We were two-tasking it again this evening, and really putting the ‘earth’ into Earth Hour on both our tasks.

A secondary SOS task to Cranbrook Community Food Garden

In an eleventh hour addition to our planned activity, task force member Becky J headed up a splinter group of four to one of our longest standing, favourite tasks, Cranbrook Community Food Garden. Writes Becky, “Just a mini detour en route to Cranbrook this evening, as fellow Task Force member Bryon challenged me to attempt navigating our route without assistance (always a challenge...). This added just one small loop to the run, but I'm all in favour of a little extra (accidental) mileage.

On arrival at the garden, we witnessed Storm Gareth had indeed left a trail of destruction in his wake, felling a tree and damaging fencing in the process. Bryon and Eimear set to work removing twigs from a boundary fence, while Tom and I began the tricky task of untangling climbing plants from a now broken trellis, before pulling down the arch.

Having successfully achieved this, (and, btw, saving a tree we feared may have to be pulled up in the process), we were then presented with a flat pack replacement arch (turns out flat pack instructions are easier in daylight, with a mug of strong coffee, than in a dark garden, deciphered under torchlight alone).

But Bryon and Eimear joined us and together we got the arch standing, just in time to pose for a couple of pics alongside our evening’s handiwork.”

Team Tower Hamlets to the rescue indeed.

Potting at Parkview

Meanwhile, I headed up the Parkview crew who were Glasshouse-bound to this most wonderful community hall on the Parkview Estate. Task owner Catherine met us with two tasks – potting bee-friendly plants and leafleting for the upcoming Spring Fayre - leaving no preparation stone unturned as she presented a proposed plant production line of such efficiency, the likes of which I’ve never seen before; ditto leafleting instructions (think hand drawn maps of the estate).

Two leaflet teams were dispatched onto the estate's many blocks, while the plant-potters, headed up by Luke, and initially Dave (who was then demoted to deputy by young Connie, who joined from the Parkview residents team to instruct on best plant-handling practice) grouped in two different areas of the hall.

It was a race to the finish, but by the time we left all 800 plants had been potted, and the area swept and scrubbed down. Wow.

Tempo run and tree pose

And so we headed to Victoria Park, led by Steve, for some fabulous speedwork headed up by both Tom and Steve, and finishing with a couple of resistance exercises.

And then it was back to our beautiful hotel base, where we were lucky enough to have Christina, a regular runner and qualified yoga teacher, lead us through some fabulous yoga stretches to finish.

Another totally neat night. More missions awesomely accomplished. More thoroughly relieved and appreciative task owners. Well. Done. You.

Monday shout-out’s

A very big shout out to tonight's first time runners, Ridwan, Anais and Eirini – thanks for making such a huge contribution on your first run, and we hope to see you really soon.

And thank you to Becky, for enabling the second task to happen, and for kind of saving the day and for taking some great pics, and writing the report.

Now, don’t forget, we’re doing it all again on Saturday when task force member Bryon leads up a brand new gardening task in E3 – yes, we’re putting the ‘earth’ back into Earth Hour for the second time this week. More details and sign up are here.

Have a brilliant week, won't you all, and hope to see you very soon.

Three wonderful tasks

It was an ambitious one. We were torn. Three wonderful task owners, three wonderful tasks but how many pairs of hands could we count on tonight? 28 was the answer. TWENTY EIGHT GoodGymers braved what’s still a chilly Monday experience to come and roll up their sleeves in our beloved borough for the very best causes.

The pic…

We assembled in our lovely, spacious hotel room, courtesy of the wonderful Town Hall Hotel (whose staff always ensure our evening gets off to a great start, greeting us with smiles, endless help, and fulfilling our increasing number of requests, from letting leaflets be left by task owners, to taking our pic on the staircase. Thank you all so much).

And then we reassembled on the splendid staircase to take our pic for the 50th area launch – Tower Hamlets was Area Number One. You’d think this was an easy shape to make, but it was surprisingly hard. So much so that the runners toughest challenge tonight was possibly exercising a great deal of patience and tolerance as I made endless grimaces and position changes. And we hadn’t even warmed up yet.

Three teams, three tasks…

And so to the steps for 3 speedy mobility exercises before team 1, led by Leanne, were dispatched to to Rocky Park at the Hollybush Estate, where they sped around moving from task to task, filling planters, moving mulch and digging and weeding.

And then Team 2 were dispatched to a brand new task, the new Suffragette Kitchen Garden, part of the Edible Bow network, on Old Ford Road where task owner Hester met Redbridge Task Force member Dharmesh and his team, with 3 tonnes of newly delivered soil to be shovelled into planters. The team sped through the heavy lifting work, finishing in record time. Three tonnes was no match for 11 enthusiastic GoodGymers who were then the first team to arrive at the fitness session!

