Spring was most definitely both in the air and in our step last night as we met for our weekly Hounslow group run.

Along with lovely regular Andy, we said hello to two new runners, Joanna and Vikma who joined us for their first GG run. Throw these ladies a cheer!

Andy is bossing the heroes page, topping the league for distance, cheers and good deeds - but watch out, Lily and Toni are not far behind! Cheers all round.

We discussed the upcoming GoodGym Olympics, which will be taking place on 10th June, sign up now: https://www.goodgym.org/races/goodgym-olympics to show the other boroughs that west London is best London. Holler!

We managed to resist the party that was just kicking off in the next door room, despite glimpses of bowls of wotsits and bottle of wine, and headed out for a quick warm up before our run. With a few ski jumps and grapevines to get that blood pumping, we set off for our favourite church-come-homeless shelter. It was a nice steady pace for the two miles there, broken up halfway with a little chasing competition which saw us all gasping for breath.

Roger the Pastor was waiting for when we got there, and the delicious smells wafting from the kitchen got our noses twitching. As a little incentive (bribe? thank you?) he let us know that he had cooked our dinner to take back with us after we had finished the jobs. Best. Task. Ever.

With that in mind, we were off like rockets. Our task was to move down a room full of chairs from the top of the building to the bottom so that they could be loaded on to the van. A human chain was quickly formed (efficiency!) and we soon stared shifting those chairs in what turned out to be a pretty effective upper body work out. Kudos to Andy taking the tricksy stairway position, hope you're not feeling it too much today. Vikma did not pause for breath as she scooted through the building piled high with chairs, while Joanna nailed the top spot at the head of the chain - does this count as an arms day?!

By the time we had shifted well over 100 chairs, we collected our warm and delicious takeaway dinners and set off on our run back. New business idea - Deliveroo on foot! Quick, someone get the copyright. With another two miles under our belt, we stopped off at the park to smash out a quick abs blast. A strong core is essential for a good running style - it stop unnecessary twisting, helps you keep a good strong form, and makes your running style more efficient, less prone to injury, and faster. After a round of planks, side planks, Russian twists, leg holds and crunches, we were well and truly pooped. And that dinner was calling to us, so with a few stretches, we headed back to our starting point, where the party was less raging, and more - over. Good job we gave it the swerve.

Next week we have a great new task lined up. Don't miss out on doing some good and getting fit - Hounslow needs YOU. Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-hands-and-legs-in-hounslow

A massive 41 GoodGymers filled planters, wheelbarrowed, hoe'd and cleared twigs for three Camden charities

Corrr blimey what a lovely night, it was wet, it was windy and definitely not Spring BUT we had a massive fourty-one people down at GG Camden, the most this year so far! Thanks for coming!

Welcome to the newbies – Katherine, David, Claire, Emma, Kimberley, Tom P, Ellie, Alex, Susana,Rosa and Tom - great to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Steve Lee hit 50 Good Deeds last night, earning himself a black t-shirt – wahey! Give him a cheer!
2. Lina did her first 5km time trial at the weekend with GG Race Team, sign up to the next one here.
3. Well done to the Brighton Half Marathoners at the weekend, Jacob got another PB and Damian got a post-shoulder surgery PB – nice one guys!
4. Its GoodGym monthly drinks tonight down in Lewisham, Pritesh will be there with a wonderful speech and a smiling facing. Go on down – sign up here.
5. Lastly I am going to Kenya for the next three weeks so me and my beard won’t be around. The wonderful Polly, Frances and Pritesh will be covering for me while I am gone. Don’t miss me toooo much.

After all that news, a headcount involving three Steve’s and two Chris’ we got warmed up. After raising our heart rate nicely we split into three groups, we were helping the following organisations:

1. St Luke’s Community Centre – this is a fantastic centre that runs lots of projects and programmes for the community, including having an amazing green space!
2. Alara – this is a wholefoods provider that also runs various green projects, including Kings Cross Orchard Project.
3. Castlehaven Community Centre – nestled in the heart of Camden Town this centre runs projects for both young and older persons, plus they maintain two parks.

St Luke’s Report:

Frances led 15 runners for our second trip to St Luke’s Community Centre, to help our friends at GoodGym Islington finish off their mammoth task of filling the planters with soil.

10 people got straight to the task, shovelling, wheelbarrowing and turning the soil until the job was pretty much done. Another five strong-armed people helped move bags of compost out of the shed – with a human chain formed, they got the job done quickly so they could help everyone else finish the planters.

Shed photo!

After a quick shed photo, we hit the roads back to base, missing most (but not all) of the heavy rain showers.

Alara Report:

Polly led a group of 12 runners to go and help Alara, with this being just a 1km a way they had a nice warm up before tackling the task.

Splitting into groups the team wheelbarrowed compost from THE HUGE PILE into the Permaculture Garden and did some hoeing around the space to make sure it’s spread evenly.

Cookie Fuelled

Fuelled by Alara cookies the group smashed through the task and then headed to Granary Square for a loop and some conditioning exercises.

Castlehaven Report:

PB led a group of 10 runners North along Royal College Street, past Camden Overground station and to Castlehaven which is just behind Camden Lock!

Once equipped with gloves and bin bags from the Des Res we split into two groups, with Meredith’s team heading to the north park and Jess’ heading to the south park. The aim for the night was to bag up any and all twigs, branches and wood that was left over from Storm Doris last Thursday.

Upon first impressions there didn’t seem many twigs about, but after 30 seconds we realised we had our hands full. Over the course of 20 minutes we filled eight bags of debris and there was still plenty more to do – we’ll be back!

Canal Vote

After a quick vote we decided to head west along the canal and not the road, it's a bit of an experience in the dark but sticking together it’s quite the adventure. We ran a mile along the canal and met Polly’s Alara crew before heading back for a group stretch.

Once again thanks for coming along, sign up here for next week, the wonderful Polly is leading!.

PB out.