Rain, rain, are you gonna go away?

…No? Well we don’t care because we’re GoodGymers and we run and task whatever the weather.

Yes, a good sized group of 26 runners gathered together for tonight’s two-task effort…

Two tasks: two dedicated, resourceful teams

Task force members Bryon and Lieke had come to the rescue to head up a smaller operation, a new task brilliantly organised at late notice by our regular runner Nikki, helping to prepare and pretty a green space in advance of a new community fun day.

5 runners headed up towards Whitechapel to help offer a makeover to a little green space next to neighbouring Brady Arts & Community Centre, as local teams help to create a Dream Garden ahead of a Community Fun Day.

Meanwhile, myself and the remaining runners headed to beautiful Meath Gardens, where Joanna and Jane met us with the usual warmest of welcomes, and some beautifully planned tasks. We were staking shrubs, and litter picking, and moving mulch in a huge two-team operation.

The runners were dispatched to all four corners of the park working at usual lightning speed (no actual lightning, tho, as the weather had significantly improved, much to our relief).

Mulch was moved, litter picked, shrubs staked…step counts boosted. Yep, it was a calorie-burning, bone-boosting session too.

And before 8, the team from Brady Arts Centre had arrived, and, I’m guessing you’re gonna know their answer to this question I put to them: “Now, would you like to chill for a minute before we start the fitness, or do you want to join the litter-pickers?” And so we had a big crew finishing the litter-picking with not one un-used bin liner left by the end of the evening.

Hopscotch and single leg deadlift-time

And so we said our goodbyes and headed to the centre of the park for tonight’s balance and agility workout session.

This was a combination of agility drills and some balance moves, all doubling up to work lower body in preparation for the Autumn race season, and general summer mileage.

The runners were great. They blitzed all the moves, with seriousness and dedication, and this shows in their improved balance: a reverse-lunge-to-single-leg-deadlift following multiple hopscotch laps is no mean feat. Unless you’re a Tower Hamlets GoodGymer who’s consistently worked on their balance, in which case it’s a walk in the park. Literally.

And then we were stretching, tonight tackling in particular our tight ITBs and TFLs, to hopefully show hips and knees some TLC for the week.

Great big glorious Monday shout-outs

A massive warm GG welcome to our first time runners,Lucy and Hannah. You did so much! You worked so hard! And you were so much fun. Thank you both for your vast contributions and we hope very much to see you again soon.

Thanks from us all to Nikki for setting up and organising a brilliant new task, and for putting us in touch with some wonderful community partners over the months. And thank you to task force members Bryon and Lieke who came forward last week to lead this task and enable it to happen.

A big shout-out to tonight’s back markers Charlotte and Becky who kept us all together at great distance tonight, as we headed out at a speedy pace.

And a big shout out too to Chris who jumped in and led a faster group back to the hotel after our run.

We’re able to offer multiple running speeds, so we really can cater to all running abilities, thanks to wonderful runners like those mentioned above.

And thanks to Chi and Nikki for great pics, and, to finish today, a huge shout out and appreciative pat on the back to Si, who recently reached 50 good deeds, in a pretty short space of time and who contributes a lot to the Tower Hamlets group.

Right, nearly there… But before we head off, two things that must go on your radar…

• Next week, 19th August, on Monday’s run we’re a two-task crew again, heading to a wonderful new task at participatory arts and education charity Stitches in Time, while a second team will be returning to Hollybush to help Margaret and Michael with some more SOS summer gardening tasks. Come and join in the fun, we’d really love to see you!

• And on Sunday August 25th, new Camden trainer Simon is leading a brilliant GoodGym run, a tour of the Docklands, with a pace that’s do-able for pretty much every runner, with a choice of distance. So, if you’re planning on some Bank Holiday mileage and fancy a bit of company, this one’s for you.

Have a great week, everyone, and hope to see you soon.

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!