PrideRun10k is in it's 16th year and GoodGym went along to help.

An early start on the Saturday but worth it for a great race. With 1,200+ runners taking part there were pleeenty of goody bags to put together. A production line was set up and we were busy adding in 2 bottles, 2 bars, 4 leaflets, 1 jelly beans and 1 post it notes. (The numbers will stay in my head for a while!)

With the race approaching we had the baggage area to manage. Keeping all the bags in 7 rows of 200 was a challenge, with the runners coming quick and fast we made up the miles walking back and forth through the rows!

It was great to see so may people taking part in the race and rainbows on show everywhere you turned.

The more the merrier

What a busy Monday evening it was from the off. The sign-ups kept rising: I was keeping our task owner Nancy posted with numbers, as she has to plan carefully and ensure she has sufficient staff and those numbers just, well, kept on rising (“Yes, I expected it to be a small August group too, but, hey, what can I say…They love a litter-pick.”).

And so we gathered for hello’s and welcome’s at our usual lovely base. Thanks to our fabulous Task Force as always who are continually on hand to save the day: Kat saved the day from the off this evening, opening up the hotel room and offering a warm welcome to tonight’s first runners as I was delayed en route. Thank you.

It was such a treat to have Nicola, from new area Crewe, join us tonight too! Friendly, welcoming and managing the sign-in sheet like a pro, it was a real treat to have her visiting us here in TH.

We were also joined by first time runners Isabelle, Ivy Johnny and Lianne, who wasted no time in getting stuck in with everything from pre-run chatter to serious litter-picking and newspaper-delivery this evening.

No more tedious traffic lights

We’d decided to try a new route this evening, to cut down on traffic light delay, so Kat and Dave expertly headed up the run (route and pace) while I back-marked in full Dragon-PT mode, hustling everyone along Whitechapel streets as quickly as they could manage.

Three-task team

We arrived promptly at the Royal London reception area where our wonderful task owners Nancy, Bernadette and Richard were ready and waiting, tasks prepared.

One team headed to the wards to deliver newspapers; another to the front of the hospital to prune roses and collect a huge amount of litter, while a third, big team headed out back to the John Harrison Garden to complete another massive litter haul, filling bags and bags, picking up everything from discarded vodka bottles to unwanted umbrellas and…phone cases.

The time flew and just as nearly every last cigarette butt was removed, it was time to pack up, empty bags, return brooms, and make our way back to join our fellow runners to compare notes and say our cheerios.

Catch me if you can

We then raced back to base playing our usual greyhound-and-hare game: me leading the hares and Kat leading the greyhounds tonight. I just want to congratulate everyone on this part of the evening too: all runners pushed themselves speeding back to base in their own best times, and then cheering all the incoming runners in, right until the end. Massive effort, on all fronts, so well done.

What a marvellous night’s work. Well done to each and every one of you.

Check OUT what we have coming up…

Now I can’t wait to do it again next week. Talking of which, let me tell you what we’re up to: we’re heading back to our beloved Meath Gardens to join Tunde and the team for more watering, weeding and planting, and they’re really looking forward to seeing you, so sign up here.

Now, here’s some really good news: if you don’t fancy waiting that long for some more GoodGym fun and frolics the amazing news is, you don’t have to.

Check out what else we’ve got coming up this week:

• On Thursday our Lieke is leading the most terrific Community Mission at the very civilised time of 5.30pm for St Margaret’s House, a wonderful community arts centre located right by Bethnal Green tube, to help set up the garden with candles, blankets and furniture for their spectacular evening storytelling event! This’ll be a lovely, short, sociable Community Mission to join if you fancy it.

• …Which ties in very nicely with the next GoodGym Social, also this Thursday, so when you finish that task, you simply hop on the nearby Central Line, hotfoot it over to the Waterloo & City Line (yes, I’ve Google-mapped it for you) and in 29 minutes, you’ll be joining fellow GoodGymers at theMulberry Pub on the Southbank. What a way to celebrate our lovely summer.

• And last up for this week, we’re lucky enough to have Liv heading up the Pride 10K set-up and bag-drop this Saturday in Victoria Park. There are already a few signed up, so do join them and get your weekend off to a splendid sociable start by signing up here.

Phew! Well, that’s finally it from me for this week. Have an absolutely wonderful week everyone, and really hope to see you SOON!

A good sized group gathered on the steps of our hotel base tonight to run through a couple of dynamic stretches (we’re taking it easy on the warm-up front this summer), before heading the short run around the corner to Weavers Adventure Playground, for our first visit of the summer.

A LOT of work to be done…

On arrival, task owner Alex had a whole variety of very different projects for us to get stuck into: our largest team focused on clearing a huge area around the go-kart track, lifting branches (looked more like small trees, TBH), carting fridges and tables across the playground, and many large objects I couldn’t actually identify.

A second team headed to the skip, the soon-to-be-converted skip, to give it a thoroughly good lick of surprisingly flattering spearmint paint. A third team headed behind the slide to paint benches and tables a delightful combination of Oxford United blue-and-yellow, while a fourth team headed out to the park to weed the borders of the playground.

Industrious or what.

The time flew by. Task owner Alex was rushed off his feet, hurtling from one side of the playground to the other project-managing all the different tasks. Runners got stuck in as usual, with the heavy lifting, speedy painting, proficient weeding, and superb post-task clean up. I am always so proud, you know that? And then it was 8. Well, a little after, and the clean-up continued as David blitzed the last of the paint from the patio, with a big brush and lots and lots of water. We gathered for our cheerio pics, where Alex explained what you’d achieved tonight would have taken him days on his own. It’s that bit that really brings the evening to life even more. A little bit of context to all that you’ve achieved.

