Flags and frolics

25 runners stood on the Town Hall Hotel steps this evening to pose with our phenomenal flag as we celebrated GoodGym being 10.

This was a truly terrific task tonight: we were heading down to the Royal London to meet with Barts Volunteers and Tower Hamlets Councill for a combined effort, and with some new faces which is always one of the biggest joys of the night.

Yes, we said hello to the brilliant Siobhan from Newham, and first time runner Katherine who offered smiles, the hardest of work, and generally an all-round amazing contribution. Thank you and please come back soon. And we were so lucky too to be joined by Nurjehan and Rita who were on loan from Haringey, and wanted to celebrate #GG10 by running “where it all began”.

So. After a brief warm up and the weekly debate about which route to take, (“Fewer traffic lights would be good, what do you all think?”. “This is London, Laura, there are quite a few lights.”), we set out (weaving our way passed the many arrivals to York Hall for London Fashion Week activity).

We ran at a decent pace, with Eimear being the world’s best backmarker this week, and doing her utmost to keep the group together.

Two tasks, two TASK OWNERS

We arrived at the hospital to the warmest of welcomes from Nancy of Barts Volunteers, and James from Tower Hamlets Council.

Tasks were assigned and the team sped off:

• One team headed out with James and Mark to the front of the hospital to blitz the hotel grounds in a litter pick-and-a-half.
• Another team headed out front to get some new plants bedded into the planters by the A&E entrance.
• A third team headed to our favourite John Harrison Garden where Nancy took a team through a big operation of litter-picking, pruning and weeding the planters. The whole area looked beautiful by 8.15pm.

We picked, we pruned, we dug…We didn’t stop. Another glorious night.

Speedwork & cider

The time flew as always and before we knew it we head (and sped) back to base with our favourite greyhound-and-hare game: me leading the hares and David S brilliantly and slickly leading the greyhounds, for a blinding bit of speedwork to end the night with. Thank. You. All.

And then we all headed to our favourite bar, for a fantastic impromptu school night swifty to say cheerio to David V, who leaves us this week, and who will be much missed. David has contributed heaps in his relatively short time with us, from throwing himself into every task to providing us with some truly fine puns.

Will you check OUT what we have coming up?

Now, what’s up next. Well, the #GG10 celebrations continue as Task Force member Kat is running the most fabulous parkrun activity this weekend as part of #SuperSaturday. Join Kat and the crew for some pacing, marshalling, cake-eating and litter-picking in the park.

And next week, we’re back to two-tasking it again, as we head to Hollybush for some Autumn overhauling of the garden, and an all-new task at Canal Community Garden (yes, it’s on the canal – exciting!) to help Sally with a variety of tasks. So come on – make it an Autumn to remember and get your name down now.

But until then, make sure you have THE best week: enjoy the squirrels, enjoy the conkers, enjoy the sun as you pound the pavement, and take the very best of care of your lovely selves.

Amazing Meath

27 runners headed to one of our favourite tasks at Meath Gardens, this evening, just a short run from our meeting point at the lovely Town Hall Hotel.

We were met by brilliantly organised task owners Joanna and Jane, who had everything prepped for our two main tasks: a litter-pick of the park, and a big watering operation! New young trees have been left a little parched due to a decent British summer, and without any watering points in the park currently, getting the trees watered is a labour-intensive operation, managed solely by the small team of Friends of Meath Gardens.

A canalside operation

And so the biggest crew headed to the canal to load up trolleys with buckets of water, while a team of 3 used the tap by the small Community Centre. And a further team headed to all four corners of the park to gather every last bit of litter.

As always the team worked tirelessly until gone 8, when every last thirsty young tree had been tended to.

Over to The Mystical Fitness Tree

And so we met for our cheerio and pics, before making our way to The Fitness Tree, a favourite fallen tree that acts as a wonderful base for some Bulgarian split squats, to kick our fitness session off with. Then we whizzed through the scorpion push up, some seated core exercises before moving on to some standing balance and strength exercises. The team are strong and focused at the moment. You could have heard a pin drop in the park as they balanced on one leg, putting their bodies through its resistance training paces without so much as a squeak of protest.

We completed our session with a couple of stretches before heading back to the hotel, and onto the pub for a quick drink to say cheerio to our beloved Becky J , whose last run it was with us for a while, as she pursues exciting career opportunities in another part of the world!

So long, Becky J!

Which leads me nicely on to offer a very big thank you to Becky all she has contributed over the last two-and-a-half years to Tower Hamlets. Becky is an active, regular Task Force runner, who shows up early at nearly every Group Run, welcoming new runners with a big smile; helping to plan tricky runs and Community Missions behind the scenes, and just generally offering smiles and support at every opportunity. You will be much missed.

Other Monday shout-out's

Thanks to Liz and Kat, and Jo, for back marking this evening.

And thanks to Dave for tonight's wicked pun - it's a cracker.

What's coming up...

• Next Monday we celebrate GoodGym's 10th birthday with TWO of our task owners, the wonderful Barts Volunteers and Tower Hamlets' Council's Big Clean Up as we head to the Royal London for a clean up in and around the beloved John Harrison Garden.

• And also next week, on Sat 21st, it's SuperSaturday, the biggest day of GoodGym activity, when our very own Kat has organised a variety of activities with the Mile End parkrun team, so you really should check that out here.

Right, that's me for another week. Well done all involved tonight - what a thoroughly splendid night. Thirsty trees are hydrated; the park area is pristine, and your hip flexors are that little bit stronger. I mean, it's official now - you really do rock.

Have a wonderful week, enjoy the start of Autumn, and we'll hopefully see you very soon.

