
Alex Murtough
Former purveyor of healthy ice cream. Listener of cheesy soul music. Often fantasizing about running faster.
Greenwich
TaskForce
Run Leader
236Good deeds
236runs
917cheers
TaskForce achievements
8
Community Missions
listed
25
Group Runs
back marked
0
Walking Groups
led
33
Run reports
written
0
Run reports
photographed
0
Group Fitness Activities
led
Latest story featuring Alex

Training for the Big Half
GoodGym Greenwich runner Alex shares his training tips

Greenwich
GoodGym Greenwich Social

Somewhere in Greenwich TBC.....

Southwark
The Big Half 2022

The Big Half is back on Sunday 4th of September!
A great route that starts by Tower Bridge and finishes alongside the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. The route is known as the first half of the London Marathon, but backwards.
Route:
This 13.1 mile race will take you on an out and back to Canary Wharf. On the way back, you will be running through the backstreets of Limehouse and Wapping before crossing over Tower Bridge as you head pass Bermondsey station and loop around Rotherhithe, Canada Water and Surrey Quays. The last couple of miles are through Deptford as you muster your energy with the crowds cheering you on for a sprint finish to Cutty Sark!
Entry:
Interested? Entries are now open!
General entries: £46 (with a £2 discount for members of UKA athletics clubs like GoodGym Race Team).
Resident entries: £36 for people living in Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich (with a £2 discount for members of UKA athletics clubs like GoodGym Race Team).
Community entries: £10, these are limited, but GoodGym have a few community places (check with your Area Activator).
After party?
Yes, there is an after-party to celebrate our achievements. This will be hosted by GoodGym Greenwich as fittingly we end in Greenwich. Details of the exact location is still TBD. Still you can sign-up to let them know your interest here.

Greenwich
GROUP RUN - helping at the Bridge

Hi everyone and welcome to GoodGym Greenwich!
We're a friendly and social group who combine running with volunteering in the local community. We meet every Wednesday to get active and do a physical task for charities and community organisations in the area.
The Task
This week we'll be helping at The Bridge in East Greenwich Pleasuance. The task will be clearing out their storage container so having a bit of a sort out /clean, and then putting things back. Are you up to the task??
The Run
Our run this week will be just under 2km each way. Everyone is welcome at any pace - we never leave anyone behind!
Where & When
We meet at 6.45pm for a 7 o'clock start at the Royal Naval College between the Queen Mary and Queen Anne buildings. There is space to store bags in the Trafalgar Tavern if you'd like to. The session will be about 90 minutes in total so we should be all wrapped up by 8.30pm.
What To Bring
Please bring some gloves, otherwise it's just yourself!

Greenwich
Birthdays and sunshine and milestones!
This morning we had a huge coverage of roles; first time briefing, course set up, finish tokens - all covered by Linda, then We had Minh marshalling, me and Jen on finish tokens, Marta conducted the course check and Steve and Alex scanned barcodes!
Even more special was the celebration of Sarah Wren getting her 250th parkrun, CONGRATULATIONS! Also, happy birthday Alex and Steve!

Islington

Islington
3 is the magic number...
On Monday evening, Area Activator Simon did a nice, easy walk (on tired ultra-running legs) over to the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road. Upon his arrival, he caught up with Dharmesh, Katie, Alex, Victoria and Claire, ready for a steady run across the borough on a warm Summer's evening. We started out with a dynamic warm up (with a focus on getting the stabilising muscles - quads, glutes and hamstrings mobile) before running towards St Mungo's Community Centre on Hilldrop Crescent (while avoiding the roadworks caused by unexpected flooding earlier in the day. Victoria had already been a hero for her neighbours- blocking their home with sand bags to keep the tides away- what a superstar!).
After climbing the Pankhurst Road slope, past the Cat 🐈 and Mouse 🐁 children's library, we arrived at St Mungos. Alison, Sally, Nurjehan, Giulia and Patrick met us at the big blue former church doorway to the centre. The team at St Mungos were absolutely thrilled with the progress we had made on the gardening project for the entrance and pathways around the centre, so we agreed to return to add the finishing touches this time!
Our objective this time was to trim away as much over hanging foliage and greenery as possible, to allow for easy access into the centre. Tall Goodgym runners like Alex and Patrick were particularly helpful for this particular task! Sally, Nurjehan, Giulia and Clare also did a smashing job of clipping away loads of overgrown grass surrounding the main doorway. We were also tasked with removing some troublesome weeds and brambles from these green spaces too- gathering up as much as we safely could, and disposing of it appropriately. Patrick made friends with a cute little shield bug while pulling some weeds, who seemed quite happy to sit on his Goodgym top while he worked.
Any property on Camden Road is susceptible to being a wind trap for litter, gathered from the Camden and Islington boroughs, so we also committed to helping out with some litter picking around the building, particularly around the newly trimmed hedgerows. It has been really wonderful to see the outcome from 40 minutes of graft by good people- very satisfying work!
As we closed up the group run for the night, we celebrated Area Activator Simon's 3rd year as a leader for the group- starting before the pandemic, keeping a crew together while the world went upside down, and enjoying our resurgence as we return to some sort of normality. It was been a blast! It was wonderful to enjoy some refreshments at the Highbury Library bar, post run!
News
Elizabeth House Food Hub
As part of the Summer Holiday season, Goodgym Islington have been lending a hand with the amazing crew at Elizabeth House Food Hub, the local community supermarket of donated food and provisions in the Arsenal and Highbury boroughs. Additional demand over the holidays mean that shopping and essential item deliveries on foot would make a lifetime for local families.
We will be back on Tuesday 16th August:
and Tuesday 23rd August:

