It's Good Friday, and 8 amazing Goodgymers were helping out at the Easter 10, a popular 10-mile race around West Maidenhead and White Waltham run by Maidenhead Athletic Club. Hundreds of runners took part, all looking for some hydration at our water station at around mile 6. First job was to set up the tables and fill as many cups as possible with water before the runners arrived. Mike and Karen's table won the prize for the neatest rows, but Sheila K and Kay squeezed on the greatest number! Rosie and Amy arrived on their bikes, having been carrying out other duties at the race village first. The first runner arrived 31 mins after the start, and from then on were kept busy handing out cups, furiously refilling new cups and chasing cups which the wind was unhelpfully blowing off the table. All while cheering on the runners. Special cheers were given to Claire from Goodgym, all the MAC runners and anyone else we knew. Meanwhile, Kelley was using her photography skills to capture the action. At last the flow of runners slowed and we could take on some sustainance in the form of cake and macaroons provided by Sheila A and Amy. Well done to everyone for giving such egg-cellant support to the runners

Last night, a big group of GoodGymmers (14 to be exact) along with 2 members of the local council gathered around a large laurel bush on the corner of St Luke's Road and Cordwallis Road. 2 groups had made sure they opted for active travel to arrive at the task - Sophie, Jess and Kelley ran 2km and there was a group of approximately 5-6 walkers who walked around 1.5km.

The task was to chop the bush down to make way for a nature garden for St Luke's School, just across the road. It was probably the biggest bush that GoodGym have trimmed thus far...!

Our task leader brought along lots of tools to help us - loppers, sacateurs and litter pickers - as there was a lot of litter buried deep within the bush! And nobody likes a dirty bush! So we did a sterling job of cleaning it up, chopping it back and our task leader was very handy with the saw to tackle the bigger branches. We worked on the bush for an hour and made a huge amount of progress which our task leader was very grateful for.

It was one heck of a workout and we were all sweating by the end, which meant we definitely all deserved some treats.

Thankfully, the amazing Anne-Laure made sure to plan her 50th good deed with this enormous group of hungry GoodGymmers and Rachel made the most epic cake and even provided homemade brownies for the free-from participants! Amy presented Anne-Laure with the customary handmade GoodGym medal too. Congratulations Anne-Laure on reaching this milestone and thank you Rachel for the yummy cakes and brownies!

I think we can all agree that the task was hard work, a laurel fun and as always, great company. There is a lot of laurel now piled up needing to be taken away so if any GoodGymmers are able to assist please message either Sophie or Amy via the whatsapp who can put you in touch with the task owner and you can self-log a good deed.

Great work GG team!

Six Goodgymers joined other volunteers at Ray Mill Island to continue our quest to regain the path. It was lovely to welcome Sheila to her second Goodgym session and Mike to his first! And everyone certainly got stuck in, cutting back the undergrowth which was invading the path, cutting out the roots and retrieving the soil. We felt like the Time Team, when we uncovered the original stone edging which had been buried for years and gave us a good line to excavate back to. It was great to see such great progress being made