If you had told any of us runners 18 months ago, how one Saturday we will be super excited to go to parkrun to see each other and run 5k, you may have been a little unsure why this week was so special!

But it really is!

We are on track for return of parkrun on July 24th and this brings a new route for Poole! The new route allows for a much wider, larger start area. It also reduces the mass gathering around and in the pavilion area. The new route does however include a steep right turn at one point, which many speedy runners may have to adjust to. But it's still flat, free and lovely park to run around.

We all met rather nervously where others were grouped for this trial run. Great to see the red T-shirts of Goodgym standing out from the crowd! The core parkrun team, led by Mike and his crew had arranged this meet up to test the new route with a larger group of runner's including timers, marshal's, posts and even a lead bike!

What we had all forgotten was how fast you can run at a flat parkrun! Nothing can compare to the opportunity to run with others, whether listening to the chatter, joining in, running off a hangover or wanting to feel the lungs burn!

The start was so wide, we were all off and feeling the wind in our faces felt so fresh and good!

Calum I am so sorry we did not give you a proper hello! The excitement of parkrun meant we missed seeing you down to join us!

The results are listed in the pics, but in all honesty, this was about being part of the parkrun return so whether you loved to see your mate, (Ali), enjoyed a PB (Robert), showed us how fast you easily can run (Tracy), completed a cool sub 22 min run pre a long run that afternoon (Aaron) or brought the sweets for after (Elizabeth), we all loved it!

Bring on the official return in 2 weeks!

It was a great turn out as 19 of us huddled into Daveena's cafe at 6.30pm tonight.

It was so lovely to see two new faces join us - Sarah and Ella. So fab to have you along ladies!

Sarah is in the process of setting up a new run group that we will fully support here at Goodgym Poole. It is Run, Talk, Run. The concept is that a group meets for a 5km run (or a 2km walk) to have a chance to chat to others to improve their mental health. It will be on a Monday in Creekmoor so spread the word! We hope we can work together with the group in the future. As we all secretly know - our mental health is really improved by feeling part of the community at Goodgym and even more so when we feel we are making a difference in our community as well as looking after our health. We all have our own 'why' for coming to Goodgym and what it offers us! (What's your why?)

Onto tonight's run - A quick warm up on the forecourt before taking on the mound of opportunity that is Fernside Road! Onwards to Ringwood Road and another opportunity! We found the small path that leads to Dorchester Road and it was a chance for a bit of form coaching. Each person had to think of an area of form they need to work on and run the distance (with acceleration / deceleration) working on that form. So perhaps standing tall or using those arms or just working a bit of head up. After 1 repeat, the scores were in. Either we are all terribly British or not trying hard enough as scores of 5/6 were given to themselves! Well practice makes perfect and after 3 of them the scores were more of an 8 so on the right path.

Onto the school where we have been over the past few months with painting, gardening and even moving a library of books around! Tonights task came with the promise of stickering and in a bizarre way this had been a real draw! We were met again by the dedicated Mrs Armstrong (Head Teacher) and Mr Thomas (Deputy) with a big stack of stickers with labels for books for a new reading programme. Sounds simple enough! However as we all quickly discovered, there was no order on the sheets so each time we had to go through the lists and try and find a book in the entire library with often little idea where it actually was! Well this has got to be our most frustrating task to date - it was a bit of a needle in haystack for some of the books! Elizabeth suggested another way to try it - call out authors on the shelf and like a game of bingo we could match to our sheets. This worked for a few but it was still not moving very fast. In the end we settled for calling out popular authors or books and seeing who could help. Sadly we left the school, with many sheets barely touched as we could not find them! Nicola topped the leader board with 8 books found and stickered! Tim was heard loudly saying he was 'looking for bad girls' which I hope he found before we had to go, whilst in the depths of despair at lack of progress, Richard was looking for a book on euthanasia! Fiona who has hidden knowledge and background - knew a fair bit about how libraries run so was more helpful than many of us wondering aimlessly looking for a random book we had never heard of! Time ticked on and Sarah asked me if we had to stay till they were all done - It would have been a very long night!

We decided to give it a end point and took our lack of satisfaction of not completing out into the fresh air, for a quick run back to base. We left on the promise to return if we can help further! Leaving behind Mrs Armstrong and Mr Thomas scratching their heads at the system that had been created!

It was the first time we had held a starter session for Goodgym Poole!

We all met in the walled garden of Upton House, the lovely country park that hosts parkrun on a Saturday and the junior parkrun on a Sunday. It was more chilly than anticpated despite no morning frost as we huddled together waiting to go.

Firstly great to welcome our newbies to Goodgym! Jonathan had been brought along by our very own biker girl Fiona. He is a maths teacher at a local senior school, so perhaps best not to mention the error on the head count pre run ;). Our other new face was Andrew, brought along by Goodgym advocate Christine! We hope you guys join us again on either our Tuesday runs or community missions!

