It was a very early start for a sunny Sunday morning for the 13 GoodGym volunteers helping out at the Cardiff 10K. Excitement was in the air with two hours to go until race time. As an extra bit of excitement for us, we got to welcome Helen to her first GoodGym good deed ... welcome Helen and we hoped you enjoyed the experience and will come and run with us soon. Not only that but today's community mission marked Martin's 100th good deed.... Congratulations and the colourful sparkly wings await you on Tuesday Mr Graff!

After collecting our volunteer T-shirts the start and finish line volunteers gathered for the briefing before being split into those to help just at the finish and those to help at the start pens then the finish... we were given the dual role of start pens and finish area! We headed to the start area and were split into two teams... one would be looking after the orange pen and making sure people entered the correct pen safely while our other team were tasked with directing people to the pens. After seeing off the 2K fun run we got in position with tapes put up to mark the boundary between each colour pen. Mike demonstrated a fantastic limbo underneath one of these tapes and a giant leap over another. Some of us were positioned at the pen entry gates and others along the outside of the pens directing. At 10am came the countdown .. 10,9,8 .... and go!! It was fantastic to watch 9000 people move through the start in such a seamless manner... the race was underway!

This is when in true GoodGym style we sprung into action! Armed with our black bags we collected up all the hundreds of water bottles and energy gel sachets as well as all the abandoned jumpers and other clothes. The clothes were to be donated to a charity which helps homeless people. From the last runner crossing the line to us finishing clearing the start area was literally 5 minutes... awesome job guys!

But our task was only half complete... a quick dash over to the finish area ready for our next tasks.

Mikey, Fiona and Lucy were allocated to the T shirt section. Fiona armed herself with medium T shirts and was handing them out on rapid fire! She reported that she was so fast the static built up and she was getting a shock off of each runner she handed one to... now that's speedy! Mikey took on the less glamorous but essential role of cardboard box folding and laying out the next tens of T shirts for the other volunteers to hand out ... take a look at how neat those boxes were... great job Mikey! Lucy became Mikey's assistant and passer of the next piles of T shirts to the other volunteers but did manage to hand a few T shirts out ... Emma Wilkins having ran the race asked for me to be her T shirt giver.. aww well run Emma! Meanwhile Sophie was busy on the water bottle section hastily handing them out to the tired, thirsty runners as they came through the finish area. On the medal section were Peter, Martin, Mike, Karin, Sara, Marie, and Helen. They were busily congratulating the runners crossing the line and handing out their well deserved medals. Peter took the opportunity to give Ben his medal after he completed his volunteering as the 45 minute pacer.. And he finished bang on time, well done Ben! Ben later discovered the dangers of wearing a pacing flag as he bent down to pick up his water bottle and hit Welsh Dave with his flag.. oops! Thanks to Meg and Welsh Dave for support and photos of the GoodGym runners too!

In the blink of an eye it was an hour and a half since the race had started and most runners had already finished the race. Just as we thought our volunteering experience was over there was an urgent SOS from the baggage drop. They were struggling with the queues of people trying to collect their bags and could we all go over to help. We duly agreed and quickly made our way to the event village to help. What followed was a fun if not slightly stressful and infuriating game of hunt of the bag. The joy of finding the one you needed and handing it to a happy runner only to then be faced with another hunt for the next bag. Working together and with the other volunteers, after 20 minutes the queues had vanished and the bag drop tent back under control... phew!!

And that was that... 4 hours had flown by and our task was complete. I think it's safe to say we were all pretty tired and even commented how it's perhaps easier to run in the race than be a volunteer but we all had so much fun and laughs and enjoyed seeing and helping the runners achieve their goals.

And as for the GoodGym runners there were PBs galore.. well done to all of you! Together as a group, the GG volunteers, runners and cheerers headed to see our good friends at Big Moose Cafe for a well earned coffee and a treat to eat.

In the words of Alan Partridge, "AHA!" Tonight there were a whopping 25 runners at GoodGym

We're getting an amazing number of runners now every week - Isn't it great? Tonight we had 3 new runners! A HUMONGOUS welcome to GoodGym Daisy, Lauren and Karin. It was so lovely to meet you and we hope to see you at another GoodGym run soon. AND, before I forget, Karin was brought along to GoodGym by Sara and Lauren was brought along by Nathan. This means Nathan and Sara both got a red lace #LIFE GOALS #RunFasterWithARedLace #MakeSureYouGetItInsured

To warm up we played a game of Stuck in the dance. This game evolves busting some moves like you would on Mill Lane on a Saturday night, or like Mrs Doubtfire. We then played a game of In The River, On The Shore. Lewis was in charge of spotting whether people didn't make it to the shore / in the river in time.

What else is worth of a mention?

• A huge round of applause to Lowri and Adam who both took part in Barry 10k - They wore their GoodGym tops and boy did they look good!
• Ellen and Mikey completed a mission run to help an older person - You are A-MAZ-ING!
• A number of you took part in Parkrun this week too - Great work!

Get into your group peeps

We ran to the task in 3 groups tonight;

1.) The Speedy Group - Led by Mikey, this group runs at the speed of light (factually incorrect, but it sounds cool - they actually run pretty quickly though)

2.) The Sexy Group - Led by Ben, this group runs whilst being mindful to their running form. A more graceful pace.

3.) The Pacer Group - Led by Ellen, running at a slower speed to appreciate Cardiff's views and to have a good ol' chin wag .

Before setting off everyone was reminded to set their Strava's and Run Keepers so that the distance they run is captured on their running app (Not everyone has running apps though, so no pressure if you want to come to GoodGym and don't track your running).

We've made it to Grangetown Gardens

It wasn't long before we all arrived at the Gardens. Lorna from Keep Wales Tidy was there ready to welcome us surrounded by litter picking equipment. With all of the equipment Lorna had ready for us it looked like we were about to go for war against the litter... It was, GoodGym Cardiff vs. The litter of Grangetown... and we were notgoing to lose.

Ben challenged everyone to find the most interesting pieces of litter during the litter pick. With the challenge set, the competition had begun. Who on earth found what?! Well...

• Ellen found a Dora the Explorer game
• Emily found half a shopping trolley, a piece of bread and pink laughing gas - haha very funny... no, she really did!
• Emma found an empty energy can
• Lucy found a magnum stick
• Darren collected 107 cigarette butts - Well done butt!
• Marie found a Gregs coffee cup

After 25 minutes collecting litter and making ground breaking discoveries like the ones listed above, the task was over. Everyone began making their way back to where Lorna was waiting for us for our weekly group photo - obviously 1 of these photos includes having our hands in the air - Daisy, Karin and Lauren appeared proud with their litter picking performance on their first ever GoodGym run. Nathan did look very proud of Lauren too, and at the fact he now owns a red lace!

Thank you GoodGym for coming to help out Keep Wales Tidy this evening - It was lovely to see you all again and I look forward to seeing you in the not too distant future.

13 bags of litter! Who would've thought it. It really shows what can be achieved when a group of awesome GoodGym runners get stuck in.

We headed back as one group. We did step ups to allow runners to catch up who were further behind and we also had a go at bounding.

Click here to see a video of bounding in action

When we arrived at Big Moose we spent time stretching to warm down and reflected on the evening's run.

We then headed over to the Glassworks for drinkypoos and for the weekly tweet off.

The Tweet Off

Marie's incessant reading of 'How to win a tweet off' is paying off. She now has 4 points on the tweet off leader board over 4 consecutive weeks - They are going to be writing books about this someday. Tune in next week to see whether she makes it 5 weeks in a row.

• LM 9
• MO 4
• MG 3
• DRN 3
• EW 3
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1