28 people caused no constitutional outrage in Camden, ran over 5km and helped Cecil Sharp House!

As Westminster was hell bent on tearing the country down we had the certainty that bringing a group together, doing some running and offering up our services to help others would bring calm and happiness and so it did!

Tonight we continued Goodgym's partnership with Team GB and learnt that people are not fans of badges! However we're pleased to support the initiative to get people more active and we have some great photos to prove it!

Once the photoshoot was done (thanks Freya and Rosie) we gathered for a rather disjointed intro welcoming Laurent and Ramona for their first ever GoodGym session and taking in the news of the social next week, community missions at Story Garden and all the health and safety and then with a quick warm up done... we were off!

With varying abilities in the group we soon decided to split into two and Rosie led the keener group ahead. At Cecil Sharp we heard from Susannah about the building and why our help is so important. This week we were working on making the grounds and garden look their prettiest. We split into two groups with 10 at the front sweeping and weeding and the remainder at the back doing the same with some additional tasks to keep everyone busy!

With it being a big job and with lots to do we worked hard for 40mins and got everything done. Susannah was very grateful and reckoned we'd done over two days worth of work! A job very well done.

After some group photos in the fading light we were off, again with two groups. We made good progress back to the Crick, stretched and then headed to the pub or home!

Thanks everyone, Frances is in charge next week as we head to Alara, you can sign up here!

Cheers,
Pritesh

21 incredible people joined me in Camden to run 8km and help at Antrim Allotments!

As GG HQ work hard to find you the right replacement for Paul, little old me will be looking after you and trying to bring some balance to the force over the next few weeks.

The king is dead, long live the... interim king

It was a week of new things with me in charge, meeting Helen the new chair at Antrim and the following runners joining GG for the first time: a big GGC welcome to Anna and Paul!

After confusing everyone by turning right out of the Crick we did the usual briefing, warmed up and went through the news:

• Congrats to all that took part in the penultimate GG Big Six race of the year at Bath Two Tunnels. Don't forget the final race is in September in Edinburgh. Details here!

• GG is turning TEN! Come to the party at City Hall and tell us what GG means to you here!

• Finally get the 5th September in the diary, it's the date of the next GG social. Also get the 8th November saved as I hear its going to be a special social!

On to the night at hand, with one task tonight we ran in a big group with Louise middle-marking and Abi and Rosie back marking (thanks!). Its a decent route to Antrim but hills are unavoidable! We worked hard and everyone put loads of effort in. Once we arrived at Antrim we met Helen the new chair of the allotments and she showed everyone the tasks! The allotments were looking particularly lush but there were still patches that needed work. The order of play today was mainly weeding and clearing with a healthy dose of digging too!

We had a strong 20 mins of hard work sadly the insects were hard at work too and sadly not many escaped with out bites. Must remember that citronella spray next time! Before we knew it the time had passed and so we returned our tools, said goodbye and posed for a group photo!

We took a different route home and split into a Rosie group and an Other group. The other group took a more leisurely pace but also conquered Primrose Hill (sorry Abi) whilst the Rosie group hurried home at pace.

After a stretch outside the Crick we siad our goodbyes and headed home, as ever a trusty, or should that be thirsty group headed for 'impromptu' drinks at the Somers Town Coffeehouse.

Thanks and see you all next week - task is being confirmed but you can sign up here!

Pritesh

57 GoodGymers ran 6km to help Kentish Town City Farm, broke the Camden Attendance Record and I said farewell to you wonderful people!

On my first Wednesday living in London back in May 2014 I enjoyed GoodGym Camden, I found a welcoming community of runners who were like minded people. I was honoured to become your trainer in January 2016, something that's always been more than a job to me. It's a passion; to bring people together, learn about our bodies, help the communities we live/work in and then go to the pub afterwards. You guys are the best!

Thank you so much for last night, the amazing group of you that came in the rain to say goodbye (and hug the goats) and for such wonderful presents.

Okay back to the normal report... welcome along to the newbies Lisa and Xanthy - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. A huge well done to GG sisters Kat Kelly and Liz Pang for hitting 100 good deeds, I am privileged to call them my friends and proud of what they've achieved at GoodGym Camden over the last 3+ years.
2. Go along to CREOS Community Mission in Islington this Sunday - it's a great one that ends with a free picnic!
3. So I have two races planned that I'd love for you to be apart of - Rother Valley Running Festival (near Sheffield) on 16th November. Also we'll be going to Kiev in May 2020 for the next #GGxEuro Trip! More details about both coming soon.

Corrr blimey there was so many of you! Such a big group, in fact such a big group that we broke the Camden Group Run Attendance Record and were just a few people short of breaking the GG World Record. Next time.

For the run up there we formed two groups of 25-30 people, with brilliant Run Leaders and Taskforce Peeps leading, middlemarking (cheers Steve) and backmarking each one - thanks to Abi, Kat, Chris, Aidan, Patrick, Steve C, Frances, Rosie and James for all there help leading groups through the wet streets of Camden. Meanwhile Mr Lee and I formed good-cycle again and helped direct at various points along the 3k route.