Usual briefing with Fiona giving us a show and tell - Her heel with a hole in it! :)

Fiona headed up the warm up with a run around the walled garden and a few drills. There was time for a quick go at 'meet your neighbour' with the aim to keep pace on return leg - the groans that arose when we had to repeat the exercise was almost music to a coaches ears! Needless to say, the pacing was more accurate on the second effort!

It was onto the run, out via the parkrun route of down the steep hill (relax!), along the incline up and the benefit of getting to power up the hill on the return of the loop - Bonus! Out the park after the route down and then another incline up as we headed into Turlin Moor and past the train station into Willow View.

We were met by one of the residents, Alan, who has been working in the garden when he is able. We had previously been to the scheme last year but the distance had proved difficult so we had not been back. Good to see that our work last year helped however as it was clearer than before with the bushes and trees.

Fiona and Anne paired up and soon jumped onto the job of the pond. The dead reeds all needed clearing as well as the ivy around the back. It wasn't long before Fiona was deep in the bushes, pair of scissors in hand, hacking away with satisfaction.Anne meanwhile was fishing for ...um....leaves!

Sian took on an area outside a residents flat, where it was overgrown where he was unable to manage it anymore due to his mobility. It was a big job and it was all hands on task to finish it all at the end. But the result was worth it as it was looking significantly better and ready for more planting if wanted.

Fiona was busy clearing plant pots that were just looking like grass, with a result of planters ready for new bulbs! Andrew and Tim, being the pro's they are, found some dead bushes and cut back and swept up and bagged up.

Jonathan was eager for anything that required power so he had a couple of heavy duty tasks - pulling up a tree, moving a rotten bench and pulling on the ivy with Fiona in an almost chuckle brothers sketch!

Lisa joined us today for her 3rd Goodgym Poole run, living in the New Forest she supports us when you can. Lisa also was off to her coach today, having met her a few months ago she now regularly visits Irene as an isolated older person, at her home. If you are interested in becoming paired, then check out the details online www.goodgym.org/coach-runs for more details.
Christine and Lisa both tackled the moss around the pathways that needed clearing, it was unsightly and a trip hazard so great to have clear paths once again.

35 minutes later it was time to move the bags to the side, take a quick piccy and head off back to Upton. Everyone was pushed out the back gate so less muddy shoes inside, Sian even took off her shoes to wash her hands inside, being the considerate person she is.

Back up the incline path to Upton House and time for a quick stretch before we could all head onwards, pleased with ourselves for a successful run and task on a Sunday morning. Only a little damp with a shower but all good spirits!

We all met in the darkness, too tired to plot against Westminster so thought we could go for a little run instead!

Andrea and Anne set off 5 minutes before the rest of the pack for a walk / run option up the incline route to the church whilst the rest of us took a spin around Ashley Cross green tonight. In the future we will try and organise any walk / runs in advance, as not all our runners are on Facebook we may look for a special whats app group for walk / runners!

Tonights warm up drills involved a bit of balance! It was a superman move and lunges with a twist to have a go at - lets say we need to work on these a bit more yet but it was a start! Don't forget how important it is to work our trunk area as this holds the rest of our body when we are running and makes us a lot more efficient! A couple of 5 second blasts to keep us warm and then it was up the inclines of Branksome we head!

Onwards to the church and David was busy sweeping away in the church grounds and he was all prepared for us! Three stations with brushes, spades and wheelbarrows it was all ready to go, all we had to do was pile up the barrows high! Or in the words of David, 'Make Safe the way of the Lord' by irreligiously misquoting John the Baptist - His words not mine! But good to ensure all areas are cleared and safe for the church attendees!

The bashing of the spade could be heard clearing as Richard scraped away last few years of leaves and mud into the leaf pile. He made up a team with Elizabeth, Andrea and Katy who all worked there section.

Anne, Robert, Christine (sorry about the damp gloves Christine!) and Sarah worked the side of the church - fortunately there was no frogs founds as it turns out Sarah has a serious phobia of them - ranidaphobia is the correct term according to Dr Google!

Tim, Fiona and Ali worked like troopers however filling 5 huge barrows to the brim!

30 minutes later, all of us were meeting in the mid point so we left David with tools, a giant pile of leaves and a slightly damaged eye sight from all our head torches :)

I hope you all enjoyed the fireworks that I put on for you on route and return!

        It has been another hot day on the Dorset coast! Despite an odd shower earlier in day, it was a pretty humid evening as a bunch of us once again gathered in the courtyard at Daveena's! 

    A pretty active bunch turned up, Rob having cycled down, Aaron already having got a few miles in and even Maria turning up to her first Goodgym took the short run down to Daveena's so kudus to you guys! 

    As we had jut over 2 miles to cover to the task and the only way was up...up the stonking North Road literally, we set off pretty prompt to tackle the hills. 

