That’s right, our leader, our captain, the sultan, the grand pupa Steven Hitch abandoned us to go sun himself – and on our 50th run too! Thankfully the gracious and glorious Paul Evans stood in for Steve. Paul Evans, winner of the 1991 Lisbon Half Marathon, the 1996 Chicago Marathon and 10k finalist in the 1992 Olympics – we’re looking into making this swap slightly more permanent

Our intrepid runners gathered excitedly on the steps of The Forum. Eagerly awaiting Paul’s arrival. What would he be like? Would he bring his medals? Could he run on water? And how were we going to work his AND Steve’s name into a pun worthy of a Goodgym run report title?! (We smashed the last one, thanks Hayley and Liz)

Paul soon arrived and settled everyone into a warm up. After some stretches with an Olympian, a half-cut punk and 32 Goodgym runners we were ready to call this a weird joke and go home. Instead Paul handed off the responsibility of leading the run to Sarah and Calum, very sneaky Mr Olympian. There was immediate concern. Calum has often led Goodgymers astray in past runs – and not even in a humorous way, in a “Where is Calum and his 5 runners?” way. Still we all had faith in Paul’s decision, and no-one else wanted to set the pace for the night.

After multiple ‘almost wrong turns’, a dozen ‘not that way Calum’s’ and a few ‘Grab him before he runs to Ipswich’ the runners arrived at the base of Gas Hill. Now, the runners have faced this specific challenge many a time in the past. They were familiar with the deceptively devilish slope. But in their prolonged absence from the eye-watering incline of Gas Hill this once surmountable task had developed into nothing less than a behemoth. It was a colossus of gradients, the master of calf bursting, one hell of a mole hill. They set off.

ALL MADE THE PEAK!! They celebrated with high fives and “whooping”. Some whispered they heard Paul even say “That’s quite the hill” but that’s just rumour and hearsay. Soon our sweaty travellers arrived at their set task. De-weeding Marion Road Day Centre’s garden. Ploughing into the challenge our runners pulled, tugged and trimmed to their hearts content.

The task wasn’t without its mishaps. One young man was sitting, enwrapped in his task. He and his gardening fork are united in uprooting the befouling weeds before them. The rise and fall of his tool is rhythmic. Sweat and focus cover his face. Until, tragedy. The Fork has broken. The middle tooth lost in the wilderness of the garden. Oh for fork-sake. Despite this set back the team make the garden beautiful. And by a happy accident they end up collecting an extra runner from somewhere.* Wonder of wonders they’ve hit 33 and broken their record for highest attendance in Goodgym Norwich history!

The task completed, and Day centre staff elated, our runners head back to The Forum. A sprint session finished off the night’s 3.5km run. Some say a more punctual run has never been had. Others, that Sarah and Calum’s leadership was simultaneously inspirational and uplifting. Still all you need know is everyone arrived back safely. Stretched. Thanked Paul for his kind service to the cause and then ate some brownies supplied by Jasmine. Alas! Here our tale does end. Before I leave you to wait another week to hear of our next exciting exploits I shall leave you with this. You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes, you can run your life in any direction you choose. Until next time folks!

(*Actually it was Emily who joined us at the task!)

You're probably thinking to yourself "what on earth is that pun all about?!"... well read through and all will make sense.

A big welcome to Rosie who was attending her 1st GoodGym run.

The last time we visited Eaton Park it was winter and dark from start to finish. Roll on 3 months and it's completely light and sunny. We set off on the 2-mile trip through the Golden Triangle and what a lovely sight as an array of red GoodGym t-shirts drifted into Eaton Park.

Stuart was there waiting for us with buckets and cloths ready for the gang to go and clean as many benches in the park as they could. My gloves may have been left in my bag when we last used them in the rain (oops) but they have since been kindly washed by one of our members... they were so bad that 3 people offered to wash them (oops again).

30 minutes later of cleaning benches, we packed away and emptied the buckets out... after some people trying the bucket challenge (see photos).

Just as I was about to say "lets head back", the kids in the group (which seemed like the whole group haha) decided we needed to go via the playground so they could have a go on the zip-wire. Then of course it was also the swings, climbing frame, monkey bars etc. plus Catherine going down the kids slide.

So after reliving our youth again we did then head back to The Forum.

Next week we shall be visiting The Norwich Farmshare.

This was definitely the wettest and windiest GoodGym Norwich run to date but it didn't stop 15 people wanting to do good in their community.

Well done to the runners who did the Mad March Hare 10k yesterday.

Tonight's run was dedicated to #FinishForMatt in memory of Matt Campbell who tragically passed away during the London Marathon with 3.7 miles left to go... so we made that our distance this evening.

We visited Catton Grove Community Centre to remove a giant bramble/laurel bush... but not before Alex and Calum had a little play on the swing on the way there like big kids.

It was a good physical task tonight with saws, loppers and shears being used with loads of branches then being carried to the car park.

You can tell from the before and after photos how well the team did. It's something the volunteers at the centre couldn't do themselves so it was a massive help to them.

Next week we're doing a litter pick on Train Wood.

Credit for this week's pun goes to Mr Darren Watkins.

For the 2nd week in a row we topped 30 runners :-)

The word of GoodGym Norwich is certainly getting around as we had another 6 new runners this week. Welcome to the family Sam, Sarah, Rosie, Sabrina, Isabelle & Verena.

Thank you Catherine for being back runner this week.

Some milestones this week as Hayley has now done 10 good deeds and Beks and Calum have now done 25 good deeds each! Amazing achievements.

Due to some last minute problems out of my control we had to change the task and instead we were visiting Oxfam to sort through some more donation books.

We had a short 1.5km jog there and was greeted by Emma who went through what books we could and couldn't keep. The good ones get put in boxes ready to be priced (Calum had already priced up Oliver's t-shirt and my forehead) and shelved and the bad ones get sacked up and put down the conveyor belt ready to be recycled.

Someone came across 3 nude body art books, I checked whether they could be kept and apparently they sell for a lot of money... enough said!

The team got through the rest of the book donations, which is a massive help to the charity and not bad when you consider over 16 hours of volunteering time went into this evening.

After we emptied our sacks on the conveyor belt to Sarah and Tom, we headed back downstairs for a quick group photo and then off for the fitness session we went ;-)

We had a stroll up Grapes Hill before hitting Chapelfield Gardens for a 10-minute FUN fitness session... well I think it was fun mwahaha.

We stretched off back at The Forum and then sang Happy Birthday to Bill who is turning 69 tomorrow! I'll be happy if I'm Bill's condition when I reach his age.

Next week we're visiting Catton Grove Community Centre to remove a large bush.