Helen, Linda, Max and Rachel met Run Director Charlotte this morning at Castle Parkrun in Manor. The winds were high and the skies were grey as we hoped and prayed the rain would stay away until we'd finished. We all started by competing on how many layers we were wearing and still moaning we were cold! 😄

I was timekeeping for the first time and feeling the pressure, so glad to have the very experienced Linda as back up. Max was barcode scanning. We all danced to keep warm as we cheered on the 65 runners and walkers including GoodGym family Carys (who finished 13th, despite starting late!), Sarah and Helen bringing up the rear as tailwalker.

Next one is planned to be Concord 5th March - it would be great to start getting better turnouts so it can be a real monthly "takeover" improving Goodgym's visibility and allowing to offer pacers

After a welcome cuppa, for this Sunday session we paired up to undertake a number of tasks to help GG Charlotte with the Echo project. Our tasks included: - Spring cleaning - clothes labelling - shirt ironing - stock rotating - litter picking - curtain rail fixing

We also welcomed new GG volunteer Claire on her first GG volunteering session.

We all got stuck into our tasks with many bags of litter collected, windows cleaned, clothes labelled, shirts ironed and a new arrangement of clothes displayed in the downstairs charity shop.

We finished our session with a lovely sharing lunch with amazing tasty treats made and brought for all including:

• samosas
• vege biryani
• salad
• poppadoms
• juices to drink
• raspberry and pistachio brownies
• bakewell tart
• prune loaf

yum yum yum yum yum said all of the goodgymers' tums

Tonight, we were met with a lovely cuppa and task briefing by GG Cheerful Charity-shop-leader Charlotte. 14 GGrs split into teams to: - move materials to clear a room for community use - segregate the remaining summer and winter clothing and store away the summer clothing - Shaaaar-room-sorter Steve did great stacking job of tidying away the summer clothes in this unused room - size/ colour code and arrange the clothes on the racks (that GGrs put out on the racks at the last GG community mission here) to make it easier for customers to search

9 GGrs finished the night with some last strava kms, undertaking a 2km run around the adjacent park together

Special mentions to: * GG Charlotte for another well planned task :)
* Sheffield January Challenge Helpful Hero Helen for topping the good deeds for January :)

Watch this space for future Echo community missions :)

Another well attended community mission to support GG Charlotte's Echo Charity Shop project as part of our January Challenge.

There was no hanging about as one team of trusty goodgymers sorted through the coat hanger mountain into keep and recycle piles.

We organised the huge clothes donations out onto the racks for winter, and storing in the back room for summer.

Please join us next Friday for a return visit to Echo for another community mission at this project followed by sharing a group meal together at York House :)

We had a productive session, celebrated by a group photo and one peeping Tom (hiding in the clothes rack) :)

ECHO Charity Shop clothes bag moving, wall cleaning, wardrobe carrying, key sorting, tea drinking, room unlocking, paint stirring, mannequin carrying, blind removing, Christmas party reminiscing, hangover comparing, paint rollering, more tea drinking, fine edging, wooden plank unscrewing, chair balancing, Charlotte’s car packing, great company .... GOOD GYM

On a chilly and dark Mon eve we welcomed three new runners to the @GGSHEFF family, big cheers for;

• Dolors
• Darren Wake
• A. Fundora

On a longer run than usual we got going and headed out to our location of Archer Drive to help SENSATIONAL SIMON of SUSTRANS fame to clear a section of overgrown NCN.

We all got straight to work with a combination of tasks;

• Litter picking
• Cutting back
• Sweeping
• Shovelling
• Moving branches

Litter, by litter the path was looking more and more useable with passer by's in awe of the great work that was happening. Despite advise you may have heard not to trim your bush in the dark, with trusty head torches on it was not a problem for our crack team of runners who made quick work of the overgrowth!

Once our time was up we headed home on the longer but thankfully flatter route compared to most weeks.

Fitness was squeezed in on route back with some high knees, suicides and squat jumps as we were struggling for time on the longer run.

After a brief stretch and debrief we got a pro lit group shot before heading inside for a drink or two.

Until next time, happy running :)