Lights! Camera! Action!

Last night in Hounslow we were the (slightly sweaty) stars of the silver screen as the council had come along to make a little film about being active in the borough.

But before we could learn our lines and hit make up, we had our usual hellos and well dones. Hat tip to all that did park runs this week - way to go Matthew and David - and to Andy who is topping both the distance and good deed leagues. Have a look at the heroes boards to see where you are. But now Natasha has stopped her Strava flat lining who knows what will happen in the rankings!

After a quick warm up and some Chariots of Fire style shots of the group running, wind in our hair, past our starting point at the Town Hall, we set off on the 1.5 mile run to Waterman's Arts Centre. Dave took us on a lovely route under Kew Bridge and along the tow path. We must have looked quite the team with every single one of us in our red GG tshirts. Lovely stuff! Before long we made it to the centre - Waterman's is an amazing independent charity where all the money made is ploughed back into the organisation to allow the whole community access to arts, bringing them together through cultural participation.

We cracked straight on with our task, which was to weed the outside pathways which had become overgrown. We were given gloves and a range of tools including one which we could not work out - please see picture and if anybody can shed any light on it then let us know! There were also snails, lots of snails, which Remy and Natasha rescued.

Within half an hour the pathway was looking lovely and clear of weeds, so we set off back to the park to do a quick round of upper body, legs and core workouts. It was a speedy run back - well done team. We started with the arms - three rounds of tricep dips, wide arm press ups, and diamond press ups before moving on to legs, which involved doing lunges, mountain climbers (argh) and then a squat hold. We had a little break as a lovely person came over and asked what we were doing - we must have been a great advert for GoodGym! Then we finished off with a third round of core exercises featuring, of course, planks.

Next week we are off to help out Roger and the homeless shelter he runs at Ealing Road Baptist Church, which you can sign up to here which is going to be followed by a super special first ever Hounslow GG SOCIAL! I know. There are more details on the Hounslow GG facebook page or email me. Can't wait to see you there!

32 awesome runners ran 7km to sweep leaves, pick up litter, clean windows and flyer for Charlton House!

What a beautiful evening it turned out to be! Quite warm, yes, but lovely nonetheless. It was Mridula's 50th good deed last night and we suspect she might even have been the fastest person ever to have reached 50! Isn't she AMAZING!!!

We were joined by a fair few new faces last night which is GREAT! Please welcome Matt W, Tina, Stephen and Corrazo to the squad!! Give them all a cheer!

After talking about what we had for lunch for 10 minutes we went a did a little warm up consisting of a few lunges, squats etc and a little run around pretending to be flamingos on one leg :) A few minutes later and we were good to go!

We split into two groups. Ben C took the lead and headed off through the park with his speedy gang. The other half of us took it a little easier, although the hill never seems to get any easier does it!! But once again, you all smashed it, and it must be helping, since Mridula did hill repeats in Hilly Fields with GG Lewisham on Monday and said it was a piece of cake compared to our hill so the training must be paying off!!!

Our group had a well deserved rest at the top, we took a lovely photo under the tree and then cracked on towards Charlton.

We arrived and group 1 had already started working hard. Alex, Steve, and Matt G ran off to deliver some leaflets whilst everyone else had a bin bag in hand going round picking up litter. Unfortunately, there wasn't a huge amount of equipment but thankfully you're all a bunch of superstars and just mucked in regardless. Everyone buddied up to clear as much litter as possible. Linda armed herself with the broom to sweep the leaves off the path whilst other people cleaned the windows. According to Clare, they were actually making the windows worse... but I don't believe that for one second!

3, 2, 1... GO!!!

At just after 8 o'clock, the boys returned from their flyering duty and everyone else had finished their jobs. Mridula had of course collected the most litter because she is the best at everything! We put the bin bags inside and brought everyone together for a quick little relay! We split into boys and girls in attempt to make the teams relatively evenly weighted. Teams 1 and 2 lined up one behind another and the simple task was to run to the wall, run back and tag the next person in to do the same thing until everyone had finished!

The twins went head to head on the first run... it was tense but they came in roughly neck and neck. Next to go was Matt J who was running SO fast he even had a little tumble! Hope your knee is ok Matt!

In true GG spirit, everyone was cheering and clapping for their team mates which was LOVELY! And of course it was never about the winning was it guys and girls.... no not at all....! Ha, yeah right! I've never seen you lot run so fast!!!

Team 1 finished a few seconds before team 2 but as it transpired, team 2 had an extra person and therefore an unfair disadvantage so victory was theirs! Better luck next time team 1!

After a lovely group photo at the front of the house, we headed back the way we came, through the park and most importantly down the hill!

Oh hey Vickie!

We arrived at the uni and along came Vickie. I of course took this as an opportunity to massively embarrass her in front of everyone by announcing her huge ultramarathon success but she is amazing and it was such a huge achievement so how could I not? :) And Mridula saw this as a perfect chance to gloat that she had beaten her to 50 good deeds.

There was no time trial this week due to the concerts at the uni blocking the way. Chris had a mild panic attack when he realised the Jacksons were playing at the weekend. We have an MJ superfan in the house!

We had a little stretch on the grass, made our way back to the room (Chris moonwalked his way back) and then headed to the pub!

Thanks so much for coming everyone! Well done on the run, 7km is a big deal especially in that heat so give yourselves a pat on the back! Also thanks for just getting stuck in at the task. You're all amazing! See you next week!

After last week's mini heat wave we were business as normal again, and a good job it was too.

A cracking team of eight runners met in Chiswick, and we had the pleasure of no less than three ace new members join us. People of GoodGym, please put your hands together for Adam, Natasha and Andreea who all came on their first Hounslow run with us last night. Give them a cheer!

Special bonus points go to Dave, who had a weekend of running, with no less than TWO races. Runspiration! Hat tip also goes to Andreea, who did the same 10k race on Sunday. Way to go guys.

After a few warm ups, introductions, and a quick interrogation to find out what was everybody's favourite biscuit (we nail all the important things in Chiswick. Top choice was rich tea, if you're interested.), we set off on a short but sweet little run down to the Water and Steam Museum.

This amazing place has no funding, and relies on the help of volunteers to keep the museum running. It is chock full of incredible things, and needs support so that everybody is able to go and see them. We were met by Penny, who led us through the museum to the outside area, where we were introduced to Ed and eight brooms. Our job tonight was to sweep up all the gravel in the area into piles, to stop little hands from dumping it in the water displays. This was an upper body and arms work out of epic proportions - which was a good thing, as we runners often neglect this area which can make our running form less efficient.

We each took on a different section of the huge yard, and after half an hour of hard brushing, we had made a big difference. It was one of those impossible tasks where you can't just walk away...just one last bit. 'I won't be coming back here without my brush,' said Adam. Tough work, gang, but there was no grumbling at all, despite a few blisters. After all, champions train, losers complain!

We took the run back to Turnham Green a little faster, and finished off the evening with a blast of circuits that included lots of horrid things like plank rotations, press ups and squat holds. We attempted a half pigeon in our stretches afterwards, watched by the actual birds behind us doing 'full pigeon', as Andy pointed out.

Next week we're going to be conducting a load of surveys for Hounslow Housing services to find out how they can improve the lives of the older community in the borough. A very worthwhile job indeed. You can sign up to help out here. See you then Team Hounslow!