23 Goodgymers ran 5km to help Scope Charity Shop on Camden High Street

Welcome along to newbies Laura and Ana - lovely to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Beth Anton who hit her 50th Good Deed this week, amazing work!
2. Well done to those runners at the weekend: Hayley who completed Royal Parks Half Marathon and John, Kat, Pritesh, Steve, Frances and loads more doing York Marathon and 10 miler!
3. Join James Gilbert and others on Sunday when there is a Community Mission helping Crouch End Open Spaces lay some woodchip paths - sign up here.
4. The October Long Run is this Sunday as well, led by Simon Fitzmaurice - starting in East Finchley and finishing in Hackney Wick - sign up here.

After we were thoroughly warmed up we headed the 1.5km to help Scope Charity Shop, this fantastic shop is a centre point on Camden High Street and always needs our help! Helen and her volunteers were grateful to see us and had lots for us to do:

• Rosie and Katherine wore Scope t-shirts with pride to collect money on the street - raising over £13!
• Liz, Abi and Sally sorted shoes, calendars and Christmas cards!
• Liz and Grace measured and labelled various trousers around the store.
• Thomas and Laura dressed four mannequins in very fashionable wear!
• Alex, Beth, Meredith and Alex cleaned the stairs, scriting boards, windows, doors, shelves, toilet and kitchen!
• Chris, Laura and Julie sorted accessories, ties and more.
• Jonathan, Hanry, Chris, Alba and Ana hung, labelled and ironed clothes that have recently been donated.

Over 40 minutes we got tons done and the shop is now a lot more sorted, clean and beautiful than when we arrived.

After a group picture we headed to Granary Square along the canal for a time trial - fun!

Good work everyone, next week we are off to Kentish Town City Farm - sign up here.

PB out

27 GoodGymers ran between 4 and 12km to help St Christopher's House and Kingsgate Place

Thank you for coming guys, no newbies this week but lots of new and old faces!

On Mental Health Awareness Day it's as ever important to #runandtalk like we do each week, and remember the positive impact running has on our mental health. Read (and share) Tower Hamlets Trainer Laura article on this very subject.

In the news this week:

1. Cross Country Season starts this Saturday, there is 5 races for £5 over 5 months. It's awesome! You need you be a member of the GoodGym Raceteam - see details here.
2. There is a Community Mission helping Crouch End Open Space next Sunday (21st) where you'll be laying a woodchip path and will be rewarded with a picnic - sign up here.
3. On Sunday 21st there is also the monthly long run - this time led by Simon Fitzmaurice and goes from East Finchley to Hackney Wick - see the run here.
4. GG November drinks with be on Thursday 8th in Bethnal Green - more details to come!

St Christopher's Report by PB:

A team of 17 headed to help a local Origin Housing Project St Christopher's. We took a round about way to get there as it was seriously too close.

Upon our arrival we met Dave from No.4 who let us into Dave's at No.1 where all the tools and bulbs were. Getting into teams we did the following:

• John, Steve and Katie planted some mystery plants in 5 places over the courtyard
• A team of 8 planted 40 daffodil bulbs across two big planters: digging 3cm down, placing the bulb in the hole and covering it up again.
• We swept and bagged leaves and weeded all over the court.
• Abi and Frances clipped back trees, bushes and plants around the garden.
• A different Abi watered the whole garden!

Last summer we went to St Christopher's to help them pull away and cut back all the overgrown thistles, brambles and other nasty things that covered the garden area. Now the flats look beautiful and lush, our help today meant the garden can be maintained for Autumn - good work.

After Steve Lee took a group picture we headed to Granary Square for a fitness session, first some conditioning and then x3 90 seconds will an acceleration over the last 30!

Kingsgate Place Report by Rosie:

The lovely Diana greeted us with a selection of drinks and snacks which we enjoyed after the task. We split up into two teams of 4 and 5 to plant some bulbs in flowerbeds outside the flats. Rosie, Tom, Ellie and Stevie C were on bluebells and snowdrops, while Hanry, Alex, Josie, and Jason took on the daffodils.

