Yesterday's nineteen strong contingent tackled a smooth long run and a mixed bag of tasks at Newham Hospital's dementia ward. Added man-power coming from Ben and Filip Hope you had a good first outing, great to have you along. A somewhat accelerated intro chat due to the extended run. We congratulated the saturday morning 5k smashers, ie Parkrun Gods. Including James' 16.39 PB the Wanstead clan's efforts and Alice's marathon heroism. Forgot to say: Jade got a 5k PB and Mary flew around a 10k race. I even got a Parkrun done myself. Happy days at Newham.

Random Weekly Question didn't quite tie in with the hastened intro, oh well. "what's the best adventure you never had?" Trans Siberian express received many nods (think Siobhan has just done it), going to Bangladesh for a wedding that never happened, skimping out of an antarctic voyage, riding Spain's biggest waves, "eating all the spicy food....in China" (!), going to New Zealand (sans Kev), Scandinavian tours with your bro, North Coast 500 cycle, walking the Great Wall of China, unicycling around...Columbia , Everest Base Camp and many more. There's still time guys, most of those are feasible.

All arrived at the hospital with a radiant shine of endorphines. Resident nurse Chan directed us warmly and then lead from the front. Benches were painted vivid bright oranges and pinks. Brambles were head-locked and wrestled out of their lairs. Weeds were plucked. Bushes were trimmed and shaped. Litter was picked. Bang on 30mins and the place looked vastly better for it, what GG is all about.

Next week it's a shorter run with a bespoke fitness session at the end - you'd be proper (non-contagious) mental to miss it. Sign up here

Look forward to hearing about your weekend training and continued parkrun success next week. Go get it peeps.

Till next week

B

This Saturday is Earth Hour when we can acknowledge the damage human society is inflicting on the planet by switching off at 8.30 PM. To mark this event, GoodGym has teamed up with WWF to hold sustainability focussed events this week throughout the Land, including last night's task. But before we get to that, here are a few items of important news.

Walthamstow ParkRun this Saturday

GoodGym Waltham Forest (GGWF) Run Trainer, Ant, is planning on running Walthamstow Parkrun this Saturday. Why not kick off the weekend with a nice 5 km run and join him/me (I'm not sure why I'm talking in the third person here). If you are unfamiliar with Parkrun, you can find details and register, here

GGWF is 1 🎉

Incredible as it seems it was on April 11th 2018 that a ragtag group of beautiful people walked into Mirth Marvel and Maud and ran out onto the streets of The Stow to do great things. Come rain or shine we have been doing the same every Wednesday since then. Our first birthday run will take place two weeks hence with a visit to the delightful George Mason Lodge. There is talk of cake and drinks afterwards but I am open to suggestions at how we mark this auspicious event, or you could surprise us. Any ideas and suggestions welcome.

GGWF is 40

See what I did there? Perhaps I should clarify. Unbelievably the GoodGym project has now established fifty areas around the UK. What a story and what a difference we have made. Being part of this movement is something special, so each area is celebrating this success, with a photo to represent the number we were at launch. I am proud to say they GGWF is currently in third in the like listing with our cryptic pic. Thanks to Raymond, Fergus, Ros and Francis for the modelling work. All the photos can be viewed and liked here #GG50areas

Back to the business of our Earth Hour run to Willowbrook

We were joined by a great crew tonight. As well as our usual regulars we were lucky to be joined by GoodGymGoodDeed Maestro, Paul Grey. It was great to meet Paul and hear some of the wealth of GoodGym stories he has gathered during his 137 outings. We were also joined tonight by newcomers Michael and Filip, both of whom are just starting on their GoodGym journey but I am sure one day they too will sit atop a glittering pile of good deeds.

Regardless of past performance this triumphant trio swelled our group substantially and were all a welcome and hardworking addition to the evening's collective.

We also had a couple of birthday girls in the shape of Pippa and Nerys. Both of whom bought a cornucopia of cake along with them for some post deed deliciousness. Happy birthdays to you both, the cakes were magnificent.

But I seem to have skipped to the end without telling about the run and task, so on with the story. We headed to Willow Brook Primary and a testing 3 km run to get us there only slightly late where our eternally patient and always smiling contact Alison was waiting for us with her team headed by Alfonso who proceeded to set us up on the night's task of leaf and litter clearing.

Head torches at the ready for our last full dark task of the long, long winter the team got cracking, and in no time a hopper was bursting with leaves and other bits and pieces that had been languishing in an unloved corner of the playground of this otherwise much loved and splendid primary school.

After that is was back on the road for another 3kms when we reached the end, the ravenous runners devoured the delicious delicacies baked by Pippa and Nerys.

Next week

We visit a new destination to do a bit of a litter-pick. Sign-up here

Two weeks hence

We celebrate our first birthday at your favourite care home and mine, George Mason Lodge. Sign-up here

☮️