    Reguarly re grouping on the way up, only a few silent ones knew that it was not only North Rd that was hilly, but the lovely undulation of Albert Road to tackle as well! 

    Arriving at the school we met with Gemma, Graham and Sally who could not make the run that night to help with the task. We were met by Neil, Head Teacher and Nicky, Head of School who had kindly put out some cold drinks for us to help. They were plesantly surprised to see 14 of us plus 3 runners already there but there was plenty to do. 

    There is a quiet garden at the school that the plans are for planting vegtables in and other plants over the coming school term and it was pretty overgrown with grass, weeds and old plants! Splitting into groups we had 4 circular bedding areas and two small ones at the side to tackle and a selection of tools to get on. It has been super hot last few days so the ground was hard and tough so it really was back breaking for some of it. Within 15 minutes it was looking clearer already! The final bed was a toughie and took all hands and tools in to try and break the ground! Hard work and strength displayed by Shelley, Aaron, Steve and Richard who owned those forks and spades tonight!
    Maria in the side border was seen finishing off her area with a bit of class as she put all stones back looking lovely! Donning slightly smaller hand tools but working consistently was Anne and Mandy, although I am sure Anne was still cursing me for the hills under her breathe!  

    We were thanked by Neil and Nicky after numerous boxes were sent to compost and they were really pleased by the difference - turns out Neil is also a Purbeck Club Runner so I will be looking out for in future races! 

    Great to have one of the couch leaders, Carol, having a rare Tuesday night free coming to join us for her first Goodgym tonight! Ali also on her first Goodgym, (although you wouldn't know it as she just joined in with the rest of us nutters) has already volunteered to help our Twitter account so watch our for her tweets coming up! 
    On the run home, Nicki is showing her running strength as she powered up the Albert Road all the way to the end, with Liz just ahead and Ali just behind, it was a tough lot to follow! 

    Fantastic job everyone - what a team we are growing! 

What a difference a week makes!

Last week 2 of us set off in blazing hot sunshine and this week 20 of us turned up in the pouring rain!

Fantastic to welcome 13 new Goodgym runners to the session (don't forget to order a free T-shirt!). We were represented by runners from the Hot Steppers massive (Vicki, Jo, Vanessa, Fiona to name a few!), Poole Runners and Poole AC Couch programme (well done Helga and Julia!)!

It started with a change of plan as The Spire unfortunately could not accomodate us to give us a brief due to staff sickness. So it was onto the Poole Park to support Poole Park Volunteers by litter picking!

We started at the Pavillion and split into equal teams and a bag each and set off in different directions. One team found a boot on this stage and some packaging giving a lighter but bulkier bag to start with against the other teams heavier offering. Next it was time for the GoodGym Olympics session with a 1km run around the lake! Options was a fast one, a selfie shot along the way or the final more complex option of Strava art (sadly no one took this up!). So if you are on Strava upload this run with the tag #GGOlympic2019 to be with a chance of getting a medal for your photo or speed! More details and instructions head to this page

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/goodgym-oiympics-the-nationwide-race?fbclid=IwAR2Ud8QjhzBST90eLC9HWZJwbzdzo5YhD71RcuR5S0BqtQwmIJcGieOWquE

Judging by the puffed faces - many of you went for the fast option whilst Shelley, Helga and Julia decided it was all about the selfies!

Next onto the skate park where highlights included finding a pram and a hunt in the bushes revealed a kettle (good work Sian!) and bags will soon filled and left for council to collect!

Final bit tonight was a run around the field maintaining pace before finishing up with Flying 15's with a few to considering our form! (Amanda keep those eyes up and Anne stand taller!)

Jason and Rob as ever were outnumbered by women and not phased by all our chatter!

Lovely to meet new runners and faces I had coached before (Liz!) so hope to see you again Rosie and Sarah Welcome to the Goodgym Poole!

Great fun along the way and you did your Park a great job!

The sun is again out in force tonight for another lovely evening!

Perhaps not such a scenic run tonight as we headed up (yes it was an incline) to Branksome along the roads of Parkstone.

We were met by Barbara, a volunteer at Branksome Centre and she was ready with brooms, black sacks, litter picker and water buckets!

Fiona despite a day of exercise with her horse and a weights session, took on the task of the watering with Anne, carrying buckets across the grounds. Barbara is planning to do some more planting tomorrow now the soil is less dry.

There was a number of young people sat outside the centre, not part of the group that night but those that choose to use the centre as a social point. It was elsewhere a youth group going on for a variety of ages. There was also children in the play area and games happening on the pitches.

Hilary took on the litter pick around the playground but actually tonight, there wasn't piles of rubbish so Anne-Marie could crack on with the weeds and rubbish around the sides of the outside areas.

We hope that the job we did tonight, helps the centre and those that use it keep some pride in the facilities they have and can access. It wasn't a renovation project but the tasks done tonight can help maintain a safe environment for those that socialise here!