5 good-gymers ^^ leant a helping hand at The Leys Health Centre for a day of Pfizer clinics.

The clinic ran without a hitch as most patients were coming for their second dose so knew what to do, and where to stand!

Mark spent the morning swapping politics for volunteering, and after lunch, Alice spent her first shift on Tea and Coffee duty while Josh was manning the stairs.

Extra shout out to Anwen who did her first shift as a Clinical Administrator this afternoon; while daunting to begin with, powered by biscuits and a stream of patients keeping her on her toes, she was flying by the end of the day!

All patients turned up for their jabs, and there was a little spare at the end of the day for some new recruits to get their first jab too!

^^ about to drop their first Rap album; The vaccine trio FEAT L.M. Lygo

4 of GoodGym Oxford dream team helped at the South East Oxford Health Alliance coronavirus vaccination centre today. This week they have been administering the pfizer vaccine, so slightly more volunteers are needed on each shift due to the 15 minute observation period required after receiving the jab.

Good work keeping those queues rolling dream team!

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (at the end of the Marston bike path), there was an enchanted kingdom overseen by a benign committee of elders.

The enchanted land had much to delight it's inhabitants, from forest gardens to potato patches and daffodil-filled streets. In a secret triangle tucked just inside the highway boundary sat orchard triangle. Guarded by wasps, the triangle remained a hidden corner, little visited by the villagers, and brambles, nettles and trees sprang up blocking the path into the orchard. But never fear; an intrepid group of gardeners had not forgotten the orchard! Lavishing it with love and care, they planted new fruit trees and bushes and nurtured them through the unpredictable English seasons.

Then, as the Earth turned once again towards winter they called in reinforcements from the GoodGym worker elves. 11 GoodGym elves armed with forks, spades and gloves worked hard to realise the villagers' vision of a border of wildflowers - digging up the tough grass to prepare the land for seeds. The tree elves took to the corner of the orchard with saws and loppers, clearing the tangle of brush and bramble to begin to uncover the path into the orchard.

The task being a large undertaking, the GoodGym elves and Grand Vizier of Marston Community Gardening (Alistair) will reconvene next Sunday to do battle with grass and brambles again. Next time seeds WILL be sown.

Welcome to new GoodGym elves Georgia and Chloé, and welcome to Oxford Josh!

19 GoodGymers ran 5km up to White City Adventure Playground for an Earth Hour Special!

The blossom is out and the nights are finally beginning to get lighter and warmer as we edge ever closer to some lovely outdoor tasks in the sun! Tonight was a special night in H&F as we were celebrating not one but TWO big 50th good deed milestones. A big CONGRATULATIONS to PB and January good deed machine, Helen and to the man who's often laughing and people recognise definitely not because of the fact he's got his name written on his GoodGym tee, Will for reaching their 50th good deeds last night. Will they both reach their 100th good deed together?!

Amongst all my wonderful regulars tonight, it was lovely to welcome along Helene and Mia for their first H&F group run - hope you both enjoyed it and hopefully see you again soon!

For what it's Earth! Onto the news...

This week GoodGym is partnering with the WWF as part of Earth Hour, the world’s biggest switch off event on Saturday 30th March at 8.30pm. Earth Hour highlights the changes needed at a global level, but also encourages everyone to take personal action. You could, for instance, change the way you eat, embrace reusables and buy less plastic, or help to restore nature in your community. You can share your pledge using #VoiceForThePlanet throughout March to show how you are making a difference.

1. Special Earth Hour GoodGym group run - Saturday 30th March - meet at 5pm outside London's City Hall for a 2.5km run down to Spitalfields Farm. For all the details and to sign up, click here.
2. Fulham Palace parkrun GoodGym takeover - Saturday 29th June! - Our friends at Fulham Palace parkrun will celebrate their 300th parkrun event...and the best news is that GoodGym will be helping out with a BIG takeover event! Sign up here - please fill out the spreadsheet with your preferred volunteer role or pacing time.
3. RunUK volunteering - Sunday 14th April - RunUK are offering a free place in any of their upcoming runs if you volunteer at the Putney & Fulham half marathon - if you're keen just drop me a line.

With the name and number count and short pulse-raising warm-up completed, we began the 2.5km run up to White City Adventure Playground. Pausing only briefly at the top of Hammersmith Grove for our weekly wall sit we arrived in record breaking time. When we arrived we were greeted by the ever enthusiatic and appreciative, Rob and Koj. They both welcomed us in and briefly explained to the group about the "can do" organisation that is the Play Association and the amazing projects and work they do at White City Adventure Playground - from delivering after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, to specialising in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and also teaching for children with complex special needs at weekends. Following on from our visit a few weeks ago, Rob and Koj gave the lovely feedback that other organisations and schools in the area had heard of GoodGym, and most importantly that the children and after-school clubs loved their newly painted kitchen and the work-in progress toilet transformation!