Greenwich
Shedding a Shear for Christchurch School Community Garden
A definition of nostalgia is a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning to return to some past period.
And I admit, looking into my own eyes in the shimmering pond at the Christchurch School Community Garden, my thoughts drifted upwards into the blue, and through the clouds, and they wafted, blown by the wind of nostalgia, to Wednesday evenings of the past… digging up dirt and moving it to the back of the garden… watering plants and shovelling dirt… digging a hole for a pond, and getting mucky with dirt… oh my, with all that dirt, my heart doth hurt…
But it shan’t, because tonight we were back. For the first time since the pandemic.
We, 15 of us, met in Greenwich’s Naval Colleges, which moved with a buzz of summer activity – there was sunshine, warmth, runners and walkers, and people just out and smiling, enjoying the vibe. We nattered until the bells cried out for 7pm, and our run leader (and twinny), Alex, started off with a welcome to Greenwich newcomers, Rawan and Tom (welcome both, hope you had a good evening!), and an important question - what’s your favourite cake? Well, us Greenwich bunch have a varied palate, and we surely encompass all possible variations of the proverbial tastebud. We had:
Chocolate Cake Birthday Cake (whose?) Apple Pie Millionaire’s Shortbread Colin the Caterpillar (I hear there’s also a Clyde, a Curly, Cecil, Morris, Cuthbert…) Cheesecake (with real cheese)
This chat got us itching to move in the direction of cake, but Alex skilfully herded us onto one of the ‘greens’ for a political warm up. Basically, like Parliament, we had to run around, and then – we U-turned, we climbed the ladder, we headed to the other side - and we had an awesome time doing so too; it was great to see so many of us laughing together.
All warmed up, cake out of our immediate thoughts, we headed to Christchurch School Community Garden. There, we were met by a familiar friendly face, Fiona, who’s one of the team that curates this awesome green space for the local community in East Greenwich.
After some moments moving around the community garden’s multiple vegetable plots and heady flowers, we were given our task. The hedging, in all this sunshine, had grown through the railings and was overhanging the adjacent footpath. So, shears-abundant, we headed onto the pavement outside, and we just started clipping. And pruning. And lopping and cropping and snipping and thinning. In minutes, the change was impressive, and some of us got out brooms and swept up the foliage, and others wheelbarrowed them to disposal. By the end of the task, I think it’s fair to say we made a lovely difference; just 16 happy helpers in 30 or so minutes.
And with an artistic tunnel-like photo (see evidence above), that was a wrap. It was awesome to be back at Christchurch School Community Garden, and if you’re looking for sanctuary, it’s open every Friday from 10:30am. Go check it out, go fuel your own nostalgia.
Thanks all :)

Islington
GROUP RUN- St Mungo's Hilldrop House (Week 2)

We have two group run tasks lined up for August. St Mungo's on Hilldrop Road is a homeless care hub off Camden Road, that offer resources and essential information for unhoused residents in the area.
The centre has just opened back up to full capacity after the lockdown, and their gardens and main entrance areas are in need of some TLC after the time away. Expect some greenery clipping, bramble pulling and weed shifting!
Task Location
St Mungo's, 1 Hilldrop Road, Islington, London, N7 0JE
This is the former church building with the blue door on Camden Road
If you are not planning to run with us, our arrival time at St Mungo's Hilldrop House will be 7.10 - 7.15pm.
After our session, we will aim to arrive back at The Arsenal Community Hub for 8.30pm at the latest.
Things to Note
We are delighted to announce that we will be returning to the Arsenal Community Hub as a starting point!
A bag drop and bathroom facilities will be available for our group runs.
Please allow enough time to drop bags, as we will be running at 7pm sharp!

Islington
AUGUST SOCIAL- The Highbury Library (AA Simon's 3rd Anniversary!)

After our group run to St Mungo's Hilldrop House, we are planning on making a trip to the lovely Highbury Library bar just opposite the Emirates Stadium.
Lovely spot for a refreshments after a summer run (and very happy to see they are open on Monday evenings again!).
This will be a special meet up, as Area Activator Simon will be celebrating his 3rd year as a Goodgym trainer!
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