On the last GoodGym Brent of December, of 2019 and of this decade TWELVE awesome folk joined me to help Willesden Green Residents Association and Town Team with a litter pick down Walm Lane and Willesden High Road.

Once everyone had gathered we went out for our intro, news update, health and safety briefing before splitting the group in a running a walking group.

Tabitha led the walkers who were covering Walm Lane from the Queensbury down to the High Road. I took the other group down to Willesden Library and we worked our way up to Walm Lane.

We spent a good 45 minutes working away and we all filled our bags full of litter.

With that all done we headed back to base and headed in for our Christmas dinner!

Thanks to all for a wonderful year of doing good and keeping fit! Here's to even more as we go into a new year and decade!

Cheers,
Pritesh

p.s. Big kudos to Helen for our GG gif made using a cracker present!

10 amazing Good Gym runners joined me on an Autumnal evening to run 7km to deliver leaflets for our friends at Abbey Community Centre.

We started the evening by giving a big GG welcome to Bianca, who joined us for her first GG run.

Ready, restart, News bulletin.... 350 GG runners from 36 different areas participated in community missions on Super Saturday as part of the 10 year anniversary PARTY celebrations.

Don't worry if you missed the party on Saturday, there is an opportunity to take part in another community mission tomorrow evening in Kilburn.

Ready, restart, GO! We promptly started running to Abbey Community Centre. When we arrived we were given leaflets to deliver to advertise a RESTART PARTY on Saturday, where trained volunteers will fix all of your small electrical items!

Ready, restart, GO! We split into 2 teams and we were reset to run again to deliver the leaflets to local residents.

Once the teams were joined again, wait for it, restart, you've guessed it, we ran again, all the way home to the Queensbury, ready for the party to start!

Thanks for joining me team! Hope to see you again next week, if not before (maybe tomorrow)!!

Ten brilliant people joined me in Brent as we ran nearly 7km to help Queen's Park Community Council deliver their newsletter.

Having forced everyone to drink some water to ensure we were hydrated in the heat we headed outside for the intro. Liz gave us a quick summary of the shindig, I reminded everyone about the Olympics on the 3rd and the social on the 8th before I went through the task info and health and safety.

We then headed off to the task - it was about a 3km run and we kept up a good speed through the heat and made it down to Queen Park in good time. It was on the run that spotted a friendly cat and it became a bit of a theme as you'll see from the pictures!

Once there, Lindsey soon arrived and we unpacked the boxes, split into teams and then began our work to distribute the newsletter.

We had 25 minutes and before we knew it we were done and had covered all the areas we needed, and weirdly, met many more cats!

Once everything was sorted we had a group photo and made Lindsey promise she would join us for a run soon and then we headed back to base. The run home is always a bit harder as we have a big uphill but everyone worked hard and managed to get up the hill without stopping - well done!

Once back at base, yup we did see another cat, we stretched and then it was time for a drink and for our flag designing session. Many ideas were thrown around but I think we've got a great design planned. Make sure you come along to the Olympics to see it!

I'm away next week but Tabitha is in charge, make sure you come along!

Cheers,
Pritesh

Eleven amazing runners joined me in Brent last night to help deliver leaflets for Abbey Community Centre to promote their community cafe and run over 8km in the process!

One the most horribly humid night of the year we were joined by Euclides who will be taking on the role of GG Haringey Trainer from Wednesday and as well as you lovely regulars it was nice to have Ellen and Rosie along for the first time in a few months.

After a quick intro the main things are still very much:

• SOCIAL in BRENT!!! Sign up here and details will come soon - at this point we may end up having at the Queensbury as nowhere else seems to be available!

• GG OLYMPICS!!! 3rd August - we want to try and double the size of our team from 3 to 6 ppl this year. You need to sign up by THURSDAY. Details here and sign up here!

With that and all the usual health and safety and whatnot we were on to a quick warm up from Euclides and then we were on our way. We kept up a steady pace and suffered through the sticky conditions but before we knew it we had wound our way past Kilburn and then West Hampstead and then reached the Centre.

