Our group run took us to Boscombe this evening to help out at the community garden near St Clement's Church run and organised by Grounded Enterprises. A beautiful vegetable garden that provides food for the local community and learning opportunity to the schools in the area.

It was great to have Carole come along and join us for her first group run and she was brilliant! Give her a big cheer here! See you next week!!

After being away for like ever it was also great to have David come and hang out with us again! We hope you don't leave it as long next time!

We arrived right on time to meet Mike who got us moving some old surf boards out of the way, along with astro turf, doors, pallets, and old tires! Some of the group got stuck rearranging all the junk behind one of the polytunnels, moving surf boards and pots out of the way to make sure it would all fit nicely and safely!!

At the same time the other half of the team were rolling logs out on the alleyway between the garden and the school to make the area look more woodlandy and inviting for the school children that walk through.

At the same time the shack on site was being used for a community support group, so lots of positive things were taking place at the same time. Lots and lots of positive energy flowing in that garden...which is probably why everything tasted so delicious when Mike let the group taste some lemon cucumber, sugar snaps, amaranth shoots, and lots of different edible flowers too! Amazing and all organically grown. Can't wait to have my own garden!!

After getting the job done we had to get back on time to make sure we could get our bags our of Flirt on time...they have started to close at 8pm now...and i've heard rumours they may be closing, so start keeping en eye out for new start locations!

Well done everyone! See you all next week!

Today 12 of us got together to go and help a new organisation. Body Positive, a charity that is set up to help those affected and living with HIV. One of the carers there is using the offices to get married, so Samantha, the founder, asked us to come down and make their garden look amazing. It was great to have Andy join us after a while away, such a lovely surprise!

Our run there was very short, but all uphill. Just a little over 1km of a gradual climb, just not enough time for us to all get chatting and catch up on the past week's happenings! Samantha was so happy to see us and had managed to get together most of the tools they had available. The gang got stuck right in! Laura and Dan on their knees getting all the muck out from between the stones on the floor and doing an amazing job! Sarah, Daryl and Andy swept up the whole patio area and filled numerous bags. Pia and Megan were one terrace up making the flower beds look good enough for an appearance on Gardeners' World! The other half of the gang were in the front garden. Neil was scraping out weeds from between the paving stones, Heather chopping down bramble with Soren. Caprice sweeping. Everyone finished their jobs and then went to help out in other areas. In about 45 minutes time we had filled 8 bags of garden waste and left the place ready for a royal wedding!!! Amazing job team! Samantha was so grateful and impressed, and it was great to start to build another meaningful relationship in the our community! I hope you all have peaceful dreams and that the good karma finds you soon!

See you all next week!

Last night we headed to Hope Housing to help Mark with a task...each time we go it's something totally different and yesterday evening was no....different. It was great to have Ema back after not being able to join us for a while. Welcome back! And a huge

WELCOME TO THE GANG

to Pia and Heather who have become members. We hope you get your t-shirt in the post super quick so you can wear it proudly on the runs! Click their names, support them and give them a cheer!

As our run was a little shorter this week and some of us were having a beer after the run EVERYONE wanted to do some hill work....I was against the idea myself but had to give in.... There's a zig zag along the prom that is hidden behind lots of vegetation, making it look like something out of the jungle. Most of us were able to run up it twice before then setting off towards Hope Housing. Upon our arrival we were tasked with shifting a huge pile of logs from the car park to the back of the garden. Where it was to be sorted into an organised pile. After shifting a lot of it some of us had to stay in one place to sort it. Heather used here experience of Spartan Races to shift some massive logs with ease! And by the looks of things there were lots of others who would probably do well in a Spartan race! John, Jenni, Andrea, Heather and Dan were in charge of passing along logs to John for him to put in the right places. They soon managed to entertain themselves by pretending each log looked like something else! From machine guns and wizard staffs to a log that needed a pee! Andrea even managed to find one that looked like some pants!!

The logs will be used as fire wood but some will also be used for arts and crafts for the residents. They will make snow men for Christmas and other sculptures.

