Well that was a lot of fun!!

At about 9.15am I was standing in a large empty room at City Hall. It was blissfully quiet. Not for long. A few eager runners started arriving, checking in before collecting their t-shirt and finding their task for the morning. Soon more came and before I knew it there was queue forming outside and the noise of chatter and laughter was deafening. This was GoodGym's biggest ever run to mark National Volunteers Week.

After a warm welcome by Laura Brown from Team London and Matthew Ryder, Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement we were quickly outside and into the warm sunshine. We posed for photos and then got ready for the tasks ahead. Read what each of the teams got up to below.

Team Poppies

Weaving between the commuters and unintentionally photobombing tourist photos on London Bridge, a very upbeat and enthusiastic forty-eight runners - led by GoodGym Lewisham trainer Adele - headed over to the splendour of the Guildhall, to help the Royal British Legion. On arrival, we were presented with our task: to construct boxes, fill them with poppies for the Poppy Appeal and to pack these ready for distribution all over London in the autumn. How wonderful to see all of these people, some of whom had only just met, work together so well to smash our task. Admittedly there was a fair bit of competitive fun going on, with volunteers racing to build more boxes than their fellow builders, with boxes piling up around us and a production line of determined workers buzzing around the space. Before we knew it, we had reached our goal, with box-builders being reassigned to help pack poppies and the previously full tables clearing around us. Amazing work everyone, the task was accomplished in just 45 minutes, with an incredible 940 boxes packed and ready to go! Not only did these wonderful people exceed expectations at the task, but they still had enough energy to push themselves further with some squats, knee lifts and an epic plank-off - what a way to start #VolunteersWeek!

Report by GoodGym Lewisham Trainer Adele

Team Age UK Southwark

Team Southwark did the capital proud this morning. After a few dynamic warm ups which included some fancy footwork, a game of chicken or chips (with some dodgy tactics) and even a series of burpees, we set off on the 1.5 mile run to South Age UK with Caroline backmarking. We played dodge the tourist on the way, as well as stopping for some planks, squat holds, a sprint race with a small child, and even a Rocky moment on the steps of a church. Once we got to the beautiful Age UK building, we got stuck into handing round drinks and chatting to the users. A ping pong table appeared, and before long there was a challenger - but sadly not the Lithuanian table tennis champion that was part of our GoodGym team (true fact). It was a heated contest, but Team Age UK flourished with Bill at the bat over our player, Sam. Can't win 'em all! In the heat of the blazing sun it was a quick run back, stopping only to regroup with another team, and to use the water feature at More London to, ahem, 'rehydrate'. Great work today Team Southwark, hope to see you all on a GoodGym run soon!

Report by GoodGym Wandsworth trainer Ana

Team Bost

Today I led a group of 12 to lend a hand (or rather, 24!) to the amazing Bankside Open Spaces Trust. Our group was made of a couple of frequent GoodGym runners, Helen and Alyx, and 9 others who Alyx had brought along from her offices. We ran to the task location a little past Borough station, and had a great briefing from Clive from BOST. We quickly got to work; digging and breaking up hard inhospitable soil, and then scattering and raking across some lovely fresh compost that they'll be able to do some planting in soon! We made our way back, bringing us to 5km altogether. Since we'd finished the task quickly, and ran really well, we had a nice bit of time for our fitness session where we did some core work and then did some exercises at different intensity based on a coin toss. A great run!

Report by GoodGym Croydon Run Leader Dom

Team ALD Life

Our smashing and speedy group of 8 headed to Peckham to help ALD Life sort donations in the basement of their charity shop. The task looked daunting but the team rallied quickly together to get organised whilst Charlie from London Sport steamed out the creases and chose his favourite dress.

In 25 minutes we'd organised all the clothing into lovely neat piles so after a big thank you from Maria and the shop team, we powered back towards Tower Bridge via a partner workout in Burgess Park with commando crawls, planks and loads of other good stuff.

We even managed an extra good deed on the way back as a car had broken down at a junction so runners from Sarah's team and ours grouped together to push it to safety!

Report by GoodGym York trainer Egg

Team Fareshare

10 brave runners ran South East from City Hall towards Deptford. Debs had come all the way from Bristol to take on this 10k. People from at least 6 GoodGym areas were represented.

Fareshare are a national charity that re-distribute food that would be wasted to those who need to eat. It's work has massive impact.

We covered about 5k on the way there, our route taking in Millwall stadium and the Lewisham Refuse and Recycling Centre.