Koj explained the jobs that we would be lending a hand with tonight...

1. Finish the painting of the boys & girls toilets - in two shades of blue for the boys & yellow for the girls, and remove all the toilet tissue balls (also delightfully known as spit wads) stuck to the ceiling.
2. Paint a big graffiti wall - cover over the current graffiti in a nice fresh coat of white paint.
3. A surprise competitive litter pick in the playground.

With all the equipment layed out and ready to go, despite my maths and division leaving something to be desired, the team split into three groups: Team painting (/team toilet), Team Wall and Team Litter.

When you've gotta Van Gogh, you gotta Van Gogh

Team painting, led by Helen continued the blue and yellow job we started a couple of weeks ago. With many crouched round toilets in interesting positions and up ladders, the team worked tirelessly to get the job done. Many of the other team members also got involved with the final bits of the blue boys toilet painting so as not to leave it unfinished, plus it answered the age old question of "just how many GoodGymers can you fit into a small boys' toilet?"!

It's all white now baby, the walls all white now

Team wall, led by Catriona, overseen by Sophie and her helpful running lights, rolled their way quickly and efficiently to a fresh looking white wall. With a couple of inconveniently placed plants removed by Koj...no longer a sight for saw eyes. It didn't take long for the team to freshen up the wall ready for the youth club to graffiti away on a nice blank canvas.

A litter pick of this and a litter pick of that

Team litter, led by Sarah, who of course took charge of the bin bag, throughly combed through the grass and adventure playground. A plethora of litter objects were found and the bin bag full to bursting upon their scout round the entire outdoor area.

Nifty fifty

Before we headed off and said our goodbyes to Rob and Koj, we had a quick '50' based quiz while running on the spot to get the blood pumping again. Those that got answers wrong had to do either 10 jumping jacks, 10 squats or 10 press-ups, depending on the question. Despite, naming no-names, SOPHIE, Googling one of the answers there was impecable honesty from all. Fun facts learnt tonight were: the incredible Mal Law ran 50 mountain marathons in New Zealand not South Africa (check out FIFTY - The Movie), Tin is the chemical element that is the atomic number 50, and Jo Pavey will reach her 50th birthday before Paula Radcliffe.

Bake it happen...bake room, bake room!

With everyone nicely warmed-up again we headed off on our run back to base. Andrew and Catriona led a group of speedsters back while I attempted to stay in-between them and our wonderful milestone backmarkers tonight, Helen and Will. Once we were back at base we had a nice stretch off and the part of the evening many had been looking forward to....cakes and flapjacks! And oh what a fabulous array of wonderful treats there were, Bake Off eat your heart out! Great night all, thank so much for staying a little later to get the painting job completed. And well done again to Helen and Will Next week we are heading up to Wormholt Park to help build a loggery. Please bring a head torch if you have one! For all the details and to sign up, click here. Have a fab week all!

Two task Tuesday in H&F! 14 GoodGymers raked up 9 bags of leaves and delivered 500 Christmas Cards for H&F Foodbank!

On a noticeable colder December night 13 GoodGymers joined me to do good and get fit on a big two task Tuesday. It was brilliant to welcome along Emily and Sarah for their second H&F group runs - great to have you along again, hope you enjoyed it! And as always, lovely to see my wonderful regulars.

Unlike the previous two Tuesday evenings, depsite the cold it was a nice dry night (and according to the Met Office a nice dry but cold evening....yes I'm totally blaming them for the rain latter on in the evening!) so we headed out towards our normal warm-up spot and had a quick round-up of the weekly news.

You snooze you news!

1. GoodGym H&F Christmas Party (Tues 11th) - After our run next Tuesday we're going to head to Nando's for a Peri Peri Christmas. All are welcome! Please sign up here to help us get an idea of numbers.
2. North London Long Run (Sun 9th) - Around Epping Forest, led by Graham and Alix - meet at 9.30/9.45am at Walthamstow Central Tube depending on the pace that you'd like to run, all the details here.
3. South London Long Run (Sun 16th) - Thames Barrier to Tower Bridge, led by Dom - all the details here
4. Community Mission (Fri 14th) - Supporting Evolve Housing - volunteers are needed to lend a hand packing shopping bags to raise money for homelessness projects. All the details if you'd like to sign up are here.

Following a very quick warm-up we headed off on our 3km down to Parsons Green for our first task of the night. Pausing only briefly for the odd traffic light and one 30-second wall sit it wasn't long before we arrived at St Dionis Church. We were met outside the church entrance by the vicar, Tim and he talked to the group about all the wonderful projects the church run and support: a night shelter in partnership with Glass Door to support those who are homelessness, a recovery course, both a men's and women's ministry, and some upcoming Christmas carol services on Sunday's.

