Flo Wratten

Our team at Goodgym Islington joined us for our second official group run from the Emirates Stadium since the return of social running. This time, 5 of us warmed up and ran together towards Elizabeth House Foodbank, one of our classic missions during the height of the pandemic. Paul and Hanry bumped into each other while run commuting from North London, and found out that they were going in the same direction!

Upon our arrival, we met up with the rest of the crew, who had come straight to the task from work, on foot, by bike and on electric scooter! Natalie from Elizabeth House has prepared 10 large crates of donated shopping for our goodgymmers to drop off at various walkable locations across Arsenal, Highbury Hill and Blackstock Estates- essential supplies for local families, vulnerable individuals and those in care.

As the food bank volunteers closed up the centre for the day, we were all offered some lovely sweet plums grown at the Castle Climbing Centre community food gardens, which would have been discarded otherwise (as is the nature of growing fresh fruit from trees- nothing for months, and then a year's worth of food appears out of nowhere!)

Our 5 Goodgym runners picked up their bags of plums, and scaled the mighty Highbury Hill climb back to the Emirates Stadium for our return journey to HQ. A top evening out helping out a busy community organisation.

Next Monday

We will be back group running again next Monday- running to Thornhill Square Gardens, just off Caledonian Road. Beautiful community garden space, maintained by the Friends of Thornhill Square Gardens.

Sign up here to get involved:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-run-thornhill-square-gardens

Elizabeth House Foodbank Community Missions

If you would prefer not to join the group run sessions over the following Monday evenings, then Elizabeth House Foodbank would love to invite you back to help with more food bank deliveries over the next 3 weeks!

Starting at 6.45pm at Elizabeth House Foodbank, each Monday evening.

Sign up here for the next one:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/elizabeth-house-foodbank-deliveries-summer-holiday-special

Goodgym Islington were so happy to celebrate their first group run back at The Arsenal Community Hub since 2020, and were thrilled to have 12 Goodgymmers along with us. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces from classic group runs past, regulars from lockdown community missions and complete first timers giving Goodgym a go (welcome Matthew).

After a short warm up utilising the mighty slope up to Emirates Stadium, our team run to Market Road Gardens (one of our favourite task locations) via Mackenzie Road (passing Ringcross Community Centre on the way). 2 miles total distance covered this evening by everyone involved (Thank you for backmarking, Steve)

Area activator Simon unlocked all the gates for Market Road Gardens (a lovely permaculture project), and our crew wheeled out a collection of wheelbarrows, rakes, spades, huge brushes and shovels. We even created a glorious vehicle called "Herbie" out of an abandoned shopping trolley and a storage tub found in Heyward Adventure Playground. Our primary focus for the evening was to clear a huge pile of wood chip off the vehicular access point for the playground users, and into an allocated storage bay. Many hands got cracking with shoveling and transferring the wood chip across the park, while Patrick took charge of depositing the wheelbarrows neatly in the loafing bay.

Our 2nd task involved sweeping and clearing lots of mud, green waste and debris off the pavement surrounding the entrance to the community centre. This was all strewn across the paths after the very heavy rain over the weekend, so we collected as many of these obstacles as possible.

We admired our handiwork for a bit (all major tasks completed within 45 min!) before running and cycling back the Arsenal Community Hub, and topping off our group run with a final hill rep and a bit of stretching.

9 of us then made a visit to a great local bar called "The Highbury Library", located just behind our start point for some light refreshment and a quality catch-up!

Sign up to next Monday's group run to Elizabeth House Foodbank here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/elizabeth-house-foodbank-deliveries-d4ac3696-9cf6-4492-8bd0-93ae52054178

Southwark News

• Looking for plans THIS Sunday? Join us for a Gardening Workshop from 2-4pm at Surrey Docks Farm! Grab the last spaces here

Wall of Honour

• High Five to Tara for completing her first run with us!
• Big Shout to Allie for running tonights session with a 15kg backpack! Ready for her Rhino suited Half Marathon next week!!
• Show it off! This weeks Champions are Sam for completing his first Half Marathon in under 2 hours! and Helena & Ed who ran the WINE drinking Marathon Du Medoc last month! Thirsty work!

Let’s have a Recap

Last night 15 runners ran 6km in total to the beautiful Bell House Gardens, home to a magnificent Grade II Listed building, and charity offering educational needs such as dyslexia support.

It was a dry night (after 2 heavy days of rain!) but with a slight temperature drop, conversations once again debated how many and which layers to wear for the evening!? We jumped through a brisk warm up passing the first test of names and numbers (always a tricky one!) and headed on a straightforward route up Barry Road and through the peacefully dark Dulwich Park. Managing to not get locked in and with Helena back-marking we arrived to meet Graham in the Bell House tool shed.

The daylight was well gone, but fear not we came prepared! With head torches and garden lamps we got to work on our first task - moving over 20 large bags of manure! Despite the smells and varying weights a chain was formed to deposit the bags into the compost heap at the back of the garden, with thankfully few mishaps!

Reece & Richard gave some man power to a tired lawn mower and helped move the heavy machine from the bottom of the garden back into the shed! And although we faced a challenge in the dark, we were able to illuminate the back of the garden so that the final task could be completed in true GoodGym style, turning over soil and digging out weeds working in an organised team being careful not get a stab in the dark! Much to Graham's surprise ALL 3 tasks were completed within 25 minutes, so we bid goodbye to the garden until Spring!

Leading the way home Richard navigated us along Woodwarde Road, sharing a few jokes along the way! And back up the hill towards the library. After adding in some loops backs and extra sprints for the front runners we all arrived together for a final stretch and appreciation for Allie's Rhin-ormous effort!

FACT OF THE DAY A Black Rhino’s skin can be up to 5cm thick! - No wonder those costumes are so heavy!

Next week we will be running 6km overall to our friends at Salvation Army in Camberwell. There will be plenty to get stuck into helping clear up after their recent building work! Sign up here

Dom T will be taking the ropes next week. Any queries, please get in touch at dom@goodgym.org

See you soon! Chin Up!