7 Goodgymmers dug deep on an evening of mixed weather and pre-London sympathy Marathon jitters as they lent a hand at the Haringey Learning Partnership with a spot of water feature creation.

Haringey Heroes

Not all marathons are created equal and it would be churlish to deny that the London Marathon holds a special place in the heart of most London runners. Which is why this year we are living [or running?] vicariously through our very own Sarah and Latoya who will be attempting to win the race on Sunday ;)

You are both amazing women and we are so proud you're representing us in London's Top Race - smash it and we'll be cheering you every step of the way!

<3 <3

Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

As sure as eggs is eggs, you get a group of Haringey Goodgymmers together to dig holes for an hour and most of the conversation that unfolds is quite frankly unprintable. To be fair, our resident Smutmeister- who shall remain unnamed - managed to hold her first bawdy double entendre until around the 7:41pm mark - so at least that is something. Anyway, let's concentrate on the task at hand instead, shall we?

A group of us met at the Blue House Yard for a very short sprint over to HLP, where we met Luke from Grown22 who's helping the school create their very own wild nature pond. There, we were joined by the walking GG crew and we were tasked with, effectively, digging a pretty big hole. Reader, we dug. Oh, how we dug.

At some point, Luke mentioned some heavy wood sleepers needed shifting to the other side of the school, and Niamh and Sam jumped at it, flexing their biceps as they went. This was perhaps timely because even though she had been digging a pretty massive hole for over half an hour, Sam didn't actually seem to know what she was actually doing, having been surprised to find out halfway through the task that we were creating a pond. Credit where credit is due - you give that woman a shovel and she will dig, and dig deep and relentlessly, no questions asked. Boom.

After about an hour, Luke was satisfied we had reached the depth we needed to reach this evening and bid us farewell, not before we took some selfies and had a little play with Luke's trusty sidekick - the sweet Mylo.

Great eve.

Join us next week as we go back the wonderful Orchard Meadow in Crouch End where tasks will include trimming a bush and some tool maintenance. Oh dear!

Five Goodgymmers visited the wonderful Wolves Lane Centre for a jetsetting night of cleaning and digging.

Waxing Gibbous, If Not Lyrically

Under an almost full moon, our lycanthropic Goodgymmers howled their way into the belly of Wolves Lane Centre for an evening of hardcore tidying and compost turning.

We met at Blue House Yard for a quick, gentle run and arrived just in time to find Denise from Wolves Lane opening the gate for us. Before you could say 'silver bullets,' Denise had produced a brand new jet washer for us to use. Some sensible Goodgymmers read the instructions while trying to put the machine together, whereas Gramps and Sam opted for the more straightforward 'smash it together with brute force' approach. Who's to say which method proved successful in the end but by the time we had cleared the canteen's floor of chairs and tables, a fully functioning jet washer was ready to go. Dave and Sam did the honours while Ed and Charlie were entrusted with tidying up one of the Centre's compost heaps and turning the mint-fragrant pile.

Our Goodgymmers were on fire! Floors were jet washed, compost heaps were turned, 'do not enter' signs were accidentally broken in the Palm House - it was a symphony of movement under the almost full moon. Our regular timekeeper had been kept away from task by pesky traffic and she was badly missed as before we knew, it was well past 8pm and we decided to call it a day.

We helped Denise put the tools away, but not before we checks notes half arsed one last quick job - replacing the ceiling tiles on a disabled toilet - and we posed for full moon selfies before running home.

A good night was had under the wonderful clear skies and bright waxing gibbous moon.

Come next week!

7 Goodgymmers battled with literal sub-zero temperatures to bring a bit of cleanliness to the wonderful bit of goodness that is Tottenham Green.

On Thin Ice... Literally

The cold out there is such at the moment that it brings brass monkeys and their frozen appendages to mind but the good folk at GGHaringey soldier on nevertheless.

Tonight, seven of us heeded the Friends of Tottenham Green's holler for assistance and found ourselves kind of skating on ice rather than running as we made our way there.

Laura, from the Friends Group, asked us for a vigorous litter pick of the site as well as clearing the main path from leaves. There was also an abandoned makeshift bed used by a homeless friend over the Christmas period who had since moved on (hopefully to warmer settings) that needed to be put away.

Our team wasted no time in trying to keep warm by working. We all litterpicked together while Gramps took charge of removing the bedding safely. Ed found some hardcore polystyrene columns, while the rest of the team dealt with the usual mix of half drunk bottles and crisp packets.

Once we were satisfied the leaves were cleared of rubbish, we swept and collected them in bags to save at the back of the site for future use as compost. Currently, they could only be used as ice cubes. On account of the cold weather. I don't know if this is coming across from this report but it was freaking freezing out there.

Aaaaaaanyway, once we were done, we helped Laura put the tools away in her impeccably tidy tool shed, high fived each other, posed for Gramps for a nice pic, and then ran back to HQ in a futile attempt to warm up.

It was cold y'all.

Join us on Monday for fashionable shenanigans at Traid, and on Wednesday for fun with the terrapins at Wolves Lane!