Fab Four, Fliers and Fartlek

This week five (including me) fabulous GoodGym-ers ran 5km to help spread the word about Jacksons Lane's LGBT project Haringey Has Pride.

We were supposed to do this task last week, but the fliers went walkabout, meaning we got to try again tonight. I asked around and got my sleuth on, spotting a rainbow on a bit of paper on a box in the office. Nailed it

We started with Ritadropping off a bunch of the fliers at the leisure centre and the library, hitting two of our target venues before we'd even started running. We are masters of efficiency.

We then all headed outside for a quick warm up, where I discovered Niamh has a high-knees technique unlike anything I've ever seen.

After a quick game of name burpees, we headed off to our second stop. As the town hall is just next door, we sprinted to our stop, making the most of the short distance. The team then split up, with a stack of fliers each, and hit the delegated buildings.

We then headed up to Five Miles, hitting a few residential streets along the way. The gang showed me their best press ups while we waited for Niamh to drop off some fliers.

We passed my parents old factory on our way into Markfield Park, which filled me with teenage nostalgia.

It was time for some sprints. Four sets of 80% effort, easy back runs; 10 seconds in between rounds. Dave then dropped some leaflets off at the cafe, before we did a quick fartlek sesh on the grass. This gave me a perfect opportunity to show off my whistling skills. I'm surprised that we've never played that game before actually.

Soon it was time to continue with the task at hand, so we ran along the river towards Tottenham Hale.

Cathy told me about her knee problems, so I did a mini run clinic on the move and checked her form and gave her some feedback and homework.

Knee injuries are super common in runners and it's good to catch them early and fix the problem before things get out of hand. Trust me on this one.

We dropped some fliers off at a bunch of venues in Tottenham Hale and then headed through the park to finish up with a few more houses before heading home.

All of this was interspersed with squats and press ups and wall sits, of course.

On the run back to base we all shared our (not so) fun facts about LGBT rights in the UK and abroad. You all know how much I love a fun fact. These included popular horrors such as: it is still LEGAL in the UK to send your child to conversion therapy if they're gay (which is essentially torture FYI), and: being gay was still considered a mental illness in the UK until 1992. (I may have said '96 whilst running, but Rach corrected me when I got home!)

There's still a tonne of work to do for LGBT equality in the UK, which is why projects like Haringey Has Pride are so important. Yes, we've come along way; but that doesn't mean we're there yet.

Did you know that one in five LGBT people have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the last 12 months? Stonewall has a whole page of facts and figures if you'd like to see.

If you'd like to find out more about the project we were helping tonight, head over to Jacksons Lane's website.

Props to Dave for the headline this week