We arrived at the Princes Park run on a wet Saturday morning. It had been cancelled but a lot of people were milling around unaware Sallyann went into promo mode and handed out goodgym leaflets. She managed to recruit three people to the goodgym special run, Lillika, Daniel and Dan. Sallyann , Steph and Bekah embarked on the run with the three new friends while Lucien Leonardoand Miriam walked to the final meeting spot, the Oasis cafe in Sefton Park. The runners ran out of Princes park, did a lap of Sefton and then ran to the cafe. For Bekah and Steph this was one of multiple 5Ks this weekend with the Santa Dash on Sunday morning and Bekah taking on a third this afternoon. Steph was really pleased with her result today as she had wanted to run under 40mins and managed a 37mins. Lillika, Daniel and Dan didn’t join us for breakfast but Ellie came along just in time for the awarding of stickers. Lucien celebrated a full card of stickers- 12 for 12 months of park runs plus a bonus red glittery sticker for the added park run we did when our London friends were visiting. Bekah nearly filled her card just one off, Eleanor gained a fifth sticker and Leo confessed to washing his card in the washing machine. So aside from an addiction to stickers what is the incentive to collect stars?… Sallyann suggested that there might be some awards at the Christmas party this week! There was some discussion about next year’s park runs, what cafes we could go to. Looking forward to another year of park runs.

On the first day of December, whilst the last of the evening showers continued, 6 determined Goodgymmers met at our usual suitcases spot for the run to the task. This was to be my supervised run session to consolidate my Goodym fitness leader training. I was grateful for the motivated bunch that met me in the rain, showing that classic Goodgym Liverpool support.

After a welcome and warm up, we weaved through the streets of Liverpool Central, to finish at the 2km mark on Park lane, where Bekah was waiting to welcome us. Joined by Lucian and Elaine, we were ready to start our evenings task.

The idea of clearing some of the more persistent nettles and thistles had Lucien eagerly rushing into the Park Lane garden to get stuck in Bekah , on the other hand, had an hour of exposure therapy. She braved her fears to provide much needed light and nettle spotting expertise for the group!

After an hour of weeding, a little bit of December and January planning and the mandatory group photo, the runners set off back up the notorious parliament hill! Having well tested our fitness levels, we arrived at the suitcases for a much need stretch. I was thankful to receive some lovely feedback from the group. We said our goodbyes and headed off into the night towards home. Another successful task completed!

I can't quite believe that it's a year ago since we made our way through the snow to The Arts Bar to make paper chain starter packs for children and young people who are going to be staying in hospital over the Christmas period. Yet the calendar says it is a year and the temperature drop this morning meant although we had no snow it did feel seasonally cold enough to get together with Christmas paper, pens, Christmas stamps and the ever present cheesy Christmas jokes.

Ellie did tell us that last year she had learnt a lot of the jokes and told them at all her christmas dinners and parties. She is a little concerned that she has less invites this year.... were the jokes really that cheesy or was it the way she told them?

Whilst some were saddened by the white hot chocolate being off the menu this year we all managed to find warming drinks to help us through the task plus cheesy jokes, and talks of our own Christmas party coming up on 11th December. Before we knew it we had to start to clear up there was a last minute scramble to get to 300 strips completed (and ever enthusiastic Pauline is going to do more tomorrow before the send off deadline).

We finished just in time to hand the space over for the open mic session.. despite encouragement we couldn't persuade Jess to stay on and get on stage.... we all left with no one taking to the stage this time.

Out into the cold night all feeling a little more festive thanks to the paperchain project.

After a bumper turnout last week to welcome visitors from London, six of us made it out for our official Sticker Parkrun Day. Storm Claudia had brought rain and wind to the area the day before, but Saturday greeted us with a calm—if grey—morning. On days like this, it can take a real effort to get up and out, but what the weather lacked was more than made up for by the warmth of seeing the GoodGym crew gather together. Warm hearts, sunshine smiles, and off we went for our 11th monthly parkrun. Kudos to Jess, who crossed the finish line on an apt 11k, having run from home beforehand!.

Bekah was kind enough to keep me company around the course, and as we trotted along we found ourselves planning some future GoodGym events. A shout-out is definitely needed here: Bekah used to always say she couldn’t talk while running, and now she’s full-on planning mode mid-parkrun. (Progress isn’t just about times, Bekah!) Lucien was ready at the finish to greet us with the much-sought-after stickers. GoodGym Liverpool Parkrun 2025 relies heavily on his organisational skills and steady presence — or, as I alway think, on him being “the responsible adult.”

As someone who is very motivated by the post-parkrun breakfast, I’m always super impressed that Steph and Amina both turn up and run even though often commitments mean they have to leave and skip breakfast. Its always so lovely to hang out before and after parkrun with them both whilst we are doing the Goodgym equivalent of herding kittems for the post parkrun photo.

Today Lucien Bekah and myself were joined by Mo who we had met last week at parkrun and we headed to breakfast at The Golden Brunch. Over a hearty breakfast we discussed our next session which Mo is hoping to join us for.

We only have one monthly parkrun left for 2025 why not join us on December 5th and end the twelve months of Goodgym Liverpool does parkrun