We did it!!! For our 100th Group Run at GoodGym Norwich, I set a target of 50 people attending and we smashed it with our new record of 54!

If it hadn't of rained all day how many would we have had?!

Lots of new faces this evening so a big GoodGym welcome to Richard T, Jenny, Emily B, Lucy, Julia, Pete, Tricia, Paulo, Andy, Jade, Teresa, Shiralee & Caroline.

Emma M was completing her 10th good deed, Mel was completing her 50th good deed and Elizabeth was completing her 100th good deed - very well timed Elizabeth!

Trying to brief over 50 people and getting them in what was a very large circle was a mission in itself, we needed the whole of The Forum.

Hayley volunteered to be photographer, Bill was walk leader and Mel was back runner.

We caught up on race news and I thanked everyone again who volunteered and ran the EPIC Aylsham 5K on Friday evening. Don't forget on Friday 28th June you can volunteer at the EPIC North Walsham 5K or run the EPIC North Walsham 5K. It'll be worth it just for the medal.

The task tonight was to visit the Oxfam Charity Shop of Magdalen Street. Due to the weather, painting was out of the equation but there was still plenty to do. The had a small team stripping the wall ready to be painted when its dry, sweeping the shop floor, stairs & upstairs, sorting through CD & book sections, sorting through clothes donations and general cleaning up of the shop floor.

Due to the sheer amount of people, I made it an active night so those running were put into pairs and there was a 800-metre loop relay taking place so we didn't over crowd the shop so one of the pair had to do the loop then tag the other in when they got back.

There was a bit of a cat walk going on, with a few of us trialling some of the donations... some may be a little concerned with my attire but don't dis it until you try it haha.

After a good 35 minutes (which equates to over 30 hours of volunteering time!) those running headed off and we'd meet Bill and the walkers back at The Forum. The reason for this is that the runners were in for a treat... a little run up Grapes Hill and then the sprint loop in Chapelfield Gardens.

Back at The Forum we had a stretch and Elizabeth had kindly brought some cakes.

After that 18 of us finished the evening off down the pub before the heavens opened on the way home.

Thank you all for making the 1st 100 Group Runs a phenomenal experience, I can't wait for the next 100 :-)

Next week we're visiting Catton Park. If you don't want to run the whole distance you can meet us halfway or at the task.

We had our 2nd biggest turnout this evening with 37 GoodGymers hitting the streets of Norwich.

Amy C was completing her 25th good deed!

A thank you to Robert for being walk-leader, Catherine for being back runner and Helen E for being the photographer.

We were visiting the Oxfam Charity Shop tonight for a variety of tasks. Emma met us there and explained what they were, which included: cleaning the shop floor, putting new stock out on the shop floor, giving the kitchen a deep clean and taking books down on the conveyor belt into the pulping room. You'd think it would take some organising with a big group of people, but you'd be run as within a couple of minutes they were all split up and cracking on with all of these tasks.

It was quite an entertaining evening... check out the photos! Dave T styling a feminine hat, me with my whopping mushroom and three of the girls fitting into one pair of knickers... a sight I'm still not sure what to make of haha.

After a good 40 minutes of hard work, which equated to an incredible 24 hours of volunteer time we finished up and headed back... but not straight back. Oh no, I'm not that kind! So it was a detour via Grapes Hill, which everyone put a sterling effort into. After that we did a quick sprint session in Chapelfield Gardens before returning to The Forum. The evening was finished up with some cakes Elizabeth brought along ahead of her 21st birthday on Thursday.

Next week we're doing a litter pick in aid of WWF Earth Hour.

So this is the first full group run report I'm having a go at writing - with Hitch sitting at my elbow watching me like a hawk and prodding me when I get bits wrong!

Our scheduled task got cancelled but Oxfam saved the day by coming up with a great task for us to get stuck in to. Having had a refurb recently with new flooring, the Oxfam shop was in need of a really good dust and hoovering.

Tonight we welcomed a new runner Chris. We also had some good deed milestones with Sam completing her 25th and both Robert and Len hitting their half centuries - goodness 50 good deeds each is really impressive! We also had some race successes over the weekend with Mish, Robert and Rosie T all getting 10k PBs! After a stiff warm up on the Forum steps (someone remarked that Hitch had clearly had a bad day to put us through that) we headed off to Oxfam where Emma greeted us with an action plan to help organise our task. We were therefore able to get stuck in and down to the hard work straightaway. We split into 4 groups working in each corner of the shop - with Hitch checking on our ability to hunt out the fluff and seeing which handbags he preferred. After 40 minutes we made our way back to the Forum - going via the Walk to do a sprint race. A few of us foolishly thought that was the fitness bit of the evening sorted but little did we know just what a bad day Hitch had clearly had as he then got really mean back at the Forum. Box jumps, bear crawls and sprints to City Hall steps followed by 4 minutes of tabata (as Hitch said, this is what it's like when you arrive in Hell...) A few red faces later and we almost forgave him when he remembered the Quality Street hiding in his rucksack. Next week we'll be making the City clean by having a litter pick.

** we'll leave you to work out which one was Hitch's and which one was Katy's verdict...

The GoodGym Five go on a Sunday Morning Adventure....

Sunday mornings are meant for lie-ins and generally taking it easy right? Wrong! Not if you're five keen GoodGymers eager to help Oxfam clear their shop premises ready for repairs and a re-fit, that is! As this was a Community Mission, we had arranged to meet at the shop where Ben the manager let us in and told us and other Oxfam volunteers what needed to be done. Elizabeth and Rosie arrived first and got stuck in, followed shortly by Katy. The main task at that point was to dismantle the changing rooms and bookshelf trollies - easier said than done when there was initially only one allen key in the whole shop and several trollies to do. We won't mention names but someone had to be reminded a few times that it was 'righty tighty and lefty loosey'........!! We had just finished doing this (very mucky) job and stopped for a well deserved tea break when Calum and Beks turned up and had to be convinced that we really had been working hard! After carrying all the fittings through into the store room the shop was cleared much quicker than expected so the manager decided that work could start on decorating the place. Calum and Beks stayed for the fun bit of trying to drench each other when they were meant to be washing the shop walls!