When bush comes to shove(l)

Another Wednesday, another sprinkling of goodness in the borough of Hounslow.

It was lovely to see some GG tourism - a big welcome to Fiona and Kate! It was a special night as we were also celebrating the birthday of lovely Michelle -happy birthday from us all at GoodGym Hounslow!

After a quick warm up that tested our agility, balance and coordination we started off our run pledging to do some kind things during the rest of the week. It's going to be a lovely few days for friends and family of GG Hounslow, as we promised to do extra missions, take loved ones on holiday, make scones for the office and look after our flatmates' cat. Oh, and help eat our mate's birthday cake. Nice!

We only had a short run to the local primary school, so we set off at a nice steady pace taking the railway bridge steps in our stride. Arriving at the school we found caretaker Claire, who had provided us with a list of jobs earlier that day, waiting to say hi. She let us know how appreciative the school was for the time we spend there after they've suffered budget cuts and are having to do extra work to avoid making redundancies. So it was with renewed purpose that we got stuck into the jobs!

After a surprising amount of discussion on how to divide ourselves up into small groups, we each took a job from the list which included trimming bushes, tackling bamboo (our Hounslow nemesis), weeding, skipping chairs and other bulky stuff and even putting together some water play tables for the kids. After 45 minutes of work we had ticked off all the tasks, and decided (after a non conclusive vote) to take a slightly longer route back to Turnham Green. With a very pretty yomp along the river, we got back to the park and smashed out a tiny tabata session which really got our hearts pumping, and a minute plank challenge where we took our minds off the pain by singing Michelle Happy Birthday. Then we went to the pub. Because, GoodGym Hounslow.

Next week we have an exciting new task at a local rowing club, where we'll be helping them revamp their clubhouse. Sign up here for more Wednesday running and gooding.