On the way we planned various mayoral policies: including dogs for all, housing solutions and special green connection paths between parks.

We arrived at the task and met Stephanie - she got us into protective boots and high visibility jackets. Looking slick we were introduced to our task: removing ~3400 out of date strawberry pop tarts from the packets and ~4000 out of date chicken and mushroom pies so that they can be turned into pig feed.

We were hugely impressed with the efficiency, scale and dedication of the the Fareshare team: the place is a huge operation with hundreds of volunteers involved every week.

In our 25 minutes we go 70% of the pop tarts done and a bit less of the chicken pies (they had to be unwrapped inside a giant fridge).

Feeling like we'd worked out our ams we ran a simpler route back: along the side of Southwark park and back on Jamaica road.

We'd made some new friends, handled hundreds of pies and poptarts, and completed 9.95km .

Report by GoodGym Tower Hamlets Run Leader Ivo Gormley

Team Aldgate Play & Heritage

Team Aldgate Play & Heritage Project took off over Tower Bridge and met task leader Laura outside an old disused car park that is being transformed into an art gallery and for community workshops. It's still quite grubby and there are lots of grey concrete walls that need more than a lick of white paint. The 21 brilliant runners from TNS UK got straight to work, tackling walls in two areas, as well as bringing lots of 'gubbins' up from a storage cupboard. The gubbins consisted of old suitcases, clothes and a body model, which will all be used for the final installation. INTRIGUING! Once some serious work had been done, along with a bit of strength work to boot, we ran the 1 mile back down to City Hall for some stretches and a round of applause. Great work! Report by GoodGym Lambeth trainer Katie

Team Providence

Our run was only 2km but with plenty of tourists to dodge on Tower Bridge it took us a while to get up to speed. We were heading to Providence Row, a day centre for the homeless that has been around for 150 years. In addition to assisting people with everyday tasks such as getting a shower or using the internet, they also run various training programs including IT, cooking and gardening. The garden is on the rooftop so our task was to transfer a compost delivery up there from the ground floor. With a couple of wheelbarrows and a lift at our disposal we got the job done pretty quickly and then moved on to watering all the plants ahead of a warm weekend.

Report by GoodGym Southwark Run Leader Beth

Team South London Mission

What a brilliant morning at the Goodgym’s biggest ever run. I waited in anticipation for my allotted team to arrive and arrive they did. After introductions and a small speech from the Deputy Mayor of London it was time to head out of City Hall for some photo's and a pre run warm up. It wasn't long before we were heading off dodging in, out and around the people traffic that blocked the narrow streets heading for Bermondsey. Smiles were in there many as we talked amongst our selves in anticipation of our waiting task. After a short while we were at our destination where we met the awesome Annie who was in charge of the Outreach Food Bank. After short introductions we were lead away down stairs and corridors beneath the building till we reached our task for the morning. We were greeted by a lot, and I mean a lot of food donations that needed sorting into categories. We had a 40 minute time limited and we wasn't going to leave unfinished. So it was all hands on deck to complete our mission. As the clock struck 40 mins we had smashed the task, leaving Annie with a big smile and a massive gratitude towards us. She thanked us personally and we were treated with an awesome goody bag. Thank you so much.

It was time to say our good byes and head back to City Hall. However, everyone that knows me, knows I can't go through a tunnel without the mandatory sit off being imposed, and imposed it was. On arrival to City Hall it was great to see other Goodgym teams arriving back and cooling down. After having a drink, we went into our static stretches and talked about our achievement.

As a trainer for the morning I just want to say thanks so much to my awesome team for pulling together, and absolutely smashing our run and task. What a brilliant morning. Thanks GoodGym 🏻

Report by GoodGym Bexley trainer Tim

Team Get Kids Going

After a scenic run across Tower Bridge, we had the honour of meeting the passionate and hardworking team behind the charity Get Kids Going at their office. We heard from them about the support they give to enable disabled children to participate in a wide range of sports (including skiing for the blind, tennis and marathons) from beginners level to Paralympians. Our mission was to put together leaflet packs about the different events runners and cyclists could get involved in to fundraise for the charity. Our target was to make up 600 leaflet packs and we smashed it with a total of 860! Great team of runners, super morning and a happy charity.