Faced with 14 eager GoodGymers Tim was worried that we'd be oversubscribed for the tasks he'd asked us lend a hand with:

• Tidy up and bag the rubbish and leaves down the side of the church
• Rake up and bag all the leaves in-front of the church, both on the astro turf and in the wood chipped flower beds

Piles? I've got heaps!

Josh, Alice, Andrew and Johnny headed down the side of the church and started bagging up the leaves and tidying the rubbish. Only a few minutes had passed as Josh emerged with a dumped wine bottle amongst the large volume of leaves. It wasn't long before their bag overflowed with leaves, and Alice, taking inspiration from Catriona's effective bin jumping last week plunged herself into the bag to flatten the leaves. It worked a treat and the extra bag space enabled them to continue loading the bag with Johnny's wonderfully formed piles...of leaves.

Rake me up before you go-go!

As the fantastic four tackled the side of the church, the rest of the group set about raking and tidying in-front of the church. After admiring the perfectly laid astro (something many of us had learnt a few months ago was quite tricky to lay!) everyone gloved up and tooled up and tackled the hardest challenge of the evening, opening the bags! Sarah, never far away at the mention of a bag, efficiently dealt out the bags as everyone else quickly raked up the leaves into very neat piles and bagged them up. Sophie, Sarah, Catherine and Emily proved to be dab-hands with a rake, while Jason and Tom proved equally skilled with the large claw-like-hand pickers and scoops. As the others raked and scooped, Bex and Chris worked in wonderful tandem as they took turns to both help hold bags open and grab the large piles of leaves into the bags.

Insane in the memb'rain(e)!

Despite the outlook of no rain, and in a classic case of I spoke too soon with my comment of "isn't it nice running down to Parsons Green in the dry and without having to avoid puddles!", the rain began to come down, luckily a lot lighter than it had done so in previous weeks...

I could never leaf you!

As half an hour passed, Tim needn't have worried about the potential lack of tasks to be done. The group managed to fill 9 full to bursting bags of leaves (quite literally in the case of 1!) that Tim was mightily impressed with. Before we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Tim the group posed for a team photo and proceeded to make use of the lovely astro turf lawn to complete a short fitness blast which comprised of 3x30 seconds of front and side planks.

Leaf'let out, you'll bank me later!

Task one successfully completed, we headed off towards the bottom of Parsons Green to begin a HUGE Christmas Card delivery for the H&F Foodbank. We had 500 Christmas Cards to deliver around the surrounding streets of the H&F Foodbank, Office based in the ChristChurch on Studdridge Road. Each of these cards had been personally signed and placed in an enveloped which was addressed "Dear Neighbour", which we all agreed was a lovely touch and an incredible effort to do.

Streets ahead!

With Sarah highlighting that the roads ran in parallel to one another she fantastically fine-tuned the lead frog posting plan as the group split into two equal groups. As one group headed down one road the other group set off down the next road ensuring maximum coverage and efficiency. Both groups worked like a well oiled leap frogging machine (if one were to exist) with each group separately splitting into two groups so as to cover both sides of the road. With only a few Christmas Cards remaining the group re-formed as one and posed for a quick photo before we headed to one last road to finish the posting. In what was an astounding display of Christmas Card posting en masse, in 20 minutes all 500 Christmas Cards had been delivered!

Going the whole nine (500) cards....

The H&F Foodbank are incredibly grateful for your posting efforts as it frees up time for their small number of volunteers in the office and hubs. Along with promotion of the H&F Foodbank, volunteers sort all the donations they receive and pack them into boxes for people identified as 'in need' - these donations are then distributed to them at the Foodbank Centres. Our own, Josh volunteers at the main hub and if you are keen to volunteer, please drop the H&F Foodbank an email.

We raked it happen, unbe'leaf'able!

With 9 bags filled with leaves and all 500 Christmas Cards delivered we began the 3.5km run back to base. The rain started to come down harder as we navigated ourselves through the streets of Parsons Green and up through Barons Court, passing the back of the prestigious Queens Club en route. We headed through to the shelter of the Better Gym car park and completed a much needed cool down and stretch, amongst ideas for puns for the run report (amongst some pity laughs from Alice) and next week's cheeky Peri Peri Christmas at Nando's!

Such an impressive effort tonight all, awesome work! A very big thank you to Jason, who not only back marked tonight but also stylishly ran and modelled a nice H&F Foodbank bag filled with Christmas Cards.

Next week, we will be heading up to St Mungo's Reconnection Post to help tidy up their garden. Sign up here. This will of course be followed by dinner and drinks at Nando's. Hope to see lots of you there! Have a fab week!