22 Goodgymers ran 3-6km to leaflet for SPCA, look after Kings Cross Orchard and compost mule to St Mary's

Welcome along to newbie - Sarah great to have you along.

In the news this week:

The week is finally here, it's the GoodGym Olympics - woop woop! Come along to cheer if you aren't taking part and get involved in the National 1km Competition.

This week we had three small tasks to spread amongst the group while Frances and Freya did a great local mission.

Task One - Leafleting for SPCA

Katherine and a team of four leafletted for the St Pancras Community Association's Summer Fair which is happening this weekend. They scoured the streets for houses and accessible flats to drop these colourful gems off to.

After 15 mins of leafleting they joined us at Task Two!

Task Two - Kings Cross Orchard

The main group was tasked this week with looking after the Kings Cross Orchard that Alex from Alara cares for. The task went as follows:

1. Pull off the plastic from the cardboard
2. Weed and clear the area around the apple trees
3. Lay down the 'unplastic' cardboard
4. Cover with compost and spread

The team worked hard looking after the 12 trees on the Northern Orchard before tackling weeding the Southern (Bookers) Orchard.

Task Three - St Mary's

Alara, as well as looking after the Orchard, looks after a compost pile that can be used around the borough by community groups and NGO's.

Pritesh led a team of 5 to run black bags and rucksacks full of compost down to St Mary's, a group of flats in Somers Town which we've helped a lot over the years. It was a 1km each way meaning the group squished in two shuttles, including spreading the good stuff (compost) in the community gardens.

Once we were finished with Task 2 and the group from Task 3 headed off for their second trip, the main group did some extra Task 1 leafletting in the SPCA area - does that make sense? Sure!

Sign up next week here when we have three tasks!

PB out

34 GoodGymers ran between 4-10km making beds for the homeless, gardening for St Mary's & leafleting for Abbey

Cooorrrr, lots of people - glad we had 3 tasks! Welcome to newbies - Alex, Ana, Julia, Pierre, Jonathan and Charlotte - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Last night it was Hayley's 50th GOOD DEED - WOOP WOOP! Hayley has been coming to GG Camden since 2016 and we really appreciate her amazing efforts :)
2. TONIGHT there is GG Monthly Drinks in Holborn at the Square Pig - Pritesh will be leading the party with puns, facts and probably some fiction! See you there :)
3. In JUNE there is a trip to the Lakes for some races and good old GG fun! Full details here

Right onto to what we actually did last night, we had three amazing tasks in our wonderful Camden, helping;

• Abbey Community Centre
• St Mary's Flats
• C4WS & American International Church

Report #1 by Pritesh at Abbey:

Eleven of us went along to help the wonderful Abbey Community Centre. It's a long old run up towards Kilburn but we were all keen to keep a good pace to stave off the cold. We were rewarded with a stunning view of central London at the top of Primrose Hill, all the lights twinkling in the cold clear night.

Stunning!

Arriving at the centre we were tasked with delivering flyers to the two tower blocks opposite - Snowman and Casterbridge - to let the residents know about the community cafe that runs every Saturday at the centre.

We split into teams and spent 15 minutes delivering throught the blocks and finishing off any spare leaflets to the houses in the surrounding area. We got everything done in the time and then made our way back to Somers Town with a quick stop for a group shot too!

Report #2 by PB at St Mary's:

Eleven of us headed to St Mary's Flats, a local community in Somers Town that we've been helping for over 4 years. After a 1.4km loop we met Jon who explained the main task was to de-litter an area of plants and re-compost it. Dragging the compost bag from one end of the estate to the other we got to work.

We split into two groups to de-litter across the estate, mainly focusing on cigarette butts, dead leaves and debris. After 20 minutes we'd de-littered both areas, composted and watered the flower bed.

Upon reaching Granary Square we did some conditioning, including:

• Calve raises
• Single leg squats
• Circuit routine - press up, mountain climber x2, jump & squat

We then met Frances' group and did our monthly time trial with some quick times in the cold weather!

Report #3 about Frances at C4WS:

IT'S FRANCES BIRTHDAY, she led the run and it was the best of times. There were 17 guest beds to make + 2 over night staff beds. With a team of 12 people they got the work done really really quickly - efficient! Also there was a cat that Frances seems to have spent most of her time with, haha.

Here is Rosie's haiku about our weekly task at the shelter:

We are making beds

For the homeless in Camden

First the mattresses

Sheets, duvets, pillowcases

Well done all, lots of good done for Camden!

Sign up for next week here, we have a NEW TASK helping GROUNDWORK!

PB out.

It was a bit of a rocky start to the night when ten runners found themselves to be homeless after being kicked out of our regular room, but the evening just got better and better from there.

First of all we cheered the indomitable Remy who is getting ever closer to that PB with a cracking performance at the Great Scottish half marathon this week.

We then celebrated lovely Jo who last night reached the all important FIFTY milestone. It shows a lot of commitment to get there, so well done to Jo- give her a cheer!

After a quick warm up and a discussion about what age is the best - answers ranged from 7 to 67 - we set off on a short run to Turnham Green station where the incredibly industrious Karen of Abundance London and GGer Michelle were waiting for us with buckets and sponges. Our job tonight was to strip off the fly posters that were making a mess of the walls of the tube station bridge.

The bridge has been there for almost 200 years, and it seemed as though the posters started going up not long after. We got stuck in, peeling off layer after layer of paper. The aim is to clear the wall ready for a big project. Abundance London recently received permission from TFL, along with some funding from Hounslow and Ealing Council, to install a huge mural under the railway arches at Turnham Green tube. The plan is to create a large mural made up from a series of historical maps of the area from 1745 up to the present day. GoodGym Hounslow is to become a small part of Chiswick history!

Turns out that stripping off the posters is totally addictive, and we couldn't (ahem) tear ourselves away. So satisfying when a huge piece comes off in one go. We even had a hand from Paul, the lovely cabbie waiting at the taxi rank right by the station, and the flower seller from across the road helped carry our water. What a community job! After 40 or so minutes of work the wall was transformed. A note for an potential fly posterers in the Turnham Green area: stay away. We will find you.

After waving goodbye to Karen we were taken on a little detour by Remy who is leading us to victory in the Beat the Streets competition, did a few squats as we tapped our cards, then headed back to the park to knock out a fitness session. Last night it was all about the glutes. We started off with some walk outs to warm up, then started on an intense hit session that was aimed at strengthening our glutes in order to prevent injury and get ourselves some nice peachy bums in the process. We knocked out 40 seconds of ladder runs (hereby christened by Jordan as 'Beyoncés'), squat jumps and side shuffles and lunges, followed each time by 20 seconds rest. Feel the burn!

All that was left was to tackle the short run back to the Town Hall where much to our delight we found a birthday party going on and were generously donated slices of chocolate cake from the birthday girl. Much appreciated after a tough session, and to show our gratitude we serenaded the party with a nice rousing round of happy birthday. Then we headed to the pub to toast Jo. All in all a great night of running, addictive tasks, Beyoncé, cake and pub. More next week?