Report by GoodGym Camden Run Leader Becky

Team Dress for Success

What a fun morning I had with the team of ten from Stackla - a social media company. We met up with around 175 other volunteers at City Hall by the Thames and were allocated tasks and routes. Our task involved heading over to Brick Lane to a charity called Dress for Success which has been running worldwide for 20 years and empowers women to achieve economic independence. So over Tower Bridge we headed dodging tourists and traffic until we reached our destination although in the interests of complete disclosure we lost half the group at one point and went to the wrong address but all’s well that ends well and we did arrive with plenty of time to complete the task. The kitchen area in the building had pretty much been demolished leaving pile of breeze blocks which needed to be moved to the patio area. The group obviously work well as a team and quickly sorted themselves into a chain and made quick, if dusty, work of the task. Group photos and selfies were taken and we headed back to City Hall this time without getting lost or losing anybody. It wouldn’t have been a GoodGym session without some fitness work to finish up so we played Heads and Tails – they just loved the burpees and bear walks – and then we ended with a well deserved stretch before heading back into City Hall to collect our bits and pieces. I hope they all enjoyed their session and maybe become part of the GoodGym family!

Report by GoodGym Croydon Run Leader Juliet

Team Tower

As Team Tower stepped out of City Hall into the glorious sunshine we could see our destination right in front of our eyes - the magnificent Tower of London. There was just the small problem of the Thames in our way! A lesser team may have nipped across Tower Bridge and been there in minutes but not us - wanting our exercise fix we took the scenic along the river, across London Bridge and back along the Thames Path. Arriving at the Tower a little bit more sweaty than when we left we were thankful for the air conditioned room and jugs of water laid on by our host Sarah from Historic Royal Palaces. They look after 6 extraordinary palaces - can you name them all?

Our mission was simple - pack as many Historic Royal Palace welcome packs as we could. There was also a bonus task of making of badges on what looked like a medieval torture device. This was extremely difficult with only one of group really mastering the technique! We were soon out of envelopes and back into the sunshine. After a quick circuits session of Russian twists, planks and burpees it was back to City Hall.

Fun fact: I learnt some great things on today’s run. All the Beefeaters actually live in the Tower of London. There are houses inside the courtyard for Beefeaters and their families. Also, you need to have served in the army for 22 years to be considered for the job. Wowzers!

Report by GoodGym Hackney Run Leader Ed Field

Team St Mungo’s

9 of the massive 176 runners headed to St Mungo’s hostel. The charity helps homeless people to find accommodation and provides beds.

After 20 min of running with two other team heading in the same directions as us, we arrived to St Mungo’s but not the right one, it seems that they were 2 St Mungos 500m apart for each other. We finally made it to the good one and were welcome by Fred. Our task was really simple take a square of yard, remove all grass and turn the soil to be able to plant flower and tree.

And after 30 minutes of hard the result was amazing, the classic before / after photo was required and we all appreciated that this will make a big difference to the resident which will have a nice garden now.

We headed back to the city hill, for a last effort and the relay race we splitted in two team of 4 and raced over 100m, it was a great day and everyone really enjoyed :D

Report by GoodGym Hackney Run Leader Axel Manzano

Team Bowel Cancer

Team Bowel Cancer ran just under 3k to pack booklets for Bowel Cancer UK into envelopes. The team packed four whole boxes in record time allowing us to run back to base with half an hour to spare, meaning we spent 20 minutes on strength and conditioning work. Lots of running against resistance, some burpees and a few planks to help build stronger runners, ready for the next good deed

Report by GoodGym Barnet Trainer Pennie Varvarides

Team Sense

It was like a mini GoodGym Greenwich run on Friday with two thirds of the group being from there! We headed to the charity shop as a group after Mridula fed us some biscuits. We had the whole shop front to clean, it was pretty grubby but everyone got stuck in! Pulin broke all of the squeegees because he was cleaning so damn hard, Helen and Dan channeled their inner Cinderella on their hands and knees cleaning the floor and Mridula and Shona gave it their all to clean the postbox! After half an hour it was as good as new! We headed back to City Hall for a cool down, and on the way Pulin even helped push a broken down car, two good deeds for the day!

Report by GoodGym Greenwich Trainer Sarah Place

Team Blackfriars

Team Blackfriars smashed a 4k run by heading over to The Blackfriars Settlement in Rushworth Street where we were warmly greeted by the wonderful Tina and her team who were putting on a brilliant activity day for a group of visually impaired people. After chatting and singing with the group for a little while, two of our team then joined them for a mobility and stretching session using resistance bands whilst the rest of us moved to the kitchen and dining area to set up and lay the tables for the group’s lunch as well as tidying up the cutlery drawers – the food looked fabulous and we were very tempted to stay!

