Boldly go where snowman has gone before

Last night we kicked off our last group run of the decade with a round up of all the amazing things GoodGym Hounslow has achieved in the last year.

• We've notched up 791 good deeds

• run 9917 kilometres

• Eight of you earned that black 50 tshirt, and three got your 100 wings

wow!

Can we beat this next year? Bring on 2020, it's going to be a good one!

It was lovely to welcome (Monika to her first GoodGym group run, especially after an eventful journey to get there!

In a bit of end of year silliness our last session of the year was a festive scavenger hunt, so after a warm up where we discussed the present we'd most like to receive this holiday season (a puppy, an extra day's holiday, all the running gear, a new bumper, a set of pens and some hazelnut syrup) we split into two teams. Elf and Safety V Michelle's B--ches - the competition was ON.

Hidden in Turnham Green in six different locations there could be found 12 candy canes, each with a different task attached to them. The challenge was to find all the candy canes, complete the instructions written on them, and hightail it back to the Town Hall first. Simple enough. Except that the silly Christmas Elf that had written all the clues in a fabulous glittery pen and hidden all the clues hadn't bargained on the rain. Still, it was an additional challenge trying to make out what each message said.

The tasks included 15 minutes of intense weeding at the rockery, picking 30 pieces of litter per team (with an extra prize for the most interesting find, which was won by Sarah with her old circus poster), creating a festive piece of Strava art (check out one great result in the pictures - the other one was a bit more Pollock(s)), running a 1km time together (or 1 mile if you were in Kate's group), getting a selfie with a stranger doing something that represented GoodGym, and completing the Fitmas Tree of exercises.

Top marks for effort everybody, despite some sabotage by Will's team, and the illegible messages. Ultimately a draw was declared, because Christmas, and everybody made it back to the Town Hall to eat gingerbread men and swap festive cheer.

A huge well done for everything you've achieved together over the past year, for supporting your community so brilliantly and for all those miles you've racked up in the process. I'm really excited to see all the good things 2020 will bring. Happy Holidays Hounslow!