Monthly social packs its bags off to Lewisham!

Catford. 2017. My first visit...I didn't see the Cat...

So first time on tour in 2017 and what a trip it was. Thank you for the local knowledge GG Lewisham, we had our own (living) room and we had a fantastic turn out. Thirty One of you came down and almost half of you were GG Lewisham runners - great to see you all and I do hope you'll be tempted out to some other drinks soon!

Now on to the updates and news:

The Tables

Distance:

• Ben Parkes - 662.8km
• Axel Manzano - 344.1km
• Graham Atkins - 326.9km
• Honourable Lewisham Mention: Ian Gostling - 216.km

Cheers Given:

• Adele Prince - 561 (Lewisham)
• Patrick Luong - 369
• Hazel Childs - 366

Cheers Received:

• Patrick Luong - 207
• Ivo Gorley - 198
• Sarah Moore - 197
• Honourable Lewisham Mention: Jacqueline Francis - 69

Good Deeds:

• Patrick Luong - 17
• Tom Benson - 15
• Beth Hoskins - 14

• Honourable Lewisham Mention: Anita Van Mil - 5

• Apologies again, new working practices are clearly needed but still no data on those receiving black shirts for 50 and wings for 100. We will be rectifiying that asap... he says.

• Last but not least we have the winner of the We got the most new runners come to our area last month award (yup, still toying with the official title for this one)! Despite it being her last month in charge Jo left with a bang and Southwark took this one with a massive 28 new runners for February. Amazing work and setting the bar high for GG Brent's Ellie Wood who is taking over the reigns in Southwark! Good luck and make sure you head down to Peckham to experience the Southwark magic.

News

• GoodGym goes even more Nationwide-er

So GG Bexley opened with a massive fanfare - we expect a mayor these days but we also had ribbon cutting too! Setting that bar high.

In the next week we have GG Worthing opening on the 13th March - tell your south coast friends and then on the 21st March we have GG Bromley opening!

We've got Leicester and Cardiff coming very soon so do let friends and family in those areas know that they can get involved now too.

• Where's your GoodGym

I mentioned this last time but will leave it in for now - do let your friends know about the slight misnomers of some of the GG groups, they might be closer than they think and it could be easier for you to get involved with a bit of GG tourism too! So check out some of the GG areas and their actual start locations below :

• GG Southwark meet in Peckham
• GG Hounslow meet in Chiswick
• GG Redbridge meet in Wanstead
• GG Brent meet in Willesden Green
• GG Newham meet in Stratford in the Olympic Park ...and don't forget we have areas in Richmond, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham

GG Race Team

Do you know about GoodGym Race Team? It’s a UK Athletics affiliated running club that has its own committee and vision but sits alongside GoodGym. If you want to get started with races or improve your current running times or just get a GoodGym singlet (that's a vest to you and me) then get involved and you'll get £2 off entry to races too! The other thing the Race Team supports is the GG Big Six - these are races that are open to everyone but GG Race Team will be championing through the year and you can sign up confident that there will be support and general #RedThunder...for 2017 the races are:

• 11th & 12th March - Larmer Tree Races (10miles, Half, 20miles, Marathon - Trail) - Ok, so at time of writing, prior to publishing this was coming up but it has now passed. We'll look to work with White Star Running in the future very much a group of people running races in the same mindset that GG operates. We can confirm it was a superb weekend, lots of great running, lots of mud and hills and awesome medals and hospitality to boot!

• 14th May - Riga Running Festival (6km, 10km, Half, Marathon - Road)

• 9th July - Bath Two Tunnels (5km, 10km, Half, Marathon, 50km - Road)

• 19th August - Race the Train, Tywyn (3.5miles, 5.5miles, 10km, 14miles - Trail)

• 10th September - New Forest Running Festival (5km, 10km, Half, Marathon - Trail)

• 8th October - Oxford Half Marathon (Half Marathon - Road)

Keep an eye out on the Events page for news of other races but these five will be mentioned a lot!