Report by GoodGym Bristol Run Leader David Guest

Cor, that was a bit special. 134 GoodGymers ran a total of 32km to do good all over London. Meeting at the iconic City Hall runners were greeted by Team London and swiftly assigned to their teams to be given their mission for the morning. After a quick pause for photos and some dynamic warm ups it was up to Tower Bridge to be seen off by Paralympian Andy Barrow. What a fantastic way to mark the start of volunteers week and celebrate London’s success of being named European Capital of Volunteering.

Let’s hear from the trainers about what each team go up to....

Khan we do it?

Led by Hackney trainer Joel Wiles

Team Southwark had the privilege of leading the charge off of Tower bridge! A strong team of 30 runners were soon navigating our way through the back streets of central London on the 2k run to Age Uk Southwark.

We met John the manager of the centre who welcomed us and was amazed to see so many of us. Quickly splitting into 3 groups with the majority of the crew working hard in the back garden smaller groups went to talk to the service users and play games of pool with them while the 3rd group scythed their way into the wild front garden.

An explosive pace was maintained in the gardens with impressive amounts of grass cutting, huge weeding and some very artistic gardening animal on the hedges art all done with huge smiles and great positive energy.

We were then joined by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan who gave us loads of encouragement to work up even more of a sweat and talked to the team about volunteering opportunities in London before going to talk to the service users and playing an impressive game of Pool.

After 40 minutes of great action we had interacted with all the service users at Age UK Southwark, filled 12 bags of gardening waste and got the gardens looking great especially with the hedges trimmed to look like a hippopotamus, red squirrel and a slug!

Before we set off on the run back to City Hall we smashed out an intense leg workout where we powered through a series of strength building and coordination testing exercises and really got to feel the burn with a few static squats to finish! With legs throbbing and after a lot of thanks from the service users and team at Age UK we ran the 2k back to City Hall before a few static stretches by the river to round off a top morning.

Paint the town white

Led by Tower Hamlets trainer Tom Craggs

Of the masses of runners who met at City Hall a team of 10, a mix of new and experienced goodgym runners, headed down to local charity Siblings Together.

The 2.5km run to the charity took in Tower Bridge and the docks and warehouses of Rotherhithe. When we arrived we were handed spin brushes and 40 minutes of rolling, brushing and masking later we had the office looking fantastic with a new lick of paint. As a small charity these are often the jobs which have to take a back seat to day to day operations so it was great to make such a difference so quickly. After a 2km run back we stretched and headed back to our homes and workplaces - fitness and good deeds in the bank.

Soiled beyond belief

Led by Southwark trainer Jo Swift

Speeches, pictures and warm ups done, 12 runners set off across Tower Bridge with a mix of new and familiar GoodGym faces and navigated more than a few tourist pictures as we headed towards Aldgate. I'd warned of traffic lights but there were almost as many of them as there'd been blue t-shirts at City Hall.

We arrived at Providence Row, a centre providing support to homeless in the East end area, and were met by Joe who had lots of work for us to get on with. Hidden away behind hipster Brick Lane and Shoreditch, the centre have created a roof garden growing plants and peace. Half of the group were shown a pile of soil and manure bags, 2 wheelbarrows, 3 floors of steps and a lift.

Some ran the stairs as the lift was a little slower. Big ups to our crew who weren't put off by the muck on the bags despite heading off to work after our run.

Whilst 6 strong volunteers carried on with this, the rest of us cleared a plot of land of rubbish, weeds and laughing gas pods to give a bit of a face lift.

Joe and his team weren't sure we'd get it all done in the 45minutes we had but we did it! Always so brilliant how much you can get done in a GoodGym session. We said our goodbyes and made our way back through the lunching city workers & across the bridge for a photo finish outside city hall.

See you for the next one!

Sugar-Rush

Led by Brent trainer Ellie Wood

A tribe called GoodGym teamed up with Team London for a morning of super running and super volunteering to celebrate volunteers week and London being named the European Capital of volunteering.

My lovely eleven made up the team for our nominated charity Bliss - a wonderful organisation, who provide support and services for families with premature babies in the UK. After intros and housekeeping, this awesome crew, bustled out into the cold for warm-ups and photo-calls amidst the glorious back drop of Tower Bridge and City Hall.

After a serious amount of posing and pouting and not letting the threat of rain kill any excitement, we head out on our mission, a fast and furious scoot over to our destination for the day. Upon arrival we were greeted by the fabulous Nicola and her girl power crew, gleefully waiting to present us with our task - The prepping of gift bags to be posted out to supporters of the charity.