Flower Facts

We learnt that daffodils have to be planted at 15cm depth, bluebells 10cm depth and snowdrops 5cm depth - interesting! Throughout the run and task we chatted about #runandtalk. As ever we admired the view from Primrose Hill: hazy but still beautiful!

Next week we are off to help Scope Charity Shop sort donations and clean the shop - sign up here.

PB out

26 GoodGymers ran 3-6km to help Cecil Sharp House and St Marys

Welcome along to newbies Julie and Alba, and welcome back to several second timers too - great to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. The Monthly Social is tomorrow at the Islington Townhouse - see full details here.
2. GG Raceteam are looking for race suggestions for 2019, so far they've got 15 suggestions and would like a few more. See the form to suggest more here.
3. Join the Unofficial GG Facebook page here and GG Camden Facebook page here.

St Mary's Report:

A team of 11 went off on an adventure to run with warm bags of compost through the streets of Camden, aka bags of hot stuff! However upon our surprise the Camden Compost Pile outside Alara was gone! Nowhere to be seen - ALAS!

So after that shitshow we headed off to St Mary's to see what we could do for Jon and the community there. Over 30 minutes we swept leaves, litter picked, replanted a beautiful plant, weeded and emptied old containers of soil.

Running through the station!

On our run to Granary Square we ran through St Pancras Station to advertise the GG brand to the commuters! Nice! We then smashed a progression run around Granary Square before heading home to stretch.

Cecil Sharp House:

Pritesh and Katherine led a group of 15 to Cecil Sharp House to do our monthly task of tidying the garden. With the nights closing in and weather a little colder we’ve started on leaf duty.

One change in the back garden was the state of the lawn, usually pristine it was looking bare (our hard work in the spring reseeding was ruined!). Susannah said that it wasn’t the hot summer, but 70-80 children using the garden daily as a play area over the summer holidays! Probably going to be a re-turf needed.

After 40 minutes of tidying Susannah reminded us that the work 15 of us achieved would equate to a whole day for her and she really appreciates our support. After a quick school photo we ran back to base for stretching.

Sign up here for next here when we have a NEW TASK helping Kingsgate Estate and gardening for SPCA.

PB out

23 Goodgymers ran 3-6km to help Sheltered Housing and Coram Fields with some Autumnal work

Thanks for coming guys and a huge thanks to Hanry the Founder of Lunar Cycles, in Kentish Town, for providing us with headtorches! Welcome along to Grace Gillis aka GG to her first GoodGym run.

In the news this week:

1. The Monthly Social is in Angel on Thursday 4th October at the Islington Townhouse - come along - full details here.
2. Frances Powrie is now the Chair of the GG Raceteam and Pritesh Mistry is the Secretary. We are looking for race suggestions for 2019 to make into our Big Races - please submit here.
3. Read all about where your GG t-shirts come from here - the fantastic Camden Society!

We had two tasks to tackle last night, regulars Coram Fields and Sheltered Housing - both awesome charities!

Sheltered Housing Report:

Chris and Kat led the group up to Kentish Town to help the fantastic Sheltered housing, a charity that provides care and support for older people. The garden which we help look after is invaluable to the residents!

The tasks were as followed:

• Frances, Chris and Abi built some shelves for grow bags to go on.
• Jess and Pritesh pruned a tree
• The rest of the group swept and collected leaves (8 bags worth)

Completing a wonderful 6km the majority of the team headed to the pub for a beer.

Coram Fields Report:

The rest of the group headed to the fantastic Coram Fields, a 7 acre children's playground that has over 40 trees! The task was simple and the group effective - to collect and bag up leaves.

Headtorch time!

Splitting into teams of 3-4 people we covered the paddling pool, adventure play area and lawn. Collecting in total an amazing 35 bags of leaves! Wow! We then headed to Russell Square for a fitness session, with some of the group doing a parlauf and the other focusing on calves and balancing.

Next week we are off to help St Mary's and another task (tbc) - sign up here.

PB out