13 of us braved the cold to run to St Gregs Primary in Florence Park.

We cleared many thorny brambles, dead plants, and weeds. We dug bits of grass and cleared some raised beds ready for planting. There were a few stings, a couple of spiked fingers and a scare from a moth.. but we all made it through ok!!..

We cleared a shrine of Mary and we collected a few little bits of litter. We found 2 footballs, a deflated dodge-ball, a tennis ball, a connecting bit of Quadro (or similar), and some very old bits of P.E. kit (which must have been there for years!!)

After the task we played hop-scotch and ran around their playground a bit (in pyramid drills and then in a less organized fashion).. *There were star jumps.. oh yes! *

We ran back along the cycle ways by the school and Trev disorientated people with his new knowledge of local streets and local pubs!

Thanks for coming everyone

NEXT Week is our 1st Birthday.. We hope to see you all then!

Today’s group run began with a mini good deed, as a few early bird GoodGymers helped to move a stage at East Oxford Community Centre (our GoodGym home). We are always on duty!

The main task for the evening was to deliver leaflets around Iffley village promoting Cosy Homes Oxfordshire. Cosy Homes is a home retrofit initiative supported by the Low Carbon Hub. Their services would benefit many of the houses in Iffley, which can be old, draughty and expensive to heat. Our group of intrepid runners split up to deliver as many leaflets as we could, while getting major house envy and planning which one we would buy if we ever won the lottery! We regrouped at the foot of Abberbury Road (…aka The Big Hill). We ran up to the top in a sort of leaflet-delivering relay, and delivered all the leaflets with time to spare, which meant…

…there was time for some games! The first game was “Lamp posts” (not its official name, but it’s what I’m calling it!). In a test of our running, jogging and counting skills, the game involved jogging down the hill for a certain number of lamp posts, then sprinting back up to the top, with the number of lamp posts increasing each time. The second game was “King of the Hill”. Ben was duly crowned King, and claims his prize of getting a mention in this run report. (Better than a medal, wouldn’t you say?)

After the games...

After the games it was time to head back to base, with of course a couple of stops for star jumps along the way! (Or were they jumping jacks? Please refer to Sarah for clarification!)

On the home straight Trev caught the eye of some quite saucily dressed young men (students in women’s underwear… and nothing else), when they encouraged him with shouts of “Go on, Mo Farah!” We also sometimes struggle to tell the difference 😉

Finally, a warm welcome to Katie, and a big thank you to Sarah for the title of this report 😊

Welcome to our new runners Henry Ellie.

Another well sized group of 17 GoodGymers came to finish our January 2020 challenges! over all the GoodGyms we beat our target of 8,000 Good Deeds this month :)

..so many in fact we split into a whole collection of bike related tasks, breaking spokes, painting signs, testing handlebars with magnets! cleaning grease and grime with cloths... making new cloths to clean grease and grime...

We ran past the oldest pub in Oxford and through the newest shopping center..

We did star jumps and stretches and Trev and Henry went to the Mad Hatter afterwards to continue the GG post run pub crawl..

Well done to Angus who wore his Garland of Joy with pride through the whole session! He can now join Taskforce and join the growing team of GGers who do more.. want to join up? do 10 runs and just read the online training doc.. easy!

Much fun was had, enjoy you bikes! see you next week