Paul and David arrived at their mission in Tower Hamlets to discover a bumper crop of brambles that wouldn't have looked out of place in a Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. In fact the first objective was for David to chop away enough of the thorns to gain sufficient access for the large white sacks that had been provided to collect them.

Luckily on this mission we were joined by Dave from Poplar HARCA and once we had cleared a path he set to work with his array of power tools. A good system was soon established with Dave and David cutting and chopping while Paul gathered everything up into the sacks with his thorn-resistant gloves.

After a couple of hours we had bagged up all of the brambles and managed to lift the sacks over the fence for collection by HARCA. A planned follow-up visit should ensure that all the roots are taken care of so the brambles don't return. In fact the only loser in the whole endeavour may be a local fox as it sounds like we may have uncovered the den that he has been spotted using; he may just have to find a new home tonight.

Goodgym missions are always rather special as you get to meet directly the people you are helping out - and this was no exception. Ms F was a particularly jolly host with a great sense of humour. She very kindly accompanied us on the piano from the adjoining room, including a fantastic Singing in the Rain tribute to Debbie Reynolds. I'm not aware that this has ever happened on a mission before and I will take away some great memories of this extra specially musical one.

A special mention also to Ms F's neighbour who met us all today and has apparently been helping out by cooking meals and looking after the couple - definitely a day to remember that there are some very lovely people in the world.

It was a Force of July on this Independence Day as 32 GoodGymmers gathered round Highbury Pool ready to do good. We did our news (so much news) and welcomed Emily and Claire (already in GG t-shirts!) along for their first runs.

New Richmond trainer Mark got the gang nicely warmed up before we headed off for our evening tasks.

John and Graham took a small group up to Whittington Park for our fortnightly weeding session. Graham tells us what went down:

Whilst the main group of GoodGymers ran to Barnsbury community centre, a smaller group of us ran a total of 6k (8k including post-run Highbury Fields laps!) to visit Whittington park, sanding benches and weeding the one o'clock club garden.

The classic debate of what counted as a weed continued, and all were very happy to see that some potential weeds we left two weeks ago had grown flower buds - great display of horticultural knowledge from all involved! Meanwhile on the other side of the park, four enthusiastic sanders continued sanding down two flower-bed-containers, ready for varnishing and repainting. It's quite addictive, like watching a lava lamp. Most relaxing GoodGym task ever?

Post-run, we arrived back to Highbury Fields ahead of time (nice one John!) so decided to throw in an extra two laps, including a small bit of speed work on the second lap round.

More running. More sweating. More good. Top effort from all.

Graham

Meanwhile Simon and Mark popped over to Barnsbury Community Centre for some painting (which we hardly ever get to do at GG Islington) and assembly of flatpack (which we have NEVER done at GG Islington).

8 of us went off to paint the cubicle doors in the women's toilets a GoodGym red and the cubicle door in the men's toilets a freedom blue. We got the doors painted no problem, the difficult part was cleaning up: gloss paint everywhere and only one small bottle of white spirit between us. This meant we ended up running a little overtime, but nice to get the job done!

Over in the main hall the rest of the group had managed to assemble all furniture and Mark took them outside for a fitness session: jogging, side shuffles, lunges, planks, push ups, squats, wheelbarrow poses, deadlift and press, box jumps with a partner, step ups and star jumps to plyo jumps. Wow, I got tired just reading that. Looks like GG-ers in Richmond are gonna get a decent workout on the 18th.

Our cookies for the evening were Oreos: the most American biscuit available in Tesco Hackney Superstore and the debate was "What's the most American thing you can think of". Apple pie, Sweet potatoes and Marshmallow, TRUMP, Walmart, weird pronunciation, hamburgers, and mass shootings were all given as answers. But Andy and David came up with a wonderful combination that definitely wins:

"Uncle Sam, with an eagle on his shoulder, and a miniature Statue of Liberty on the dashboard, singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" while driving a Chevvy down Route 66 on his way to a baseball game, eating a burger and massive cup of soda that he just picked up from a diner."

Happy 7th of April everybody! See you next week

Simon

Falling of the Rain

The rain may have scared a few off today, on this, the longest day of the year, the MIDDLE OF SUMMER! But, it actually got sunny just in time for our run and we had a cool 28 GoodGymmers whose skin was waterproof and who know that running is the only sport worth worrying about.

Tell Her (and him) About It

We welcomed first timers Isabel and Antonio, cheered Aidan for doing 100 good deeds, cheered Kike for doing 50 good deeds, cheered Danica and Aidan for running the Westminster City Mile and got briefed.

James

James came tonight. There is no announcement to make, but James is the name of a Billy Joel song, so we had to mention it.

A Minor Variation

So, we had planned to do our longest run ever at GG Islington (10k), but that task was unfortunately cancelled. Worry not, it's still the longest day of the year, and it's ....

The Longest Thyme

Competition thyme! Two tasks tonight and two groups each planting their own little pots of thyme under the instruction of the group's "Thyme Lord". We'll check back periodically and see which group was the best gardeners and who has the longest thyme!

Say Goodbye To Holloway

One group headed off to Barnsbury Community Centre for their evening of good-doing.

Uptown Girl(s) (and boys)

And a small group of girls and boys, led by Aidan, ran uptown to Whittington Park Community Association to help out.