Ciao now Bown cow

Upon our arrival at Kentish Town City Farm Mel told us the brilliant news about the mean old trustee board had been removed, new guys had come in place and £100,000 being donated by a very kind donor. The farm has been saved, a hollywood ending! Then she set us to work with four tasks:

• Three people collected up debris in the goat area
• Twenty-Five people removed old decking from around the pond, and then chain ganged it all the way down to the bin at the bottom of the farm.
• Fifteen people shovelled muck, bagging it up and re-piled it
• Finally thirteen people racked and evened out the ground up at the Arena

The farm was full of activity for 30 minutes, we got so much done and Mel was really pleased! Thanks for working so hard in the rain, muck and more. Next it was GOAT TIME - we hugged them, said hey to little Rosie and fed them - all the fun! After a special group photo we headed back to base for stretches and then onto to pizza + beer! Thanks for Kat, Rosie etc for organising that!

Bown-ding into the future

What a special evening to end a special time for me personally at GoodGym ( both Camden and Islington). As I said last night I started without a beard and not really knowing what was up, the community that is GoodGym has enabled me to grow into who I am today. Thank you so much for the fantastic presents, the messages, the individual farewells and for just being you. You guys are my family, I love you and I'm going to miss you so much!

See you at a GoodGym Event sometime soon!

PB over and out for the final time.

35 GoodGymers ran 4-6km to help Story Garden & Coram Fields - woop woop!

Another awesome week but unfortunately my penultimate week, I hope you can make my final run next week and the beers & pizza afterwards! Waaaaah!

Welcome along to newbies Lydia, Kenny, Emma, George and Lynton.

In the news this week:

1. Go along to the social tonight on the Southbank! Pritesh will be there chatting all the good - more details here.
2. August's long run is going to be led by Simon Fitzmaurice, starting on Greenwich High Street, and finishing in the Olympic Park, Stratford - 10km or 25k options. Sign up here
3. Well done to Hayley who did the Ride 100 on Sunday - awesome! Plus big up to all the Camdenites and GoodGymers who had lots of fun at the GG Olympics on Saturday - yay!
4. Last thing - join the Unoffical GoodGym Facebook Group here and the GG Camden FB group here.

Corrrr what a fun evening of good, time trials, woodchip and 35 people! Nice! We split into two teams, with Frances (Loves a Mission) Powrie leading a group of 20 people to help the wonderful Coram Fields, which is the largest playground in central London. They'd just had there BIG Play Day so our task was to pack up after that and then sweep up debris, leaves, moss and anything else that's around. Great!

Moss Bros

Meanwhile I led a team of 14 team to help the Story Garden, which is right next door to the Crick Institute. We've been helping this community garden grow and develop over the last three months and it's really blossomed into a brilliant space. Martina said we have been 'instrumental to the garden's opening and growth!' We were split into four teams:

• Scraping away woodchip under planks of wood to make a disabled access pathway
• Litter picking around the entrance!
• Shifting woodchip into uncovered areas near some of the newly constructed buildings
• Filling up planters with soil in the pollytunnel

After 30 minutes we were done and Martina was very pleased! Pritesh led a group on a canal run to Granary Square, meanwhile Frances run her group over from Coram Fields to the same meeting spot. We all met there played on the minute for a minute and then did my final time trial with you awesome people. Hanry broke the record with 2.42 (course was 50+ metres longer)!

After a good stretch we went to the pub with drinks and fun. Lovely jubbley.

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Kentish Town City Farm!

PB out.

20 Goodgymers ran 3-5k to help Cecil Sharp House and the Story Garden!

Welcome along to the newbies - Rea, Sofia, Amy, Eleanor and Tilly - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Community Mission this Sunday helping Crouch End Open Spaces, it finishes with a free picnic - full details here.
2. There also a Community Mission next Thursday helping Camden Highline - more details here.
3. Join GG Camden Facebook Page here and the Unofficial Unofficial GG FB group here.

Story Garden Report:

Eleven of us headed around the corner to the Story Garden, we've never had a task so close! Upon our arrival Martina gave us a health and safety brief and told us how Global Generation (who also manage Skip Garden) have recently taken over the site. A community garden will be built over the next few months and then everything at Skip Garden will be brought over in October.

Our task this evening was to move loads of planks of wood, big and small. Taking them from one pile to another, in preparation for them to be made into planters which will be all around the garden.

Alternative plank competition

We worked hard in the heavy rain taking the planks of wood in pairs and solo across the site. Martina was very impressed that we kept working in the rain and really appreciated the amount we moved in 40 mins!

After a group picture we headed on a 3k run or walk, and then all finished off with a group stretch.

Cecil Sharp sum up by Abi:

Led by Steve, 9 of us set off on a drizzly 2km run to Cecil Sharp House, a place we visit once a month to help the gardening team maintain the grounds. Amidst the drizzle, we swept up needles the yew trees had been shedding onto the paths and set about eliminating weeds that were growing inbetween paving slabs, up walls etc.

In a short time, and accompanied by some upbeat violin music, the place was looking a lot neater. We then embarked on a slightly longer run back via (but not over) Primrose Hill before each heading either home or to the pub to dry off.

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping St Mary's Flats, Marie Curie Hospice and maybe the Story Garden again.

PB out