Earth, WAND & Flyer

12 GoodGymers ran 9km to deliver flyers for the WANDerful charity WAND UK

Well that was one scorcher of an Easter bank holiday weekend! The t-shirts and shorts are finally out from everyones drawers...and good job too since it was a very warm evening for our long run up to, and back from WAND UK. A big welcome to Lucy who joined us for her first GoodGym run - hope you enjoyed it and hopefully see you again soon! - and a big thank you to my regulars for coming along and resisting the lure of ice creams, and pub gardens!

The weekly news to amuse

1. April London Long Run - Wimbledon Common & Putney Heath - join Catriona this Saturday from 10.30am as she leads a scenic run loop around Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath (10km & 17km run options available), followed by lunch!
2. London Marathon Cheering - on Sunday put on your red GG tee & come down to Victoria Embankment, behind Somerset House (around mile 25) to give all the marathon runners a BIG cheer, especially our very own, Helen!! The more noise the better! Good luck to Helen & everyone else running.
3. GoodGym Olympics 2019- represent H&F on Saturday 3rd August in events from the Egg & Spoon to 5000m!
4. Jonny's Marathon Article - have a read about Mr Jonny Knight's first marathon experience at Manchester!

As a special treat this week, you're spared from any more of my waffle and have the aforementioned Mr Jonny Knight's take on the evening!...it's a good'un & will have you laughing from the first line! Have a fab week and hopefully see you at the weekend.

Over to you Jonny...

The sun was still in the sky, they put their red t-shirt’s on which seemed to have a mirrored illustration on them of a recycling symbol and the word ‘GoodGym’. It must be the dreamy silent heroes from the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, out to do good and who is this with them? In a 2017 Great North Run Finisher shirt, she must mean business, it was Lucy on her first GoodGym Group Run.

After they had warmed up their typical running formation resumed, one team running as one, tackling the obstacles that this urban jungle threw at them, Jason Cheung made sure no one was left behind, which is their way of saying “no one gets run over at GoodGym”.

Around 4 kilometres later they arrived at the St Charles Centre for Health and Wellbeing where the group was given an array of flyers explaining that WAND UK, was not a stick used to conjure spells but a charity that addresses the problems facing women in isolated and excluded communities through drop-in sessions, outreach services and networking events.

Task number 1 was to combine the different flyer types into a single pack that could be placed through letterboxes. Tom Clough reminisced about his time as a paperboy, an occupation worthy of a spot on his CV, especially as he was in his element here.

They headed on to Latimer Road as per WANDs request, there is a housing estate there called Lancaster West, which you will see actually looks like a ‘W’ from above, for the next WAND flyering mission they will be covering flat blocks that at least look like an ampersand.

The group split into three teams, and there was a short amount of time to fill letterboxes with flyers. How did they get in? They are heroes... they walked through the front door after explaining to the residents that they were a charity, helping a charity.

To cut a long story short, they regrouped and ran back, but with their heads held high that they did good in the community on this fine summers evening and then Jonny Knight agreed to write his first Run Report, and thought a third person narrative would make him look fly-er.