Tonight was a special evening for several reasons with the main one being it was our 1st Birthday Group Run.

It was also our record turnout at GoodGym Norwich with 36 runners... and this time I was present for the record turnout.

We had 4 new runners in Neil, Kate, Lucy & Katie so a big shout out to you.

5 of our runners were hitting milestones tonight - joining the '10 good deed club' were Stephen, Jen & Graham and joining the '25 good deed club' were Michelle & Helen. Fantastic effort and I'm looking forward to more milestones being achieved in the future.

We also did a round of applause for those who did races at the weekend that I know included Jen, Hayley, Brad & Graham.

Tonight's task was to help re-energise a sensory garden at The Clare School, which is a specialist ‘physical and sensory’ complex needs school. It's about 3km away so I nice little jog there and back on a very warm and sunny evening. Our runner Hayley works there and is great to see how passionate she is about it (and how excited she was for us to arrive).

I also announced during the warm up that we had the 1km trial tonight ahead of the #GGOlympics2018 taking place in London this weekend.

Calum and Katy led headed the run tomorrow now that they are both qualified Run Leaders, which meant I could be back runner this week.

On arrival Hayley and Jen were awaiting us with some glamorous music (I won't mention my dancing) and a couple of the teachers had provided with a wonderful selection of cakes and goodies... this is becoming a habit I could get used to ;-)

After a briefing of what the tasks were, I took half of the group to do their 1km Time Trial in Eaton Park and then once we returned the rest of those who wanted to do it came over to Eaton Park for their turn.

By the time the 2nd group returned from the 1km Time Trial, some of the group decided that it was Basketball and Netball time... with the photo of Calum's dunk one of my favourites of the year so far... along with the group photo we had taken at the end with some incredible poses and facial expressions from everyone.

It was time to gnaw on the treats that were provided for us and then a sluggish 3km jog back to The Forum.

After some stretched it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Catherine D, our most deeded GoodGym-er.

...and being our birthday we had to head to the pub for some food and a beverage.

Tonight was probably my favourite GoodGym experience so far, to see how the group has grown, developed and bonded over the last year, as well as all the amazing good deeds they've dedicated their time to makes me feel very privileged and proud to be a part of so THANK YOU to everyone who has been part of the journey so far. I'm looking forward to partying with some of you on Sunday.

Next week we have another awesome run when we Clean the GoGoHares in partnership with Co-operatives Fortnight 2018.

This week was the 1st time we had 2 different tasks on the same night and therefore there'll be 2 run reports combined into 1 with Calum's part (the better part) coming up further down.

I was taking the bulk of the group on a long run to Bowthorpe Community Garden while Calum was taking 3 others to paint a small room for Open Doors, which was on a shorter root.

After having a week off I felt out of routine... I'd done the briefing at the start and got Calum to do the warm up while then realising at that point I hadn't even explained what the tasks were.

I did remember to announce that Vicky was on her 25th good deed and Catherine was the 1st GoodGym Norwich member to complete 50 good deeds... all within the 1st year! Incredible commitment.

It felt like we were saying a little goodbye as the 2 groups separated (where's the tissues).

My group had a warm and sticky 6km stroll apart from Tim and Sam who had extra energy so kept tailing back... I'd love to know how much ground they covered.

On arrival we were pleasantly surprised with a lovely table full of refreshments so straight away we were sending photos to the other group trying not to make them jealous haha.

The team had a few tasks to do which included painting a fence (Samantha, Rosie, Michelle and Catherine), removing bind weed (Sarah and Helen), locating & pulling up a bind weed root (Vicky, Tim and Mel), weeding the shingle (Bill, Sam, Katy, Robert, Lizzie, Tammy & Lisa), clearing a pathway (Hayley, Jen and Isabelle) and some hedge trimming (Darren).

Sarah and Helen discovered one of the 'Norfolk Rocks' amongst the bind week, which they later re-hid on the way home.

Before we headed back some of the group wanted to finish up with a cherry pip spitting competition, I'd never heard of this before and I'm not even sure I wanted to but it happened and I don't know who even won!

Now it's over to Calum... drum roll please.

Oh hai there GoodGym teams! Calum here, and it’s my turn to tell you all about my team’s mission. Wait. Sit down. Hold on. Strap in. Are you ready?

First thing’s first. I was not ready for tonight’s run. While Steve had asked me months ago about doing this, and I while I was eager to help out the Norwich Massive, I forgot. However I wouldn't let a little thing like organisation stop me! I think Steve was aware of this too because he promptly asked me to lead today's warm up 2 minutes before it was time to start the warm up. I bumbled and fumbled my way through, even learned a thing or two. Firstly, if you don't say please after most of your exercises and then say please after one people get REALLY suspicious. Like when you catch your sibling coming out of your room, even though the sign says “ no stupid brothers allowed ” Stan! Secondly GoodGym is full of patient and wonderful people willing to let a fool try bumble and fumble his way through his first ever warm up session.

