33 GoodGym Cardiff runners celebrated Christmas in style at The Classroom - Y Dosbarth

Everyone began arriving at about 7.15pm into The Classroom. The first thing everyone had to digest about one another was the fact that people were wearing clothes other than GoodGym t-shirts! Firm believers of the work hard, play hard principle, after an incredible year of running and helping others it was now time to let off steam, and the bar staff were challenged to make a whole array of cocktails to satisfy taste buds.

Let's get quizzical

Ben planned a quiz for the Christmas do; There were 2 two picture rounds (Guess the breed of the dog, and name the artist) and 3 question rounds (How well do you remember 2018, A Christmas round and Miscellaneous round - You've got to love a bit of everything).

Martin and Ben both facilitated the quiz. The team names... The Goodgym Guys, Tom to the power of 9, and two other team names I cannot remember! (Apologies :) ) Many teams had an extra team member, Google - You know who you areeeee! The winners were Tom to the Power of 9 - Well done folks.

Thank you everyone

I had been quite unwell with flu symptoms over the past few days so I didn't plan a script for the evening's speech. What I did say though, and what I will echo again now is, thank you. Over the past year at GoodGym Cardiff and Vale we have achieved incredible milestones, both personal and as a team, and these deserve recognition. I say thanks because being the lead of GoodGym Cardiff is made an absolute pleasure because of each and every one of you - you make it all worthwhile - your determination and tenacity to made Cardiff and the Vale a better place inspires and motivates me.

Where to?

After The Classroom people went in a few different directions, but many went to Bootlegger in town and the hardcore amongst the group headed to Clwb Ifor Bach until very late!

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The Classroom is a wonderful place to go for food and drinks. The Classroom has a vision and passion to develop future talent for the hospitality industry. They have a team of industry professionals with a wealth of experience from Michelin Star and multiple AA Rosette awarded establishments. Led by these experts, the Classroom is staffed with Cardiff and Vale College students who are keen to hone in their skills and experience to start their careers in the profession. Former students who attended the college have progressed into top professional kitchens and venues across the region, UK and beyond!

It’s Tuesday I hear you say? Yes, that’s right! It’s Tuesday and that can only mean one thing… It’s GoodGym day.

A great turnout at GoodGym Cardiff tonight with a whopping 24 runners making an appearance – You are amazing! We started our run with a headcount and by shouting out our favourite fruit. There were plenty of kiwi, banana and mango lovers amongst us... and now the whole of queen street know! Does anyone know why the banana went to the doctors? It wasn’t peeling well – I know, I know, comedy gold – You’ll find me at Glee Club sometime in the future. Feeling warm, ripe (nice inserted reference to fruit) and ready, we had no more time to waste.

This evening we banana split ourselves into two groups to run to the task; Darren, who did his hair especially for this evening’s run was, of course, leading the sexy runners. Ben led the speedy runners. The sexy runners, flaunting their running legs, took a direct route to the task whilst the speedy runners, not flaunting their legs as much, stopped to do press-ups, star jumps and squat jumps – Martin said he was tired so this was the plan to wake him up! He claimed it didn't work but we didn't see another yawn out of him!

Welcome to the YMCA you amazing GoodGym lot

Tony invited us into the store and greeted us with a warm welcome. There was no messing around with Tony and he was quick to let us know what our task would be that evening. He said we had to put small cubes that corresponded with the size of the clothes onto the correct hangers…. “No problem” we all said and quickly everyone got stuck straight in... Weeeeeee.

Lowri caught sign of the card game ‘Stare’. She took the name of the game quite literally and was captivated by it, staring at the box for what must have been 10 minutes. Darren began riding on a child’s rocking horse… living the dream. Matt from Let’s Make Good Happen had his picture taken with a teenage mutant ninja turtle - New profile photo? Mike was back for his second run with GoodGym and he appeared to love this week’s task, really relishing in the opportunity to do good! Both Molly and Katy tried out the sofa, their verdict was that it was so comfortable that they struggled to get up from it... Unfortunately for the sofa has already been sold. There is also a photo of Owen with a new friend he met at the YMCA and Lewis with Peppa pig!

After 30 minutes of helping out Tony was pleased with everyone’s efforts. He said “you’ve done exactly what we wanted and it’s great all the clothes now have sizing cubes on their hangers”. Tony then invited us to stay an extra 5 minutes to have mince pies and a group photo before we headed back.... Oh go on then, if you insist ;) Aware that it isn’t long until Christmas and that it is unlikely we will be visiting the YMCA before then, we all said Nadolig Llawen to Tony when we left and thanked him for giving us an AWESOME reason to run.

The time has come to run back

We began the run back to town as one group and then split into smaller sub groups, regrouping at the Big Moose Café at the end of the run. Whilst doing our warm down exercises we reflected on evening's run which we all agreed was absolutely great fun! A successful #GivingTuesday run if I do say so myself!

Unsure about getting involved? Just come along :) Everyone is friendly and we make sure nobody gets left behind!!

Don’t forget folks…

• Sign up to get involved in putting up the Christmas decorations at Herbert Thompson Primary School on Thursday 29th December by clicking here
• Help set up the Grangetown Christmas market on Saturday 1st December by clicking here
• Celebrate Christmas with residents of the Vale who rarely able to get involved in events in their community. This is taking place on the Monday 1st December. Click here to get signed up
• Don’t forget to join in next week’s group run by clicking here. We will be running to help out our friends at the Forget-Me-Not charity again.

So in summary, there is lots of stuff going on that you can get involved with!