We managed to finish that bit really quickly so Mark had us tidying a classroom for yoga lessons....we managed to get 7 people in the shed next door whilst moving gym equipment in there! Not bad! We were rewarded with some bottled water...which Hope Housing received for free, as it had a spelling mistake in the label! Can you spot it?

Our run back to Flirt Cafe was nice and easy and mostly downhill....until the final rise along the high street which Jenni destroyed!!

Well done everyone, next week we're at the Foodbank, a favourite of ours. Sign up here

See you there!

A warm and sunny evening in Bournemouth brought 17 lovely runners together to go do some painting at St Clements' and St John Infant School. We all gathered on the deck in front of Flirt Cafe, basking in the evening sunshine, catching up with each other and welcoming new faces.

It was great to have Jenni back as well as Mark, we missed you guys and we're really happy you're back! Also great to have John back after having to live the life of a hermit due to exams!

We were delighted we didn't scare off Megan last week, and even happier she brought Oskar along for his first taste of GoodGym group runs.

We also welcomed Zoe, Heather and Emma along for their first time. We really hope you guys had a great time, met some nice new people and come along next week or whenever you have the time! You're always welcome!

We took the quickest route there as everyone was eager to get stuck into some painting. The quickest route there was also the one with the most shade, which was a vital consideration as it was very hot out again...the down side of it is, that it is on a gentle slope up...but everyone coped well and great to see all the new faces quickly getting into the spirit and chatting to everyone and getting along.

Joe was waiting for us at the school gate and as we only had 12 paint brushes, those of us spare started on a bit of a litter pick and then taking turns with those with brushes.

SHARING IS CARING

Andrea managed to protect her spanking new shoes in a very innovative way... Neil ended up with the most paint on himself...good work Caprice! Jenni and Neil were able to get a bit of football practice in in between turns.

With 10 minutes to go it was looking like we wouldn't get the section of the fence finished but a big push at the end saw the gang get the job done! Great effort everyone. That fence was not making it easy, it needed double coating!

We have a first Community Mission coming up on August 11th. It's a Saturday and a longer run than usual, 5.5km each way and about an hour of task work when we get there. Come along, hang out and make up for your Friday night shenanigans! Check it out and sign up here

Great to run with all of you as always! Hope to see you all soon!

Unfortunately we had our group task of painting at the school canceled today and after scrambling around to try to find another task, with no luck at all..... we "settled" for a beach clean. We are so lucky to be able to do that here in Bournemouth.

Today we said a big welcome to two new faces. Pia invited James along and it was great to finally meet him. Welcome James, it was great running with you and we hope both of you come along as often as possible.

We were also lucky to have Megan join us for her first group run, having only heard about GoodGym from a friend on Sunday she signed up straight away. It was great to meet you and I'm not at all concerned about how close you grew up to Andrea!! Coincidences of life! Brilliant.

Both new faces settled in straight away as we set off through the gardens and down to the beach for the first of our hills...and the gang did very well to troop up the first 400m climb...then along the overcliff and down the zig zag...which is way more fun to run down than up!! Then back towards the Pier again for our next 400m uphill climb...that one was tough but Neil and James powered up it with ease! At the top we all pretended to look fresh as daisies....and some did better than others....

Then the lovely trainer took us through the park and into the trees and down some steps....and straight to some steep steps to the next overcliff! Honestly, why would someone do that! Well, hills are great for our leg strength and will make us stronger runners...probably not the message everyone wanted to hear!

We headed back down to the beach after 5km and started on the beach clean...there wasn't that much big stuff around which is either credit to the council or people being more responsible. We did find a tonne of cigarette butts though...please don't leave those on the beach, they take forever to decompose! So sad.

Daryl managed to find a love heart mould which was probably the oddest thing out! Very tame compared to our last outing. We threw our rubbish bags in the big bins and set off back to Flirt cafe...trying to avoid the hills and the usual long hill back up....thanks Neil!

Thank you James for taking some great shot for us!

We will miss Grace who is off on a 5 week summer break, but we'll be here when you get back....promise not to do toooooo many amazing tasks without you!

Well done everyone, next week we should be fence painting! Sign up here