Whose pine is it anyway?

22 runners ran 5km & spruce-d up the s-TREE-ts of Hammersmith & Fulham

While their was a Parliamen-TREE vote on TREE-sa May's Brexit deal for the Coun-TREE, 22 GoodGymers ran to do some TREE-mendous good in Hammersmith & Fulham. A big welcome along to Jess, and Laura who came for their first GoodGym H&F group run. It was also lovely to welcome along GoodGym tourists from Hounslow, Richmond and Brent who joined my wonderful regulars tonight. Thank you all for coming along!

With everyone signed in and raring to go, in PINE with our usual formalities we all headed outside for the quick intro and round of the week's news.

1. JANUARY CHALLENGE 2019! - Last week was a record breaking week for GoodGym with a massive 1,621 good deeds done in a week! As a group we're well on the way to hitting our 2019 targets for good deeds and distance run and currently we're sitting nicely at the top of Division D. Awesome work H&F team!
2. Morden Hall Park - Trust10 Trail Run - Sunday 27th January. Sign up & meet at 8.30am near the White Bridge in Morden Hall Park. It is FREE - there are no admission charges at Morden Hall Park.
3. Spartan Race Weekend - Early May Bank Holiday weekend. As promoted by Chi at the end of the run, volunteer for one shift and in exchange you will receive a FREE race pass, sounds like a lot of fun!

AND, well done to Chi aka Mr Abs on Tour, he not only snuck up to me at the start but also sneakily snuck in his 100th good deed tonight! A whole lot of good done, and many abs shaped and worked out throughout the whole of London!

To tree, or not to tree

Tonight's task was to collect up abandoned Christmas Trees left on the streets of Hammersmith & Fulham and carry them to the various recycling points in the area so that they could be composted. A task that would both help the community and provide a great upper-body workout at the same time!

The best things in life come in t(h)rees

In order to cover as much of Hammersmith & Fulham as possible, the group split in to three teams with each given a specific area to focus their effects on, along with the nearest Christmas Tree recycling point. In addition, the were also some scavenger hunt challenges that included the following: find something red or green, some Christmas lights, a group wall sit challenge, spot something beginning with H or F (Sophie is Hanging off a tree in the photo for a good cause, not just monekying around!), and tell two members of the public about GoodGym and hand out two GoodGym flyers.

Now to re-TREE-ve the trees!

Each team quickly came up with a name, and with their Strava's ready set off on the hunt for Christmas Trees in their area. We all had an hour to collect Christmas Trees and complete the scavenger hunt. With many trees still strewn around on street corners and in the roads, it wasn't long before Christmas Trees were being gathered and expertly carried by everyone to the recycling collection points. Many teamed up and carried two at time for maximum efficiency and puzzled looks from people we passed on the streets and in pubs. My favourite comment from the night was one gentleman saying "must be some weird yearly tradition they have around these parts!". With muscles bulging from the heavy trees and double carrying amongst other spots and shouts of "Tree" we all weaved our way around the streets of Hammersmith and Fulham, with each group making multiple tree drop-offs at the recycling point.

• Team 1 - Sparkly Spartans - ran 4km and collected 24 trees
• Team 2 - The Drag-Racers - ran 5km and collected 6 trees
• Team 3 - To Tree Continued - ran 5km and collected 8 trees - 8 trees that went a very scenic route to a recycling point, sorry guys!

We were all TREE-rifically TREE-iumphant!

In total, a massive 38 Christmas Trees were collected and recycled from the surrounding streets, they'll not only be composted but also no longer pose a hazard for others! Well done to Team 1, "We'll PINE if we don't come FIR-st!", here they are in action...

Now it was time to PINE tune our muscles

Before heading back to base all the groups reunited as one at Brook Green for a quick fitness session. Chi kindly put the groups who were back on time through some pulse raising exercises, this was followed by some (democratically voted for!) strength and conditioning exercises that included: frog jumps, in and out squats, single legged squats and some spotty dogs. Trees recycled and fitness completed, it was time to head back to base. Following one final sprint for home we had a cool down and stretch before heading our separate ways.

That's all FIR now folks!

Thank you all FIR coming along and for all your TREE-mendous efforts tonight. Have a great rest of your week! Sign up for next week's run here.