A big old to-do list

26 runners gathered tonight to head back to Oxford House, to our first visit after the summer break, as the weather on our first September run didn't disappoint.

We were looking forward to an evening of varied tasks, as Deborah, our task owner for tonight, had warned us there was plenty for us to get stuck into...

On arrival at this beautiful community arts centre, we were split into four teams:

• One team headed onto furniture clearing
• ...another to window shining
• ...and another to stairwell cleaning,
• ...while another crew went to clean and clear the dance studio
• ...and two groups headed outside for weeding and litter-picking

There was plenty for us to do, but as usual, highly productive and industrious GoodGymers finished most tasks early, and so it was a big crew who headed outside to finish up with an almighty litter-pick.

Lots was accomplished and by the end of the task, a very grateful Deborah was saying her cheerio, expressing heartfelt thanks at all the runners had achieved, explaining that the furniture that needed moving from one storey of the building to another was a job that had needed doing for ages.

Indeed we were pleased with what we accomplished, not least because as we waited in the cafe for the final furniture-removal runners to finish, we focused on some balance moves. Nothing like a bit of active recovery.

And so to Weavers Fields, for our fitness session of the week. I had promised the runners that The Weavers Workout would be a total body workout, and so it was. Scorpion push-ups were blitzed along with MMA sprawls; prisoner lunges beautifully performed, as were the cycling crunches. The runners were on fire. And before we knew it it was 8.25pm and time for us to head back to base.

Another glorious GoodGym evening. Well done everyone and thank you.

Big Monday shout-outs

• Thanks to Liz and Dave for backmarking.
• Thanks to Dave for topping up our pics.
• Thank you to Dharmesh for amazing tech know-how and helping the report picture process (you offered game-changing advice - thank you)
• Welcome to Rohan and Emma, our first time runners. We loved having you join us - thank you for tonight's vast contributions, and please come again soon.

What's coming up...

• This Thursday there's only one place to be - yep, it's the GoodGym social in town, so take the night off, come and join us here
• Next week, we're back for another glorious gardening task at beautiful Meath Gardens, so do come and join in next week's fun with us here.

Until then, have a wonderful week, everyone, and hope to see you reeeeally soon.

A lovely sized crew of 34 gathered for tonight's two tasks...

Stitches in Time SAVED by nine...

Following a recce of our new task at Stitches in Time in Limehouse, our wonderful Task Force were heading this one up like a military operation: numbers were planned, runners assigned, task owners instructed, routes mapped...It was all systems go from the weekend! And so a team of 11, headed by Lieke, headed to this fab new task along the canal. Writes task force member Dave, "Community arts charity Stitches in Time is worth nine plucky Goodgym-ers taking a scenic 7km circuit along the Regents Canal to the deceptive Limehouse Town Hall (which has never actually been a Town Hall, FYI).

On arrival at this new task location, task owner Paul quickly set us to work removing a lot of lengths of wood, screen-printing materials and some large wooden structures, to make way for the dismantling of shelving and a tougher-than-it-looked dark room.

The sound of creaking crowbars and banging hammers soon filled the building in a hive of activity, and excellent team work, making a very large dent in this terrific task. Time ticked on, our planned fitness session came and went, but finish we did, before the team returned to base along the dusky canal, for some final mileage for the day."

Glossing at Hollybush Gardens

Meanwhile, I took the rest of the team around the corner to Hollybush Gardens where Michael and Margaret had some fun outdoor painting work to do. Due to the recent rain, the outdoor furniture still hadn't received a lick of summer paint, and so 22 runners were put to work with pots of gloss to get the chairs, planters and outdoor benches looking bright and shiny for the Autumn months ahead.

A splinter crew of 3 headed to the garden for weeding, and industrious they were filling bags and bags before we wrapped just before 8.

Fabulous team fitness work

With a few minutes to spare for this evening's task, the team did a superb job taking the fitness reins: Si headed up the route operation, taking us straight down to Bethnal Green Gardens, while David took creative cardio control and led this evening's speedwork, planning and directing a tough lap of the park, with teams divided into two. And what fitness work it was, with all runners arriving back at The Fitness Clearing panting for breath and begging not to brave another lap. And so we settled for a real full-body blast of a workout, with plank-and-pushups, jumping single leg deadlifts, abs cycles and the sprinter lunge to name a few. Incredible work, yet again, from everyone. Your fitness - cardio, balance, flexibility, and strength - really does seem to be improving by the week.

And then David led the crew back to base, and through some brilliant calf and quad stretches on our favourite hotel stretching steps.

What a night.

Great big, glorious Monday shout-outs

Where to start this evening?

First up, welcome and thank you for a wonderful first night to our new runners, Victor and Kerenza. You were amazing and we hope you'll come back very soon.

A big pat on the back to our David who last night celebrated his 50th good deed and our Chris who celebrated his 70th. Thanks for being a great, big part of our group.

Thanks to David and Si for their fabulous fitness input tonight.

To Joel for pretty spectacular pun input as usual (and sorry for my eleventh hour change...).

Now. A huge shout out to the totally brilliant team who headed to Stitches in Time, including Leo and Dave for pics; Dave for report-writing and leading the runners back to base at 9pm, and Lieke for heading up. And to our wonderful task force who were all on board with planning over the weekend. Thank you from us all.

Next week sees a fitness double bill!

Yep, come out and celebrate the Bank Holiday Monday with a fun leafleting task, followed by running and Pilates: swap sofa for sweat and strength work at this fun Monday session. Details and sign up are here.

Right, that's it for this week. So until next time, have a thoroughly good week everyone!

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.