And I was lucky enough to head out onto the streets of Bethnal Green with an all-girl crew, to leaflet businesses and Bethnal Greeners for the wonderful Acknowledging Youths charity. We had a pretty good reception, with everyone from commuters to comedy store managers all coming on board to accept bundles of leaflets to help spread the word. Thank you Bethnal Green businesses – we witnessed a community spirit that’s alive and well on our streets tonight. Your help and receptivity is so much appreciated.

Multi-tasking moves and metabolism-boosting at Meath

And then we all ran to Meath and met by The Fitness Tree (a fallen tree who doubles up as a great base for Bulgarian split squats). We planked, we pivoted, we ran laps at various Parkrun paces, and we tempo-ed and we tackled our tums. And then we ran home. What. A. Night.

BIG thank you’s tonight

On behalf of the group, we have some pretty hefty thank you’s tonight: Thanks to our wonderful task force, who were busy planning with me behind the scenes throughout Monday. And a special thank you to Dharmesh, a Redbridge task force member on loan to us this evening, who readily agreed to lead the new task to the Suffragette Garden, did a splendid job of running the task, and then leading the first part of the fitness session for his group in Meath Gardens. And then led the cooldown stretching back at base. Amazing stuff.

Thanks to Leanne, for leading the big crew to Hollybush, and back to Meath, for taking some great pics and for saving the day with her fabulous pun tonight, AND for planning and executing our group figure-of-1 shot (and putting up with me and my endless changes).

And let’s not forget a massive warm GG welcome to Molly whose first run it was this evening. Really lovely to have you join us – thanks for being such a fabulous flier-er, it was really fun to be out and about on the streets of Bethnal Green with you!

Next week we’re back at The Glasshouse Community Centre for Earth Hour!

Now next week, we’re putting the ‘earth’ into Earth Hour and planting fruit trees and seeds at the wonderful Glasshouse Community Centre. Join us, why don’t you? We’d love you to come along. More detail, and sign up, are here.

Until then, make sure you have a wonderful week!

A chilly day - but smiling Good Gymers!

A respectable sized group of 14 runners met at Meath Gardens, just off our very own Roman Road, on a very chilly, very grey Saturday afternoon. But with plenty of smiling new faces on board, we took no time in heading off in high spirits to the Community Centre to drop bags and get ready for our first bit of running for the day.

Moving our muscles in Meath

Dharmesh and Si kindly headed up the running session – they led the GoodGymers on several laps of Meath Gardens, at varying paces, while I met the runners back at our trusty tree trunk exercise spot for some Bulgarian split squats to warm up the lower body for the planting and digging ahead.

Let the bulb-planting commence

A little while later, we headed to the railway bridge to meet the Meath team who were well prepared with trolleys, bulb-planters (quite the waist workout, is a bulb planter. Who knew.) and flasks.

Two teams were dispatched to get digging and planting and a whopping 1600 bulbs were planted in less than an hour.

Way to go, team.

We wheeled, we dug, we whittled, we pogo-d: it was quite the workout. And then we were meeting for our cheerio pics, and some more running and core work to finish with.

What a Saturday afternoon calorie-burner!

Well done, everyone, for your vast achievements today, and for fabulous energy, on what was a pretty cold weekend.

Today’s shout-outs and thanks go to…

Dharmesh and Si for taking over the ‘meet and greet’ at the start of the run, while I met the task owner, and for leading a terrific little lap session before the task. What a great intro to GG you were for our new runners. Thank you.

And thanks to the whole group today for their brilliant pun contributions!

And a huge, New Year GG welcome to new runners Emily, Amy, Dee, Michael, Annalise and Olivia, not new to GG but new to us at Tower Hamlets – what a treat!

We're back on MONDAY!

And we’re doing it all again on Monday - what could be better. We’re inside (hurrah!), with some painting-prep and de-cluttering at the lovely Oxford House, a short run from our meeting point. Details and sign-up are here.

Until then, have a fabulous weekend, and I hope to see you very soon.

On a suitably wintry afternoon, a swathe of brave Goodgymers met at Parkview Community Centre to admire the year’s handiwork - newly painted rooms - and to join in their Christmas activity day.

After having cups of hot chai tea, and yummt Christmas mince pies, the Goodgymers joined local residents for a sing-song led by a singing teacher. While this was a little unusual or perhaps out of the comfort zones of some to start with, soon enough we were all singing our hearts out and making up dance moves to match!

We all pitched in for a super speedy clean up and nearly managed to sweep up all of the gold stars left behind from children’s craft time, but some will probably be a new permanent feature of the community centre carpet!

It was great to meet runners from all over London, with boroughs of Newham, Haringey and Brent all represented alongside local runners from Tower Hamlets.

Parkview were very appreciative of our presence and for our help during the year. We now look forward to seeing how we can help them in 2019.

Merry Christmas!