Tonight we welcomed Ben to the group for his first Goodgym experience and Andy, a good gym veteran of a whopping 46 Good Deeds who was visiting us whilst on a work trip to Brighton. We also welcomed back Rose who joined us for the first time since our epic launch back in July. A big well done to Rose who, during the run, told me about her triathlon at Southwater over the weekend. Awesome effort!

I shared the news during the speech, that earlier in the day I’d walked past the BHT task we did a few weeks ago in Oriental place and I was delighted to see they now have a planter full of flowers, so I think our tidying efforts there kick started a new found pride in their outdoor space!

After the speech and the warmup we headed up the big Dyke Road Hill to tonight’s task at Exeter Street Hall. Thanks to Helena for leading the speedier group and to Beth for back marking. And it was great to have Tess back after a few weeks off and she did a fine job of leading the moderate paced group (now christened The Mods!) with myself back marking.

Dave met us at Exeter Street Hall and told us about how the local community pulled together to raise the funds to buy the hall and keep it as a valuable community resource. They have recently completed some building work to improve the hall’s accessibility and our task tonight was to have a general clean and tidy up before they reopen. We set to work vacuuming floors and curtains, dusting ledges, getting sticky stuff off tables, washing down walls and painting new door frames. A special mention to Frances and Rachel who tackled the newly accessible loft area which had some particularly dusty beams. I was informed that the dust up that was actually from the Victorian era! Ew!!

We did a great job and Dave and team were very appreciative of our efforts which will help them get the hall reopened and back in use for later this week.

A much easier downhill run home and a quick fitness session on the Old Steine where we focused on some one leg strength and stability moves to help keep us ‘strong and stable’ during our runs!

See you on Saturday for our first monthly parkrun outing to Preston Park and next week where we will be returning to The Bevy for some gardening or a shorter option to One Church where we will be nailing the railings! And after we will be staying behind for a drink for our monthy social.

A Lovely summers evening on the riverbank at Goodgym BATH for a sweet 16 who weedy enjoyed themselves at on a 5k run involving some hill climbing with bags of mulch and weeds for The Canal and River trust.

A few announcements to kick off this evening:

Well done Pascale and Alison who ran the Salisbury 54321 on Sunday 42 & 33 k

New Taskforce - Lucy, Emma and Alison .. WHOOP!!

Welcome to Holly and Ben

Nicola and Dora were chatting away in spanish (i think so anyway) something about Mexico i think and the possibility of a night out on the plus side..keep you posted team!!

As promised a nice flat run along the canal or at least until we arrived at our destination when 7 merry men were required to head up that hill and carry bags of mulch back down to the riverbank.

The remaining members were already hard at work chopping back ash and weeding an overgrown area, Ben was in fact working so hard he broke his garden trowel...Ooops!! lot's of banter and laughter along the way.

30 minutes later

Time to spread the bags of mulch over the cleared area before filling the now empty bags with cuttings and weeds before a group effort to carry everything back up the hill where its transport was waiting to carry it off to the compost heap in the sky.

A touch of fitness stuff and looping thrown into the mix for good measure and because they enjoy it so much, although you would never guess it from their little faces...HA!!

A suitably short run back down the hill and along the river back to the leisure centre for a nice stretch and chat, perfect end to a beautiful day.

Smashing job achieved yet again team,

fabulous...fabulous...fabulous!!

GOOD LUCK to everyone racing the TWO TUNNELS this weekend especially Rhiannon on her first 10k ...GO GIRL!!

GOOD LUCK to everyone racing the train from Goodgym this weekend, can't wait to read all about that one.

Until next time, keep running and stay safe