The Giver of Screams

Caroline, doing a run leader course this weekend, led the Barnsbury group and wasn't shy about shouting a bit of encouragement.

All About Soil

One job at Barnsbury was to continue shifting the mound of soil that we started on last week.

New Fork Spate of Grind

Antonio grabbed one of Barnsbury's new forks and started breaking up the soil to make it easier to shift.

It's Still Rocky Soil To Me

Tough work shifting this stuff. Everybody's always surprised by how many rocks and rubble there is in it. BUT, we got it all moved and managed to move the container into its new home.

Big Pot

Well, lots of little pots. A team of four planted various herbs in multi-coloured little pots. Rocket, coriander and of course thyme.

Get It Right The First Time

We did paint the beds right the first time, but the harsh weather meant that the paintwork was getting a little patchy, so Isabel and Bella grabbed a couple of paintbrushes and did a spot of touching up.

The Sliver of Beams

OK, this one's a stretch. but the group at Whittington had to sand down a bench, which was probably constructed from wooden beams and there was probably the odd sliver of wood.

They did a great job. Check out the pics for before and after shots. Looks ready for some varnishing.

Baby Sand

There was also more sand-related activity as they had to move a kids' sandpit inside.

I Glove You Just The Way You Are

Or not. We had all those brand new gloves, but Graham thought he'd given them to Danica, who thought she'd given them to Simon, or something like that. Anyway, the poor Whittington contingent had to do a spot of weeding outside the One O'Clock Club with bare hands.

While over at Barnsbury we were sorted with a giant box of gloves. A team set about removing weeds from the centre piece and then planting some more grass seeds around it.

An Indolent Man

There were none of these tonight. Everybody got stuck in good and proper. Nice job.

You're My Home

Back at the pool we decided not to stretch for the first time ever on an Islington run and see what happened. Report back here.

We Didn't Start the Fire

Beth started the fire! In her oven! And baked FOUR types of biscuits in it! A coconutty one, a shortbread one, a chocolate one, and a plain one. Delicious. Beats stretching.

Hilly Poll

What's best? Short hills or long hills? So that everybody had an informed opinion each group did a set of four short reps and one long hill rep and we then voted on our favourite back at the pool. Short hills definitely won it. There were also votes for "no hills", "one very long hill", "downhill" and line of the evening from Jill: "a flat hill".

The Night Is Still Young

It was still light when we left! Aaah, they're drawing in now though.

Through The Long Night?

So that was a fun pun report on the longest day of the year. Maybe we could do a Billy Ocean themed report on the longest night. Maybe not.

Famous Last Words

See you next week Task will be announced shortly.

My Life

My life is great cos I get to do this for a job :-D,
Simon

Brand new task this evening at Freightliners Farm!

We welcomed first timers Ben, Pippa and Christina, read the news and then did a backwards head count. Steve's idea. What's more amazing than Steve having a good idea is it actually worked, counting all the way down from 37 to 1.

With all that stuff done we scurried off to the farm as one gigantic group on possibly our shortest run to a task ever.

The enthusiastic Liz of Freightliners met us there and since there were a whopping 37 of us divided us into various smaller groups.

We set about various jobs for 20 minutes or so. One group shovelled ____ *, another did some weeding and sweeping, others carried and shifted packs and stacks of hay and a small group painted a wall. As usual we got loads done in a short amount of time. As we put the call out for people to start wrapping up there were come confused looks and questions. "Isn't it a bit early?" Yes, it was early, but that's cos the best bit was about to begin: putting the animals away :-D

There were sheep, goats and a couple of cows to move from fields to pens. The problem with animals is they can be a bit cheeky and try to go where they're not supposed to. For this reason you need a HUMAN WALL! Most of us blocked off various gates, exits and openings while a few other fearless folk got hands on and helped direct the animals from A to B. Tip o' the GoodGym bravery cap to Rebecca who doesn't let goats get the better of her.

The cows were very well behaved. The goats were cheeky little buggers, running this way and that, trying to chew on the cherry tree and climbing up things. The sheep were a bit confused at first, but when Caroline started bleating they all followed like sheep.

Animals all put away, hands washed and group photo taken, we zoomed off to Emirates Stadium for the first "monthly" time trial for 5 months. There were so many of us we did it in two waves. Fastest lady over the line was first timer Pippa in a joint women's record of 2:40. Can she beat it next month? Fastest geezer was Hugh with 2:15.

Nice work everybody. We'll be back next month, or maybe in five.

Just enough time for a animal-shaped biscuit before jogging (apart from that hard run up the hill) back to the pool.

Something must have been in the air because on our cool down back down the other side of the hill Steve and Meredith started racing each other, then John and Jackie joined in, then loads more. Maybe this sprint down the hill should be a thing. It seems more fun than running up them.

So, the debate. Last week we all voted and decided on this week's debate. The big question: should headphones be allowed in races? Answers:

• It's dangerous and distracts
• I always train with music and it'd make races boring if I couldn't
• During a race you don't want to be distracted by music. Better to focus on the race

We put it to the vote and it looked like "no headphones" won, but then we shouted louder and loads of people that were distracted for some reason joined in with the vote and the winner was a yes for headphones.

We have three tasks next week. See you there,
Simon

• Sorry, had to censor this out, cos you're not allowed to say "shit" in a run report.