19 runners went back to school to lend a hand at John Betts Primary

The crisp darker nights are well and truly upon us and head torch wearing is definitely the fashion that is in! 🔦 The clocks go back on Sunday and the c word is beginning to creep up on us....sadly team I think it’s time to end the denial and accept that Winter is definitely coming!

Tonight we welcomed along Henry and Chris to their first H&F group run, thank you both for coming along and lending some extra hands tonight, hope you enjoyed it! And thank you as always to my wonderful regulars 😊.

School runnings! 🏫🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

Following a warm-up which involved some high knees, fast feet and exercises that required more co-ordination than normal, we all set off towards our task tonight at John Betts Primary School with Bex and Cookie backmarking.

Having successfully navigated our way round pedestrians and the streets of Hammersmith, we arrived quicker than expected at the front of the school. We paused briefly to allow everyone to regroup, fitting in a quick wall sit / school railings sit before we all set off in search of the open gates at the back of the school.

Success! Open gates located the group all entered into the school grounds and were greeted by the school caretaker, Matt and his daughter, Emily. Matt explained that like many schools, due to constant funding cuts, any money available to schools goes directly into education rather than into general school maintenance and upkeep - enter GoodGym!

No one was board tonight!

Tonight, the team had the following jobs to get stuck into:

• Moving & lifting of noticeboards 🏋️
• Tidying and organising of the art shed 🎨
• Gardening at the back of the school - featuring a pick axe! 🌱⛏️
• Gardening at the front of the school 🌱

The team split into smaller groups with some very much heading towards their calling...Helen to the pick axe, Sarah and Bex to the tidying and organising!

After half an hour of lifting and shifting, organising and gardening, everywhere was looking a lot cleaner, tidier and organised ready for when the children come back after half term.

School's gold

With us being in a school there was also no shortage of toys and props that the team very much enjoyed trying out - Lucy and Will conquered the walking planks with ease, Lucy showed us all how to hula hoop, and the costumes from the school play were tested out by Lucy and Jonny, magic! Everyone was also assigned their part in the next school play...coming soon!

Très school

As the final organisational touches were put on the art shed we finally called it a night. With it being Eloise’s school there was one final thing to do while herself and Matt were away on holiday, crash her classroom and take our group photo there! We didn't move much around we promise! 🤪

Team photo taken we said our goodbyes to Matt and Emily and headed down towards Furnival Gardens for tonight's fitness session. This week we started with a game designed to warm everyone up before sprinting, two tennis balls passed around everyone as they jogged around the green space, one green and one yellow, really easy to tell apart in the dark...whoops sorry team! 🎾🎾 The green tennis ball = 10 jumping jacks and the yellow tennis ball = 10 squats. Following this we did some sprint work, making use of the lamp posts along the path, 3 reps of 50% effort, 70% effort and 100% effort between 3 lamp posts 💡.

Faces redder and breathing heavier the group were given a choice of either continuing the lamp post sprints along the path or a nice gentle run back to base. Throughout, there was some brilliant sprint technique displayed with lots of 'pockets to sockets' and lovely upright postures. Great work team!

All that was left to do was to do our cool down, and sadly say our final goodbyes to Steph before she heads off on her 3 months African adventure. Thank you for all your efforts over the last year Steph, we're all going to miss you and hope that you come back to visit us! Very kindly Steph had bought along some delicious homemade fudgeballs which finished off the night to perfection - the recipe is in the WhatsApp group if anyone fancies making them again one week...hint hint 😉.

Shoutouts

A DAM big well done to Catriona who ran in the Amsterdam Marathon 🇳🇱 at the weekend. Congratulations on the shiny new marathon PB!! 🏅🥳🙌🏼

Well done to 'Speedy Jonzales', Jonny Knight on his Greenwich Park 10k race! 🥳🙌🏼

News

1. FREE Holland Park run - Wednesday 23rd October - Meet at the Stable Yard in Holland Park at 5.45pm for a 6pm start 🕕. Baggage storage and toilets are available.
2. H&F Community Missions - Wednesday 23rd October for the 'Small tap, big change' launch from 6-8pm, please sign up here and Saturday 9th November at Wormholt Park, please sign up here if you can lend a hand anytime between 11am-3pm.
3. Unofficial GG10 party 🔟🎉 - Friday 8th November at Topolski Bar on the Southbank. All the details are here.
4. GG Christmas party 🎅🎄⛄🎉 - Friday 6th December. Places are limited so make sure you sign up early! All the details are here.

Next week we've got a Two Task Tuesday, we'll be heading to Loris Community Gardens and will be leafleting for UNITED in Hammersmith & Fulham. For all the details and to sign up, click here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend. Hopefully see you next week!

19 GoodGymmers supported United in Hammersmith and Fulham to promote their Warmer Together campaign, in which those who aren't reliant on their winter fuel allowance can donate it to those more in need. Big welcome to Lucy and Ella on their first GoodGym run, and to our visitor Mikaela from Hounslow. Give them all a cheer!

First up some quick announcements:

• Congrats to our international half iron woman Helen who came in well under her target time, and Will and Jonny K who both conquered the Spartan race last weekend.

• Good luck to Matt and Eloise running Oxford Half this weekend

• The GoodGym-wide social is in Islington this Thursday

• H&F Christmas Dinner will be Sat 7th December at Hop Poles

Helen gave us a rundown of United in Hammersmith and Fulham's work, we had a warm up involving legs swinging all over the place, and we set off down to Parsons Green. Here we split into 2 teams led by Helen and Catriona and set off in 2 directions following our beautifully highlighted maps.

25 minutes and 200 leaflets later, the two groups reconvened at Parsons Green. Many of the houses' walkways were tiled which, while very stylish, were also very slippy. Sadly Lucy's shoes didn't have the grip to match, succumbing to a fall or two. Thankfully no serious harm done.

Katie and Lucy treated us to an improvised Hakka in honour of usual trainer Beth, currently in Japan watching rugby, and we headed back to base. A pit stop at Normand Park for a little sprint on their track and we were back in no time.

Thanks for having me as your trainer for the last two weeks gang! Beth is back next week and we're gardening at Josiah Braithwaite Community Garden. Sign up here