Once there Simone kindly provided water for everyone and then handed over the stack of leaflets for us. As the task had been pulled together last minute it was a very manageable number but we split the leaflets between the group and then headed to the Alexandra Road estate to do some deliveries!

Once there we split into two groups of five - those that wanted to work for their good ran to the far end of the estate and made their leaflet drops at that end and the other five worked from the near end. Before we knew it everyone had raced up and down the stairs and we gathered together for some group photos before, on the advice of a local resident, we went in hunt of the park at the back of the estate.

We ran along the paths and stopped off and did some fitness exercises as we went, triceps dips, burpees, jumping jacks and some running in a circle (my fave!) and then with everyone worked out it was time to head back to base!

Once we were back Euclides took us a through a great cool down session and we were done! Top effort in the conditions and Abbey are always so pleased when we do leaflet drops as they see an increase in attendees to their cafe. Next week Claire is in charge and we are heading to a new task down in Queens Park - gardening tasks will be the order of the day. Do please come and support Claire and show the new task how brilliant you all are!

See you all at the social - cheers,
Pritesh

Wow! FIFTEEN amazing runners joined me in Brent as we really showed everyone how to get together and ran 6km, delivered over 300 leaflets for Brent Mencap, did 1km time trial and celebrated a birthday!

A big old GGB welcome to Thenuka who joined for her first ever GoodGym run, a welcome back to Beattie and Rachel who joined us for the first time in months and a hurrah for Hounslow who had three of their finest join us for a spot of tourism!

After a warm up from Liz we did a quick intro of the task, GG, health and safety and all the important things including reminders that we are getting closer to close date of GG Olympics sign-up and that the next social IS IN BRENT on the 4th July. We then co-ordinated ourselves and headed off to the task. Liz kindly led the way and I took up back-marker position.

Two kilometres later and we were at Brent Mencap - we met Wayne who gave us our stack leaflets! A double whammy of the 'Great Get Together' we were delivering leaflets for the event that Brent Mencap were putting together this Friday - amazing! We split into four groups, set out the areas we were delivering in and off we went! With 20 minutes to get all our leaflets delivered everyone did a fantastic job and before we knew it we were back at the charity with all the leaflets delivered - fantastic!

But this is GoodGym, we had done our good now time for some gym. We headed off to Roundwood Park and once there I made no friends by presenting the GG Brent 'just over 1km' time trial! After an intense intro and map reading session we were lined up and ready to go. Everyone did really well and times ranged from sub 4 mins to sub 6 - super speedy!

Once everyone had got their breath back we were expertly led by Liz again and headed back to base where we stretched and then a number of us headed back to the pub for a celebratory cupcake and drink for Andy's birthday and a wonderful evening for all of us and very much in the spirit of the Great Get Together. #moreincommon

Cheers,
Pritesh

Eight brilliant people braved the rain and ran 4km to help Cricklewood Millennium Green!

Despite the relentless rain all day it managed to stop just in time for GoodGym and I was pleased to be joined by a good number of people including Joanna who came to her first ever GoodGym!

After a quick intro, whilst we jogged on the spot to keep warm, we did our actual warm up and got going with Tabitha leading the way and me back marking.

We'd mainly talked about the upcoming GoodGym Olympics, only 16 more days till entry deadline! Get yourself signed up here, we want to double our team from three to six for this year!

Once we got to Millenium Green we met Lisa who showed us to our tools and then the litter-pick ensued! Everyone worked very hard and covered the whole area - a number of interesting things were found but you'll have to come to a Brent session to find out just how interesting!

After that we voted on whether to run back for an early finish or to do some fitness - as expected fitness won! We worked our way through a range of exercises that we had to do for as long as it took a runner to cover a short distance! A lot of fun was had and we were thoroughly warmed and feeling fitter by the end!

After all that we headed back to base - great work everyone!

Cheers,
Pritesh