Now down to those things I actually spoke about at the drinks! Two key events - the GG Race Team time trials and the Night of the 10,000m PBs!

• Time Trial - The wonder that is Tom Benson and his Race Team pals have been organising a monthly time trial. It's free, it's fun and you get a time at the end so perfect to see how you are doing and whether your latest training regime is getting you the goals you want. This month, March 26th in Regent's Park there'll be a slight twist on the time trial as we introduce a handicap and we ask you to submit your best times in advance and make a race of the time trial by starting people off based on their expected time. It'll be fast and fun so get involved if you can - we're looking for both racers and marshalls - all the info here.

• Night of the 10,000m PBs, May 20th - this event is a fantastic exhibition of all that is great about our sport. The drive to finish as well as you can, the camaraderie and community of the runner and running clubs and the willingness of our lot to give up their time and energy to make something special happen. It's 25 laps of the track and you can get as close to the action as is possible with the Lane 3 crowd, the beer tent and the cheer tunnel! It's at the Parliament Hill track on Hampstead Heath and we're looking to have as big as impact as ever after the success of GoodGym being part of the event last year. Find more details here, find the GoodGym details here and get involved however you can - be it racing (if you're lucky enough), sign up to volunteer or just coming along and being part of the brilliant crowd that makes it such an amazing night!

GoodGym

I'm gonna keep mentioning it, after all, it's what has brought us all together! For all the fun of the socials, racing and all the rest please do keep in mind that we are trying to help as many people as possible and tackle isolation among the elderly! The best way of doing that is to ensure we are DBS checked so we can go on missions and, if possible, join the coach scheme. This doesn't work for everyone so do keep mentioning it to others even if you can't do it yourself. I know most of you know about the different ways to get involved but just in case...you can get involved in group runs, coach runs or the missions - there is generally something for everyone!

Taskforce

The Taskforces were set up back in 2015 and it was a way to give something back to members who were not just showing up to runs but also helping the trainers out and really driving GoodGym forwards to the organisation that exists now. I was lucky enough to have a hand in this back in the early days and as we expand out of London's reach I think it is really important that people are given the opportunity to get involved so I'll be going on about it lots - feel free to contact me and/or speak to your trainer - and I'm sure we will have Taskforces in every area soon making GoodGym even more successful and more importantly even more of what you want it to be!

Guest Speaker

Before we do the pun I just wanted to say another big thank you to Lucy Harris who took up the mantle and told her GoodGym story. Not least because it was a break from me, it was great to hear her story and to see understanding the unique ways in which different people have gotten into doing GoodGym. It was lovely to hear a personal take on the difference we make to each other and not just what we give to all those parties we help on our runs. Thanks again Lucy!

International Pun of the Month

So last but not least we have the all important International Pun of the Month.

I debuted typed up lists for the first time, technological marvels here at the social, and the voting was frenetic but as ever we can only have one winner... So with 10 of a total 32 votes the winner, a very apt one for the time of the year, was...

"When bush comes to shrove" from the mighty GoodGym Bristol

Huge congratulations to you and looking forward to even more pun gold next month!

So thank you to you all for making the effort to come along, thank you to GG Lewisham for taking us on tour and showing a great time in their borough!

As ever please do contact me with feedback or things you might want to see/hear on the night - I'm merely the pawn in your social game - direct me as you wish! Outlying boroughs, I've not heard a peep yet so get in touch or I'll be making you be the 'tour' destination for May!

We shall see you for a 'Central' social on the 6th April, the page is here and details will be up asap!

Pritesh

p.s. As some of you know there is an unofficial GG facebook group, set up by GG Camden trainer Paul Bown and administered by us both , click here if you want to join - it's a great place to hear about races, socials, training runs and other things that come out of a community having a chatter!

p.p.s Thank you to Chris for the photos from the night!