12 GoodGymers ran 5k to the Oasis Community Garden to water and tend to the garden.

A day of comebacks!! We welcomed back a number of GG warriors to the fold this week! Great to have you back in the game!! We also welcomed 2 GoodGym first timers to mix to begin the GG journey!!

Avoiding as much foot traffic as possible we navigated up and around a few hot spots and wiggled our way past the British Museum down to the Oasis leisure centre.

Going through to the 100% volunteer run community garden out the back of the centre we grabbed all the tools we could and got to work!! The main job was to water the extremely thirsty vegetables, herbs and fruits. The main problem being the not super cooperative tap to fill the 100 or so full watering cans needed.

So cracking on with the filling, carrying and pouring of a thousand litres of water across the garden while the rest of the crew swept up, removed the dead leaves and rubbish from the many raised flower beds to aid the efforts. And help the garden bloom! Great to see such a central community garden go so well to add a bit of green to Town.

With a bit of time left after the gardening and watering efforts we zipped over to Bedford Square for a 10 minute circuit blast!! Starting with a balance core focus which left our core honed and engaged but our hands with crazy indented patterns on so we switched attack to our legs to lunge our way to glory throwing in multiple variations to work our legs out hard! With the added difficulty of plyometric leg exercises at the end to finish!

A very gentle run back to base where we stretched out and headed home with a fun GG evening under our belts!

Hope to see you all next week, when fingers crossed we have a new river and canal trust task near Paddington.

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

6 battle hardened GoodGymers ran 7k to One Big Family in Victoria to prepare food for the homeless food run tonight!

On a day when the rains came to town in a big way and street swimming was a more common sight than running. We danced around and thundered through the many puddles on the 3.5k route through Mayfair, St James's, Victoria and onto the Ebury Estate youth Club where we met Mike and the team.

After washing up we donned plastic gloves and got to work, we had Francis and Chris on the sandwich production line, buttering, cheese sprinkling and ham placing in unison!! Natalie and Sophie were bagging slicing and dicing some delicious looking fruit pies which Martin and I were on doughnut and pastry duties pairing and bagging the treats at a speedy rate!

40 minutes of furious action and a sprint finish on the Sandwich production line with a few extra hands we completed the task ready for the 6 loafs of sandwiches, and 120 treat options to be distributed by Harley on the One Big Family delivery bike to the local homeless community on Wednesday evening.

A wetter and wilder 3.5k taking in a little cross country running in Green Park brought us back to base a lot soggy but having made a huge difference to the homeless community in Westminster!!

Thank you so much for braving the conditions!! Hope to see you all again next week!!

Smooth Running

Joel

30 super charged Westminster GoodGymers smashed 7k of running to One Big Family Homeless charity to prepare the food for the evenings food run and lift shift and stack a tonne of clothing donations!

Amazing weather and an amazing turnout this evening!! Thanks to everyone coming along, great to meet all the GoodGym newbies.

After the briefing we set about the evenings fun dancing through the Mayfair back streets navigating the big group away from as many busy roads as possible!

3.5k Steady running in the early evening sun through glorious central London taking in many of the biggest landmarks took us to Ebury Estate and the One Big Family Homeless charity.

After a bit of slow start we hit our stride getting a formidable sandwich production line going, an efficient bag packing area, Cake Ninjas slicing and dicing and the grafters lifting and shifting a huge amount of clothing donations to make space for a huge Tesco delivery for the new food bank.

30 minutes of frantic action and we had made up 120 food bags with a good selection of food and drink for Westminsters homeless community to fuel on. All the clothing donations had been shifted from the shed to the youth club, over humps, down lifts and Tetris like precision used in the stacking!!

We left as quick as we arrived but this time is 3 waves! All aiming to be the first back to the top of Green Park. David led the first group setting a great target for the next to groups to attack!! Isaac And the speedy crew chased hard to bridge the gap and all three groups arrived together at the top of Green Park after really pushing their own pace! Top work!!

A short trot back, a stretch out and a huge round of applause finished off a great Wednesday evening!!

I lied (by accident) and said we are going St Andrews Youth club next week that is the week after (28th). Next week we are off to the Oasis community garden to help hydrate and care for this community food garden in a unique setting!! Be great to have you along [sign up here] (

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

7 Westminster GoodGymers ran 7k delivering 250 leaflets for Open Age charity.

A sticky night in Central London met us for 90 minutes of continuous movement! Running out 3.5k to the North West edge of the borough to begin our task for the evening. Sticking together and deciphering the seemingly random road crossing codes as we made our way towards Warwick Avenue.

Splitting up into pairs to deliver the flyers to let the local community know all the exciting physical activities that are available for the over 55's as well as the Summer fundraiser for the local community centres.

We dominated delivering every road and flat block as we zipped seamlessly around the ward. Once we were in rhythm there was no stopping us! 250 leaflets down in 35 continuous motion minutes and we were back on the road picking up the pace on the way back to base particularly a speedy segment down Harley Street!

All stretched out and ready to refuel at 8 on the button, look forward to seeing you all next week for our trip down to One Big Family Homeless Charity to prepare their food offering for the evening!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel