The gauntlet was thrown down to come up with a fitness task for the good folks of GoodGym Swindon. But what to do?

We settled on Running & Walking bingo. There were 20 activities to complete over a period of two weeks. The aim of the game was to keep us connected during lockdown, while supporting our fitness and general happiness levels. Activities included playing on some playground equipment on a run, running a new route, running at sunrise/sunset, enjoying an unhealthy snack after a run and many more.

So trainers were laced up, bingo cards took pride of place on the front of kitchen fridges, bingo dabbers were poised - and we were off!

There was an immediate flurry of activity with lots of squares being dabbed early on, despite the rainy conditions. More than one activity could be completed on each run so plans were hatched to fit as many into each run as possible. The activities that seemed to be causing most concern to participants were, ‘Wear your most uncomfortable pants’ and ‘Naked Run: no Strava’, except for Rhoda who seemed to be planning to run naked with some guy called Mike! We enquired but didn’t quite get to the bottom of who he was and it will remain one the great unsolved GoodGym mysteries!

We were relaxed on rules, leaving a certain amount of artistic licence to interpret and complete the activities. After all, it was really just about getting out there in the fresh air and having fun. A few notable mentions were Gina who wore her most uncomfortable pants over her leggings, superhero stylie; Richard who tried to submit a streak on his driveway; and Gaby who missed the opportunity to run in the rain so created her own with a bottle of water and colander. Gaby also lucked out on her dice roll run – when you only have a 20 sided dice you’re unlikely to get a nice short run! Well done on the 11k! Sam B also did a great job of ticking off some squares by bike with Ashleigh.

We had some brilliant Strava art including a unicorn, a spider, a swan, underpants ( a bit of a theme emerging!), a Christmas tree, the word ‘Lads', and a fishing line (!!!). And Tracey decided that wearing shorts in 2 degrees as well as wearing uncmfortable pants on a 5.5k run was worthy of having a song made up about it and sung out loud during the run.

As promised, there was a prize draw with Jo, Kirsty and David being the lucky winners. Goody bags are winging they way to them now, complete with a handcrafted medal made of ribbon .... and a bingo dabber!

A huge well done to everyone who threw themselves into the game and brought the smiles and laughs. It got us all chatting and sharing our running escapades which turned out to be more fun than expected, as well as providing a bit of motivation or change of focus for even the most regular of runners. And we have another great new photo album to add to our lovely collection!