Ten runners ran 6.7km to help the Canal and River Trust at Belgrave Lock

On what was described as the hottest GoodGym task since GG Leicester launched, a team of ten trooped along the Grand Union Canal to help the Canal and River Trust apply some woodstain to sleepers along the canal edge at Belgrave Lock before retiring to the Black Horse for some celebrations.

We welcomed Laura to her first GoodGym group run, we hope you enjoyed it and would love to see you back with us again soon! A beautiful, peaceful run at a gentle pace along the water's edge past Abbey Park saw us arrive bang on time to meet Oliver from the C&R Trust who briefed us on our task for the evening. With Mel and Lindsay getting stuck into some litter picking, the rest of the group armed themselves with brushes and pots and got stuck in. Luckily we were working in the shade and the mild breeze made for very pleasant and relaxing working conditions given the brutal heat of the day. By the time we had to stop we had completed around 35m of the sleepers and it looked mighty impressive. Dave noted that as we were working our way back along the sleepers towards our base that the more we got done tonight, the nearer we'd be to get here if we come back again to carry on!

As we made our return journey we realised that the sleepers we'd been working on went all the way back to Abbey Park, a distance of around 850m! This task could be our very own version of painting the Forth Bridge!

Upon our return we all headed straight to the roof terrace of our favourite little watering hole. We congratulated Laura on completing her first good deed who may now be under the impression that every week involves gin and doughnuts after the run, then it was time to celebrate our very first GoodGym angel. Jimmy completed his 100th good deed tonight, an incredible achievement considering GG Leicester has yet to mark its second anniversary. Jimmy very rarely misses a group run having been with the group from the very first day and his absence is always noted with a puzzled "where's Jimmy?" from the group if his bike hasn't pulled up outside by 5.50pm. He regularly volunteers to back mark for us and without exception makes sure any new runners feel welcome. Congratulations Jimmy on being our first GG Leicester Angel, we can't wait to see your new shirt!

Our final "celebration" was tinged with sadness. Lindsay, one of our run leaders, is moving down to Kent and this run was her last with us as a "regular" for the forseeable future. Much like Jimmy, Lindsay's contribution to the group has been immense. She first appeared on a group run at our third event and has completed a mightily impressive 76 good deeds with us despite significant injury problems this year. She has taken charge of a number of group runs, is always friendly and supportive to other runners and has shown amazing commitment to the group since her injury, still turning up and walking to tasks regardless of the weather even though not being able to run has proved incredibly frustrating for her. Thank you for everything you've done Lindsay, do let us know when you'll be around on any weekends and we'll get some community missions set up!

A wonderful evening with wonderful people and a great new task that looks like it'll keep us busy a number of times over the coming months!

Happy running, HD

12 runners ran 8km to support the Wreake Valley Rotary Club with their Watermead Challenge

What an amazing evening! GoodGym took their group run on a mini-tour to Watermead Park tonight to support the Rotary Club of the Wreake Valley with their Watermead Challenge race to raise money for the John Walls Renal Unit at Leicester General Hospital, Abigail Herus of Syston and Leicestershire Life Education.

This evening we were charged with manning the registration tent for the 600 runner sold out race. Dave, using his vast racing experience and having led a GoodGym group run at the event last year, advised the organisers to allocate the race numbers in alphabetical order for the runners and this top tip proved crucial in ensuring a smooth evening for us all. Our squad took their spots in the tent and braced for impact as the runners descended on the park. However, the speed and efficiency of the GoodGym crew ensured that none of the runners faced any sort of delay in picking up their race numbers and ensured that the race went off bang on time at 7pm on the dot!

Huge congratulations tonight to Sharon who completed her first official race of any kind tonight. Since she joined GoodGym she's worked really hard and built her confidence and by all accounts (the results aren't out at the time of writing) she absolutely flew around the course! Afterwards she was talking of joining a running club...she was politely advised to join a club that don't run on Tuesday nights!

Well done also to Lisette on her first race back after injury and to Dave, Mel, Jeanette, Katy, Jimmy, Matt, Stu and Huw who all completed either the 3 mile or 5 mile racing option on a beautiful sunny evening on a fantastic course.

Massive thanks also to Mel's running buddy Dan who helped out on the registration desk thus earning himself his first GoodGym good deed! Well done Dan, we'll hopefully see you on a Tuesday again soon! Thanks also for the amazing pictures from Lindsay, Lorna, Jeanette and Mel, a huge album tonight!

The feedback from the Rotary Club was so positive, we should all proud of our efforts tonight! We did some good, ran some miles and shared some laughs. How good is GoodGym!

HD

12 runners went to help out at the Rothley 10k event raising money for local charities**

Well that was interesting! A great turnout of GoodGym runners headed out to Rothley to support the 10k race raising money for local charities.

Some of us helped before the race with car parking before running the race, some of us got absolutely drenched out on the course marshaling.

Thank you so much to everyone for giving up so much of your evening in such miserable conditions.

A brief report tonight, back to full on waffle mode next week folks as we head back to Electricity Sports CC!

HD