Despite the temptation of stuffing envelopes, we managed to resist stuffing our faces with the contents - about 200 bags of SWEEETTTSSS. Spurred on by my fabulous mix of empowering tunes....Thank you Chaka Khan and a lot of laughs, we managed to finish the job with time to spare!! Hurrahs.

All the honest work paid off in the end and all of the runners were presented with their own goodies YAY. So freshly powered by the sweetie all-sorts delights, we 'Sugar-Rushed' down to Tower Bridge for some sprint drills and tempos, before heading back to City Hall. Finishing with some 'Core-Blimey these are hard' planks, a final stretch brought the session to a close.

A marvellous morning, a cracking crew and an absolutely terrific way to celebrate volunteering in our fair London Town!

Do Good. Feel Good. Inspire.

Garden Footprint

Led by Westminster trainer Cory Wharton-Malcolm

Post photo we were whisked away, carried by the ever present sound of our little feet as we headed South to Bermondsey Community Nursery to see a lovely lady about a garden.

15 strong we were greeted by a group of small people who will one day become adults and their ever so lovely teachers.

Our tasks for the day? Dismantle compost bin and redistribute soil lovingly into new home, plant flowers and vegetables, destroy broken notice board, kill pesky weeds, fix hose and most importantly make area look pretty again. How long? 30 mins.

Did we get it done? Of course we did. 4 teams working harmoniously for the greater good of our host. There was however one little mishap, one of our newbies mistook a small toy dinosaur for a real beast, screamed and nearly knocked herself out lol. Did she survive? OF COURSE she did.

Thank you's, goodbyes and a cheeky little 1 miler tagged on the end just for the fun of it. Lots of newbies and lots of good done. What better way to spend a morning?

Inspiring a generation

20 runners including a huge bunch from Zendesk completed a quick loop from City Hall and returned for a speed careers session back at base. Children from across London were given an inspiring speech from Andy Barrow followed by speed careers advice from our volunteers. The future of London is in safe hands with this lot.

Shelfless Runners

Led by Tower Hamlets run leader Ivo Gormley

A brave crew of 17 blue GoodGym runners hit the streets of Southwark to make things happen at the Downside Fisher Youth Centre.

The run there: once we'd escaped the photographers, done some lunges, some knee raises and some impressive fast feet, introduced ourselves 5 times, was a doddle. 0.6kms run through in no time.

We arrived at the door of the centre and were met by Christine and Phil who run the place. We were tasked with cleaning the windows and sorting out a cupboard.

We split into two crack teams of 8 ; the cupboard was emptied with precision and zeal, the windows were flooded with mr muscle and the job was underway. Ladders were scaled, shelves removed, climbing equipment was sorted, admin material was separated, extenders were grasped and elbow grease was applied. 30 mins later both jobs were done to a high standard.

Phil, who works for the centre said "I was amazed how much you got done."

The general manager Christine, said "Bloody hell, that was quick. Those windows are gleaming."

Not content with just doing good, we set about pushing ourselves a bit harder, we nipped 1.2km down the road to Southwark Park. We did 3x30seconds intervals with 30seconds rest. A TOUGH session, handled admirably before we strode back along the Southbank of London's great river Thames.

Well done all. See you at the next one.

Team Tower

Led by Haringey trainer Varon Lewis

15 GoodGymers navigated their way from City Hall, over the bridge that bared the teams name, through cobbled city streets and into the palace grounds at the Tower of London. There we were met by Sarah, the task owner, who lead us past the beefeaters and guards, under the tower of doom and into part of an old​​ building that was used as a classroom for visiting children. Here the team packed envelopes given to those who had become members of the Historic Royal Palaces charity. Team Tower did GoodGym proud and managed to pack over 900 envelopes within a 35 minute window. This would have usually taken volunteers around 3 hours. We had conquered our task as William had conquered centuries ago. Great job guys!

Until next time folks - Stay Fit, Do Good & Look Out For The Light!

What next?

GoodGym is the easiest way to get fit in London. This weekend we have some special starter sessions to make it even easier to get involved. Sign up to one now and keep that good going:

GoodGym Lewisham are getting ready for festival season by helping out at the Brockley Max Festival. Sign up here.

GoodGym Camden are running to help out a local growing space. Sign up here.

GoodGym Hackney are giving some HUGS to the Hackney Downs User Group. Sign up here.

GoodGym Croydon are running to help the local Brownies. Sign up here.