This week, 27 runners ran to do good in the Cardiff Community!

Our numbers seem to be growing week on week - Yipee! - and his week we had the pleasure of welcoming two new people to GoodGym. A HUGE welcome to Elsa and Jen who came along to their FIRST EVER GoodGym run this evening - Hope we didn't scare you off and we hope to see you back very soon!

What else is worthy of a mention:

• 29 of us headed to the Lake District to hike Scafell Pike over the weekend (Helping Nathan complete his 2019 New Years Resolution).
• The AWESOME Meg ran the Port Talbot half Marathon and achieved a new PB - You go girl!
• Lewis did Parkrun - He is our religious parkrun runner at GoodGym

Before we headed out for this evening's run we got warmed up by playing a game of Fish and Chips; Fish and Chips is an EPIC game. Run around and then when Ben shouts "Fish and Chips" you must find a partner and say either Fish or Chips, say the same and you must perform 10 star jumps, say different and you perform 10 squat jumps. We also did some running specific basic warm up drills.

It's time to help out in the community

Ben led those wanting a further run to Global Gardens whilst Ellen led the group wanting a shorter run to the Grangetown Hub.

On the way to Global Gardens Ben had everyone doing step ups, planking, running forwards and backwards and performing tricep dips on public benches.

Run to plog

Unfortunately Poppy wasn't at the Global Gardens Allotment - We hope she is okay! So instead, we took to the streets and back streets for some fast paced plogging, shouting PLOG everytime we needed to bend down to pick up litter. Ben managed to find an empty chewing gum packet and crisp packet. The Daz machine picked up LOADS of cigarette ends. Lucy found empty beer cans, a yankee car air freshener and also an empty packet of cigarettes.

After plogging we headed down to the roundabout by Roath Park and from there we turned onto Fairoak road. Fairoak road is where the 12 mile marker is in the Cardiff Half Marathon. It is also the place where runners have to tackle the final hill in the half marathon. To practice getting used to the hill, we ran up it and then jogged down it to recover. We did this 3 times.

After the hill sprints, which everyone LOVED :D we began running back towards town. We stopped one final time to run on King Edward VII Avenue to run the final 200 metres of the Cardiff half marathon course. Lucy gave everyone a pep talk before they ran the 200 metres which helped spur everyone on.

Run to the Grangetown Community Hub

10 GoodGym runners ran to the Grangetown Hyb to help spruce up the outdoor surroundings. We weeded around the car park, digging the moss and weeds in the cracks of the paving stones. Some of those pesky weeds need quite a good whacking, which Fancy Su provided. Andie Cleaver showed us her namesake skills, handling a miniature cleaver to cut up some of the weeds! Some of us also did a mini-litter pick, grabbing up the litter blowing around in the car park and surrounding lanes, with their excellent pincer skills. Ceri (spelling?) from the Hyb said it looked so much better coming out of the double doors, seeing that so much had been cleared up, so quickly! So with a group photo and a wave, we set of back to base camp.

Well done

A task well done by everyone. You should definitely be proud of yourselves :D Here's what's coming up over the next few weeks:

• Next week our group run will involve running to promote Cardiff Pride - Rainbow colours encouraged! Click here to sign up to it
• On Sunday 1st September, we have the opportunity for you to volunteer at the Cardiff 10K. Click here to find out more
• On Wednesday 4th September, a number of GoodGym runners will be getting up early to partake in the festivities of Soulful Sunrise. Click here to find out more
• On Saturday 21st September we will be running to help Coryton Primary School set up their Autumn Fair. Click here to find out more and get involved.

We then headed over to the Glassworks for drinkypoos and for the weekly tweet off.

It's time for the tweet off!

Darren has stopped Marie's winning streak - Marie had a whopping 4 consecutive weeks of tweet off victories! I almost fall off my chair every time the tweet off happens as i'm always sitting on the edge of it. Tune in next week to see whether Darren can make it two wins in a row.

• LM 9
• MO 4
• DRN 4
• MG 3
• EW 3
• NS 2
• MJ 2
• BA 1
• NI 1
• AG 1
• WD 1