After we split up, my 4 member strong team (Jasmine, Elizabeth, Chloe and I) sadly watched the larger team bounce off. We felt morose, like we were watching our 21 children head off to their first day of school. Still we had a task to do and no time to waste, especially as I would waste some time getting us lost probably. I did.

Once we finally arrived we were introduced to Open Doors staff and treasurer. They explained how Open Doors helps train eternal staff how best communicate with people who have learning disabilities, they also give advice and help to support those with learning disabilities. Incredible charity and really friend staff – they won our hearts with juice on a muggy evening.

We got shown to our room we were to paint and got stuck in. I bashed on some ABBA and the team started slapping on the paint. Even though we spent 45 minutes working on the room we didn't quite manage to paint all the walls, although I did manage to paint quite a large portion of myself by mistake. Open Doors was very understanding with the unfinished job and agreed we could return on a later run to finish it off, and possibly de-weed the garden. With a quick detour in to a pub to check the England score, we headed back to The Forum. I nearly got taken out by a seagull who did not appreciate my hat, but I made it. We stretched we joked, we bonded. It was a great task for the small team and we would be happy to do it again, although we did miss the rest of our GoodGym family. And remember my readers, unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

Next week we're heading to The Clare School.

We were only 1 short of a record turnout at GoodGym Norwich so thank you to everyone for turning out this evening... over 15 hours of volunteering time was given to Norwich Farmshare.

Announcements this week were to Elizabeth for taking part in her 25th GoodGym good deed. Elizabeth and Darren did the Wroxham 5km series on Wednesday evening. Robert B did the Chase the Train on Sunday and Sam finished top female at her Parkrun.

Calum completed his Leadership in Running Fitness course at the weekend so is nearly ready to assist me with sessions. Katy has hers in June.

3 new runners were taking part in their 1st GoodGym encounter so welcome Tammy, Annie and Naomi :-)

It was a lovely warm evening and we took a scenic route through Marriott's Way and Sloughbottom Park. The sight of all the red GoodGym t-shirts in the sunlight was a phenomenal spectacle as we embarked on our 2-mile outward journey.

Some of the GoodGym-ers had the task of sieving through compost and the others were forking (and yes I mean forking!) over an allotment area while some were collecting up the stuff that had been forked (not another innuendo I promise haha).

A thank you from me to Jazmine and Daisy for teaching me what a Boomerang is... when they asked if I could Boomerang them sieving I couldn't work out how a sieve could be used as a Boomerang, innocently not knowing it is some kind of video used on social media! Everyday's a school day.

After 30 minutes of hard work we then headed back to The Forum before several of us went off to the pub to unwind.

Credit for the pun this week actually goes to the task owner!

Next week it's bank holiday and we're visiting our good friends at Marlpit Community Garden.

Credit for this week's pun goes to Mr Darren Watkins.

For the 2nd week in a row we topped 30 runners :-)

The word of GoodGym Norwich is certainly getting around as we had another 6 new runners this week. Welcome to the family Sam, Sarah, Rosie, Sabrina, Isabelle & Verena.

Thank you Catherine for being back runner this week.

Some milestones this week as Hayley has now done 10 good deeds and Beks and Calum have now done 25 good deeds each! Amazing achievements.

Due to some last minute problems out of my control we had to change the task and instead we were visiting Oxfam to sort through some more donation books.

We had a short 1.5km jog there and was greeted by Emma who went through what books we could and couldn't keep. The good ones get put in boxes ready to be priced (Calum had already priced up Oliver's t-shirt and my forehead) and shelved and the bad ones get sacked up and put down the conveyor belt ready to be recycled.

Someone came across 3 nude body art books, I checked whether they could be kept and apparently they sell for a lot of money... enough said!

The team got through the rest of the book donations, which is a massive help to the charity and not bad when you consider over 16 hours of volunteering time went into this evening.

After we emptied our sacks on the conveyor belt to Sarah and Tom, we headed back downstairs for a quick group photo and then off for the fitness session we went ;-)

We had a stroll up Grapes Hill before hitting Chapelfield Gardens for a 10-minute FUN fitness session... well I think it was fun mwahaha.

We stretched off back at The Forum and then sang Happy Birthday to Bill who is turning 69 tomorrow! I'll be happy if I'm Bill's condition when I reach his age.

Next week we're visiting Catton Grove Community Centre to remove a large bush.