The GoodGym run was pretty epic tonight to say the least, and GoodGym runners came from afar (afar away as Bristol) to take part in tonight's run. We gave the warmest of Welsh welcomes to GoodGym Bristol runners David Guest and Richard Giddings... Okay, maybe not the warmest as we didn't give them a cwtch, but there is always next time. We've also been assured by them that they are going to be visiting more often next year when the bridge tolls on the Severn Bridge are lifted - Wooppeee

We were also blessed with two new runners joining the evening's run. A HUGE welcome to Anthony and Mike. Mike is Ellen's friend... DRUM ROLL PLEASE... This means Ellen earns herself 1 red lace # LifesGoals . Ellen did not stop smiling the whole run, proud of her red lace prize.

Even though it was mighty cold this evening... and by mighty cold I mean even snowmen would be shaking, we still had an amazing turnout of 20 runners.

The warm-up was brief so we could get running.

Before the run Darren pleaded with Ben to be able to lead the 'sexy' group of runners. Ben kindly said to Darren that this would be fine and so before the run Darren spent time doing his hair and spent time making himself look as sexy as possible. N.B. The sexy group of runners are the group of runners who want to run at a slightly slower pace, concentrating on their technique and form.

Ben led the speedy runners. Those runners who wanted to push themselves at a quicker pace.

The run to the task was approximately 2.0 miles.

Welcome to St Alban's Primary School!

Rachel greeted everyone at the school entrance with a smile. She told everyone about the school and explained the tasks that needed doing. Rachel had really gone all out in planning the task... paint, rollers and trays were laid out ready, clear instructions were projected onto a screen in the hall, and there was water waiting for us to keep us hydrated. Rachel was so lovely, even offering everyone teas and coffees.

• Darren and Aimee made light work of the playground, sweeping up the leaves and tidying up all of the equipment.
• Lucy, Emily and Lowri were painting in the school library.
• Anthony, Lydia and Su were painting in one of the classrooms - Faces of concentration... Grade A for you lot!
• Richard, Welsh Dave and Mike were painting in another classroom - Grade C guys... JOKE! Grade A for you too!
• Lucy, Owen, Ellen, Molly and Katy were all painting the wall in the entrance foyer grey... Greyt work folks!
• Emma, David and Adam were making light work of rearranging the school offices - Very impressive work.

Thank you so much for all of your help GoodGym - You're all amazing!

The task took 30 minutes and then it was done! Rachel was so pleased with how much was achieved in the time... and she wants us back!! We had a group photo before we headed off and then we made our way back.

Darren led the run back... everyone was now a sexy runner! Emma was backmarker, making sure nobody was left behind.

Well done to Ben who came up with the Pun for the Run and is this weeks RunPunStiltskin winner! Enjoy the virtual award... spend time with it but don't get too attached as there will be a new winner again next week.

Reminder of what's coming up;

• Sign up to next week's group run by clicking here
• Join in the community mission this Thursday evening by clicking here
• Run to help set up Grangetown Street Market on the 1st December - Find out more by clicking here

A huge well done for everyone for a successful task this week - You're incredible!

21 Spooky GoodGym runners ran to help out the Samye Foundation. It was a very ghoul run!

Witching hour was an hour earlier this week as the clocks went back on the weekend, it was completely dark when we started our run - ooooo spooky. There were lots of new faces this week, including Velma from Scooby doo and batman from, well, Batman of course! This week was also a milestone for Batman (Aka Martin) who reached 50 good deeds and was presented with a special 50 badge; He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a Dark Knight As a Halloween special, we played a few Halloween themed games including Trick or Treat and Groups of Doom. The task involved running around and going head to head with other runners to find out who would do burpees and who would do star jumps.

It was time to begin our run to the task… and who better to lead the way than someone who is used to adventures… Making a special appearance this evening from all the way from the shire, Bilbo Ben led runners to the evenings task. Over hills and across rivers, Bilbo Ben and the fellowship of GoodGym Cardiff ran hard.

Welcome to the Samye Mindfulness and Wellbeing Centre Unrecognisable Lorraine, who was also dressed in an awesome fancy dress cat costume, welcomed everyone to the Samye Centre, offering water to runners on arrival to allow them to rehydrate themselves. Lorraine then explained the task for the evening. “Okay everyone, we have lots of plants in the building that need to be re-potted. Your task will be to take all of the indoor plants ourside, replenish the plants with fresh soil and then return them back to their original positions”. Upon hearing the task we had all been we all got stuck straight in.

Darren took photos of runners completing the task and whilst Bilbo Ben provided a countdown. Rosie had the most reflective jacket in the world.

Task Complete! Lorraine thanked everyone for completing the task in rapid time and said the plants look so much happier! Everyone then gathered together for a group photo and after having the group photo Lorraine then invited everyone back into the centre for nibbles and warm spicy pumpkin soup to warm up cold finders ready for the run back.

After 15 minutes of chatting and eating it was time to go.

Ellen led the run back whilst Fiona and Rosie backmarked.

Why do ghosts go to bars?.... For the boos!

Thank you Samye for an epic task and for giving us a reason to run.

The Pun-king award this week goes to Ben! Well done.!! Come on peeps.. I want some really good pun suggestions next week!

After the run we headed to the Glassworks where Martin shared with everyone Welsh Cakes he had spent a lot of time baking.

Reminders: * Sign up to next week’s run to the Llanover Arts Centre by clicking here * Join in the next run in Penarth on the 17th November by clicking here