than expected. What a credit to a good turnout and a great attitude! To make use of the leftover time I led the runners on a loop up to Bath's beautiful Royal Crescent and through Victoria Park. We are really lucky to be able to enjoy these fantastic sights on demand!

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who came along and made last night a success. Thanks in particular to the team at St John's who hosted us for the task and thanks to Rachel for backmarking for us!

Last night a group of GoodGym runners got involved with the last GoodGym Bath run OF THE DECADE! We ran up to the Odd Down Sports Cafe to paint some walls for them and give the community space a new lease of life. We ran a hilly 7.5km and enjoyed some great nighttime views over Bath.

Welcome, Rob!

We met at the leisure centre and welcomed a new runner to our ranks, Rob. Thanks for coming along last night, Rob. We hope you will come and join us again! After a warm-up we were on our way running up Holloway and Bloomfield Drive.

I'm dreaming of a (painted) white Christmas!

We had originally planned on writing Christmas cards for a community Christmas meal, but our plans changed at the last minute and instead we were tasked with some painting. The Community cafe is used by a range of different groups. In particular, there are lots of toddlers and young children who use the space and the walls around the toy area needed to be repainted. There were areas where the paint was looking faded and thin because of mucky hands and there was a fair amount of crayon on the walls too! We got to work and split into teams to paint as much of the walls we could in the time we had.

When we were done the places where we had painted looked much fresher. We really breathed a new lease of life into the walls to help keep the cafe a welcoming place to meet and relax.

After we had packed up we ran around to St Phillip's and St James' Church to see the results of some tasks from earlier in the year where painted a giant advent calendar for the church's Christmas display. Behind each door a community group drew a picture of what "The King is Coming" means to them. Our offering was lovingly crafted by Tessa, an author and illustrator who runs The Happy Book company, a local company that has just released a beautifully-illustrated children's book. Thanks, Tessa!

Thanks!

Thanks to the team at The Odd Down Sports Cafe for hosting us, thanks to Emily for backmarking for us and thanks to everyone for a great group effort with the Christmas-themed pun!

That's it for 2019! Thanks for coming along and running with us. The next group run will be on Tuesday 7th January. It will be a fantastic way to get back into running after the Christmas break - see you there!