A balancing act

And so we headed out of the playground, and onto a spare bit of grass in the park, where we whizzed through our balance and flexibility moves, all taken in very good spirit, particularly as the balance-and-core/flexibility ratio was slightly out (in favour of the former). More sturdy work, team. We then made our way back to the hotel, nearly to time, to continue our Monday evening, safe in the knowledge we’d lugged, glossed, uprooted, discarded to the absolute max, and made a dent in the work for this beloved children’s play area.

Monday shout out’s…

First up has to be a massive, GG warm welcome to Sarah who joined us for her first GG run tonight. Thank you for doing so much on your first run! And thanks for the fun, and for being such a key part of tonight’s wonderful evening and we hope to see you again super-soon.

Thanks to tonight’s contributing photographers, Danny, Charlotte and Steve. Wicked pics everyone.

And a big shout-out to Becky and Danny for beautiful backmarking.

And a great big gracias to Joel who came up with tonight’s perfect, perfect pun (which had me laughing all the way home).

An exciting array of events coming up…

• Now, first up: the GoodGym Olympics is taking place on Saturday! Yes, it’s here, and all the details are here. You don’t need to be booked into any event to come along and enjoy this ultimate GoodGym feelgood fitness day. Just fancy a day of GoodGym socialising, cheering and cake-eating? This should be on your Saturday radar.

• Then, moving into next week, we have a wonderful Community Mission coming up, from 5:30pm next Thurs Aug 8th, helping set up the garden at fabulous St. Margaret’s House for this exciting summer storytelling event! Come and wind down for the week helping Lieke and the team set up furniture, distribute candles and blankets and generally muck in and enjoy this unique event.

• …And then next Monday, the 5th, for our glorious Group Run, we’re back to the Royal London where task owner Nancy is planning our activities as we speak, so do come on board for that.

Right, that’s me for another week. Make the most of the sun, don’t forget to run, and most importantly, look after yourselves. Have a great week!

Warm weather, warm welcome

It was a warm night as we gathered outside our lovely hotel base to welcome new runners, talk through tonight's task and welcome Dani, the new GG trainer for Derby!

After a couple of dynamic stretches, we headed straight out to our task, via a recce of the planters we were going to be tending to on Roman Road. Expertly navigated by Bryon and Chris, and formidably back-marked by Katherine, we made excellent time to our first planter, which set the tone for the evening: we whizzed up Roman Road, identifying which planters needed the most work; those that just needed just a lick of varnish, and areas that were in desperate need of a bit of litter-picking.

And then we arrived at the Fire Station, to be greeted by three of the warmest welcomes from the phenomenal Globe Town Community Gardeners, Joseph, Marco and Jess, who were brilliantly prepped with everything from wire brushes to a scooter (on which to shuttle varnish between planters).

Productive planter work

Two minutes of efficient briefing and we were dispatched: teams of 4 and 5 ran up Roman Road to their designated planters to start blitzing cobwebs, uprooting unsightly weeds, ditching Coke tins and glossing panels.

It was quite a sight to look down Roman Road and see a sea of red t-shirts dotted along this busy street, earnestly at work. Shop vendors came out to film; residents and local businesses came over to thank, and pedestrians smiled. We were appreciated last night. Of course, that's not the driving force for any GoodGymer ever, but it is so much appreciated and very much adds to a sense of community and positivity on the night.

Timings were adhered to and the work was complete by the 10 minute countdown. Last to finish were the painters working on the London Buddhist Centre planter who insisted on finishing the last panel (quite right - "GoodGymer's prerogative").

And so we gathered for outros and pics - and water. Courtesy of the Bethnal Green Fire Station crew (thank you very much - you made our night!).

What a brilliant time, all down to fabulous GoodGymers and our truly, truly terrific task owners tonight - powerhouses of efficiency, smiles and appreciation. We'd love to join you again soon!

Single leg burpees in the sun

So we still had time to run some of our fitness session as planned (with a last minute bit of mileage for our recce, I wasn't sure if we were going to have time for our scheduled workout). Cut a bit short, the runners still managed single-leg burpees, monkey push ups, eccentric lunges and a speedy lap of the Museum Gardens. Way to go. And in 30 degrees.

Monday night shout-out's

Bundles of appreciation for lots of runners tonight.

Thanks to Katherine for brilliant backmarking (and an additional thank you to Katherine, from us all, who attended the Shindig at the weekend, and will be briefing us further soon).

To Bryon and Chris for expertly, instinctively leading the crew to our first planter; and to Dani and Sam for being so hands-on and doing so much, while learning on the job.

And I feel compelled to give a mighty shout-out this week to Polly and Si who opted to take the task of jumping into a couple of tree planters and blitzing the worst litter (in terms of volume and material matter) we have ever seen.

To finish, a HUGE GG welcome to our first time runners, Caoimhe and Jill - well done for a fabulous first run, and we hope you'll come back very, very soon.

Don't miss more fun this Saturday!

On Saturday, we're doing it all again! It's the Tower Hamlets Summer Planting Party, complete with: two tasks, some running and Pilates, and a picnic and the pub.

Come for as little or as much as you fancy - this is YOUR day. Details and sign up can be found here.

And next week, we're back to Weavers Adventure Playground for our first visit of the year! Details and sign up are here.