21 awesome Goodgymmers (including 2 new members- Hello to Amelia and Maria!) ran to Thornhill Gardens to assist with weeding, trimming, digging and willow fence constructing. We had the opportunity to try out some new portable lights, kindly provided by Goodgym HQ, which made our job much easier.

Shout-outs to Graham for leading our pre-run warm up, and to Steve for demonstrating some post-run stretches afterwards. And Thank You to everyone who were able join us at the Victoria Tavern for drinks and pizza and laughs. Before our run, I think we established that Spinach and Egg and Red Onion seemed to be the toppings of choice for most Islington Goodgymmers- though this was a hotly contested topic with some strong opinions presented on the matter!

So much Goodgym happening this upcoming weekend! #GGSuperSaturday

Come and join us for the GG Hampstead Heath parkrun Takeover, a friendly free weekly timed 5km running meet-up on one of the most picturesque courses in London. Enjoy a run with Goodgym friends, cheer on your neighbours or sign up as a volunteer to help with course set-up, time keeping or marshaling duties. Never been to parkrun before? Make this your first!

We will be visiting the Parliament Hill Cafe afterwards for a coffee and breakfast.

Sign up here

If you were looking for more Goodgym activities this Super Saturday, then we have an additional community task at Hilldrop Community Centre, which involves setting up a soft play activity room for the local neighbourhood families. The afternoon will involve set-up, some gardening tasks and close down, with the opportunity to meet lots of nice folks!

Sign up here by Tuesday Evening!

Headtorches

As demonstrated on our task at Thornhill Gardens, having a good light source makes volunteering work much easier during this dark months.

If you don't currently own a head torch, I can provide you a really great Silva Ninox 3 headtorch for just £20 (trade price), provided by The Running Works for Goodgym Islington members. If you would like one, send an email to Simon Fitzmaurice.

Next week we will be visiting Mildmay Community Centre for more gardening, fixing up and general construction for this exciting eco hub!

Sign up here

Happy Running!

Cracking run (and cycle) tonight with 22 lovely Goodgymmers, tackling a huge pile of branches and foliage at Sunnyside Community Centre.

After a short warm-up around the slopes of the Emirates Stadium, we connected on to Hornsey Road and powered up the 2.5km of incline to Sunnyside Community Centre. Upon arrival at the volunteers portacabin, Bridget handed us rakes, shearers and clippers and directed us to a large mound of branches, leaves and bushes, collected from the gardens. This would usually be a task for a shredder, but the groups machine suddenly broke down just as Autumn began, leaving the space covered in green foliage!

In 40 minutes, our Goodgymmers raked the massive pile of branches into lots of smaller piles, and snipped them down to a smaller concentration of greenery. Before we left, we moved all the branches back into an orderly spot, away from the main entrance to the community centre. Amazing effort considering the light was fading as we worked. We were treated to a steady downhill slope back to the Emirates, some nice easy relaxed stretches and a few jammy dodgers and lotus biscoff biscuits for the road!

Plenty of runs, events and get-togethers next week, continuing Goodgym's 10 year anniversary celebrations:

• Goodgym Lambeth will be leading a monthly long run this Sunday, starting in Brixton, and following the Green Chain Walk to Crystal Palace. Sign up here.
• Former Islington trainer and all round excellent fellow, Paul Bown has announced the dates and details for Goodgym Euro Trip Kiev 2020. 4-5 days of holiday fun with 10km or half marathon races in between! More info can be found here.
• We will be visiting Thornhill Gardens for next weeks task, helping the organisers with some willow tree weaving for decorations (pop your name on the list here). Hoping to test out some new portable flood lights as well, but I still recommend bringing a headtorch if you can!
• Also, we plan to visiting the Victoria Tavern after our run next week and you are very much invited to join us!

Have a smashing week everyone, and see you for the next one!

We were welcomed back to the beautiful Caledonian Park this week, after an unexpected change of plans. A fantastic job was done last week by 10 bank holiday Goodgymmers, but we smashed it with 23 running volunteers on hand last night!

Back to the Emirates again, we made a quick departure to Cally Park, stopping at the wonderfully named Lumpy Hill adventure playground to pick up wheel barrows on route to the Caledonian Park Clock Tower (You can climb up this for free! Plan a trip up the tower here).

Our big group was separated to perform specific tasks, rotating throughout the evening. We had folks shoveling crushed concrete and others wheeling and dumping the concrete on to a tree lined pathway, with the intention of making this green section wheel chair accessible. The rest of our crew set about cutting, sawing, snipping and removing roots and undergrowth from the surrounding area. It was a huge undertaking for the Friends of Calendonian Park, but Goodgym definitely made a huge dent in their workload.

Autumn is drawing in (September already, who'd have thought it?), and we are starting to see the last of our tasks in natural light. A wonderful time of year for running, but maybe time to invest in a head torch for upcoming tasks.

There is some fun stuff happening this week!

Firstly, Pritesh (GG Brent Trainer) was be hosting his final event as GG social secretary this Thursday. Come and join Goodgymmers from all boroughs for a meet-up and a Thank You for his hard work over the years! Sign up here.

Also, Peckham Rye parkrun will be taken over by Goodgymmers this Saturday at 9am. We will be out pacing, volunteering, cheering and supporting on mass- always a blast! Come on down, and sign up here.

Next week, we will be running over to Sunnyside Community Centre for some chopping, snapping and snipping action in their lovely community gardens. Sign up here, and see you all next week!