We had two tasks tonight in different locations but for the same organisation. BHT (Brighton Housing Trust) provide essential services to help prevent homelessness and they had two messy and weedy yards in different locations which were in need of some Goodgym TLC.

Run Leader Helena took the warm up tonight and coped admirably with the unexpected situation of our lovely warm up space having been commandeered by Club Tropicana in preparation for this weekend’s Pride celebrations! On offering the group the options of going long with Helena or short with Tara there was pretty much an even split and those going long headed off to Hove for a 7.5km round trip to BHT Archways project which provides accommodation for people with mental health support needs. By all accounts the task was a great success and the weedy, messy yard was quickly transformed into a neat and tidy one. Gilles did some watering of the hanging baskets, Will pulled up a bush and exposed a gang of snails and no less than 4 bin bags of weeds were pulled up. Great work!

Closer to home those choosing the shorter option had a 3.5km round trip to BHTs Phase One project which is a high support hostel providing accommodation for single, homeless men and women many of whom are dealing with alcohol and substance misuse. We set to work sweeping, weeding and tidying their basement yards and even had time to give the windows a wash. Half an hour later and the yards were transformed. There was even talk of getting some scaffolding put up and doing the whole building!

We had some time to head to Hove Lawns for a fitness session where we worked on our core with a side plank Tabata (20 sec work, 10 sec rest x 8) followed by an ingenious partner workout where partner A holds a plank, thus working on core, whilst partner B, jumps over their legs and gets a great plyometric workout. Just as the group were reaching peak plank they were saved from further planking by the arrival of the long runners from Hove and we all joined up together for the last kilometre back to base.

Sadly no new runners tonight. If you're thinking of coming down, don't be shy, we're very welcoming, I think you'll like us!

Don't forget next week is our first social so we will be staying behind at our fabulous host venue YHA for a drink or 2. Until then Keep On Running!

‘Thunderstorm and hail warning for Brighton issued by Met office’ said The Argus, Brighton’s local newspaper. Surely not again! After another week of dry and balmy weather could it be possible that the only bit of rain that we’ve had in a whole week would coincide with our second Goodgym run?! The first spots were felt early on but the full deluge held off until near the end. Although the thunder and lightening felt a little ominous in the end we got the nice running rain, the welcoming kind that cools you down and refreshes.

It was a longer run tonight, 4km each way and uphill on the way there, so we cracked on with quite a pace to maximise the time at the task. The speedsters went ahead led by me and back marked by Dani, with Tess (who wrote a fantastic blog about last weeks task) read about it here leading the rest, back marked by Gillian from head office.

Our task tonight was banishing bind weed at The Bevy. I LOVE the Bevy! The pub was previously closed down because of anti social behaviour but the local community raised the funds to refurbish it and now it serves as a community pub and hub for the Moulsecoomb estate. There are all sorts of things going on there from quiz nights and live music nights, and ‘Brains at the Bevy’ where local academics come and give short and enlightening talks. The food is pretty good as well and even cheaper than chips in some other parts of town! And the locals are super friendly! Check out their website for more info and if you haven’t been there before, go check them out here. There is even a parkrun on its doorstep, of the hilly and off road variety, and the Bevy hosts coffee and breakfast after.

So there was a massive amount of bind weed that needed to be pulled up and that is exactly what we did. Whilst Jonathon & Tom did great work weeding the raised area above the pub garden (and thankfully not falling off the wall!) everybody else tackled the bind weed in the kitchen garden to the side. And after just 20 minutes we had removed 2 massive building sacks full of the stuff. Great work gang!

Bind weed banished we headed home, this time downhill. On the way back we injected a little bit of speed into the proceedings by running fast for a couple of timed intervals, stopping when I blew my whistle (that was fun, I felt like a school sports teacher!) and recovered by jogging back to join the group where we continued as one until the next burst of speed. If you want to run faster you have to, well …run faster! But by doing it in short bursts you get your body to adjust to the faster pace until before you know it that has become your new normal.

As we stretched at the end Gillian reminded us that Goodgym is about more than the group runs, so if you want to get involved with Missions and Coached runs then please join up and bring your documents along so we can get you DBS checked and doing even more good!

Well done to you all, that was a long run in hot conditions, please come along for next week’s shorter run with another great task and it might not even rain!