Happy Birthday to Goodgym!

It has been 10 years for Goodgym but only 13 weeks for Goodgym Poole - Not quite sure what took us so long but the number 13 is certainly not unlucky for us!

Fittingly we had 10 of us in total tonight to join the task, the number of red shirts on show increasing every week!

We had a few aching muscles as Nicki, Rob and Kirsty had tackled the Littledown 5 on Sunday. Kirsty is currently on day 10 (there we go again!) of her run streak as part of her 50 days before 50 - I am sure Kirsty is delighted we have noted that on the reports! Maria had run a whopping 16km - (yes that is 10 miles!) as part of her training on the weekend as well as Aaron who had planned and run 30+ miles, with not even a medal as reward - he certainly sounds like one of those crazy running types!

The task tonight was back at St Aldhelms church to work once again with David in the gardens around the church. He has been working on the gardens for many years and has done a great job, but with 10 pairs of hands extra, all the work has really come on! Once again there was a few inclines on the way up - Ashley Green was a stopping point for a quick drills (mental note for the coach - we need to work on these :)) and photo including the all important flag.

On arrival at the task, we had a team take on the patch of ground that was cleared in part last time - it is full of brambles and all sorts so back breaking work. Liz was back on the fork over there, with Ruth, Aaron, Nicki and Maria all digging deep to get it cleared. Rob and Julie worked on the copious amounts of leaves all around the building, clearing the main pathways. Kirsty and Sarah were on bush cutting duties! Great to be joined by Sarah proudly wearing her black 50 Goodgym T-shirt tonight, visiting from our local Bournemouth group - please do come again Sarah, it was great to have you.

Thanks for Maria for entertaining us despite her spanish slip up (I hope you are less blocked soon Maria ;). As it was a birthday celebration - there was one essential item - CAKE! Lovely to have a slice or two back at Daveena's before heading home, sadly now dark night.

Best of luck to Nicola who this weekend is completing the Disney Land Half Mara in Paris! Goodgym will be at Upton parkrun this Saturday to promote the work we do and we have a community mission coming up on Saturday!

September is such a cracking month! Still light enough in the evenings, warm enough and not too much rainfall!

Another new task location for us at Goodgym Poole last night and a new contact with Poole Housing Partnership requesting this one!

First of well done to Ali and Rob for New Forest 10k at the weekend - I hear it is a stunning route through the forest.

Everyone was delighted to hear the task tonight was only a mile away - just North Road to go 'up' first (groans!). A quick lap around the cricket pitch to realise in the warm up that the brains had already switched off from the ability to remember more than one instruction :)! But we managed it just about with some jumps and knees and lunges!

North Road has the benefit of long slow drag and the sharp incline near the top, as well as a few steps if you off road so great chance to practice use of arms up the hill and some quick feet on the steps! Great to see Graham back for his second run blasting up the hill with Richard making it look pretty easy! Loved the fact that Vicky, the ever so reluctant runner, was the only one to volunteer with the men to blast up the steps again!

We arrived at Belmont Court with the light and a resident, Virginia and her little dog ready for us. Virginia was organised and had for us empty green bins, tools and plenty of bins so once again we could just crack on!

The aim of the task was to clear ivy from the pathway as it was an emergency vehicle access driveway. Fortunately it just pulled up as the driveway was pretty long and it was a wide section. As a team of 8, they literally worked there way along the driveway much to the amazement of Virginia as she watched the area get clearer and clearer! I counted at least 3 green bins filled and emptied into the compost pile - it may have been more! Pat was quick to grab some shears (too quick I think!) whilst we had Julie x 2 filling the containers faster than we could squish in down in the green bins! 35 minutes later and the difference is clear from the photos, as well as looking a lot better it will make it safer for use by vehicles.

Virginia thanked us at the end and gave us 5 stars!

A nice steady run down North Road to finish up and time to go home for a cuppa!

Next week we are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Goodgym so watch out for what is happening! (There may even be cake...!)

It was a change of plan from the off as sadly the Dementia Cafe we had planned a task for, had received the news that they it will not be going ahead so the planned leaflet drop was no longer! Given it was still light currently, the plan was to do a litter pick amongst one of the many areas us runners like to go on - Holes Bay!

Warm up was in the attractive location of the garage forecourt while watching lunges by seasoned runners is always interesting! Something we need to work on I feel!

Onto Holes Bay where it was back into 2 teams splitting into each direction to tackle the main path. On first inspection it looked pretty clean, but go just inside the bushes and there is clearly many BBQ's / parties that have happened along the path. As ever a bit of competition to see what can be found and both teams came up with... a trolley! One was wizzed round to ASDA by Richard and Pat who some could say were lucky to miss the fitness session! I lost count of bags but at the end, we managed to fill a council bin that was previously empty, so it was completely full! (I will inform council tomorrow it is full!). So it was without doubt a result for people that use pathways but also all the nature that thrive in the area!

Fitness session demostrated that Ali and Julie are the most consistent runners but judging distance was won overall by a new Goodgym runnners - Graham and Sharon who guessed the distance travelled pretty much bang on. (Graham I still cannot believe you have not done a parkrun yet!) Rob as ever surprised his fellow runners with having bursts of speed when needed leaving a trail of dust! Thanks to Jayne and Julia for back running - I hear Jayne did a tough run yesterday so well done for joining us tonight on her first Goodgym!

The sunset was lovely and a great time to run through dusk in the town centre guided by Maria who added in the benefit of running over the railway bridge (with some groans from others!)

Great atmosphere as ever - what a lovely bunch of people you all are!

        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!