Eleven excellent GoodGymmers ran to Gladstone Park to pick up litter and help keep this brilliant local space tidy.

We were unfortunately taskless going into tonight, but that doesn't stop GG Brent. After a quick stop to grab some bin bags we headed to Gladstone Park in double quick time to get to work picking litter.

We were joined today by Rosie for her first ever GG run: WELCOME. Everyone give her a cheer. We were also joined by Nicky who was visiting us from Lambeth. Love a bit of tourism.

We divided into twos and threes in the park and started picking litter. The team worked hard for half an hour grabbing loads of rubbish as the sun went down behind us over the hill. One might even say that it was lit(ter picking 👀). Can you tell I found it hard to choose which pun to use. Thanks for James, Rachael, Liz and Rosie for the brain storm in the pub after.

That done, we dumped the rubbish in the bin and met for some drills. I marked out a 50 metre run and set the team to work on strides: 50% effort out then 70% back x 2, before squats, then the same again, calf raises, then a hard run out and a recovery run back to recover. It was a brilliant effort by everyone!

From there, it was a light run back to base for a stretch and drinks in the pub 🍻

Thanks for having me Brent

D

Was it a bank holiday? Yes! Was the weather terrible? Yes!

Thanks to the six of you that joined me last night and came for a worthwhile run in Brent.

Egg-static about doing good and getting fit

Last night we were helping Cricklewood Library raise awareness of their second fundraising ceilidh which is going to be held at the Clayton Crown Hotel on Cricklewood on Cricklewood Broadway on the 13th April.

Two new runners tonight - a big GG Brent welcome to Nadav and Alec!

Alec joined us as both a new runner and a representative of Cricklewood Library - he brought along the flyers for us and then joined us on our run - thanks for a great effort. Alec explained to us about the proposed library and the issues that have been encountered with the new development as well as explaining that currently the community was being served by a number of pop-up libraries at various underground stations.

Egg-cellent runners

It was great to have Alec along to explain the scenario and give us some information on what sounds like it will be a fantastic ceilidh too - a live band and caller and three sessions over the night - it'll be more of a workout than our run I think!

As ever we started the night off with a quick intro on GoodGym and with that done we headed off towards Gladstone Park and the library. Alec knew a quieter route for us so ended up leading the way (thanks!) and it wasn't long till we were at the new library. Currently it's a shell of a building but if everything goes to plan it will be open as a library and community hub for the start of 2019.

Going the egg-stra mile

We split into groups and then worked our way up three roads taking on side roads where we had time - meeting up back at the library after 35 minutes of swift delivery work! Once we got back we worked out that we had delivered around 600 flyers - great effort everyone! We're hoping that lots get raised for Cricklewood Library and we're certainly looking forward to coming back and helping once the building starts to be properly kitted out!

That's all yolks

With that we said our goodbye to Alec and headed back to base. A quick stretch off and an update on next week's task for Canal and River Trust and GG Brent was done for another week!

Cheers everyone, Pritesh

p.s. Thanks to Alec for the guest pun - an egg-straordinary feat of alliteration!

p.p.s. sorry for the easter/egg puns!

Eleven of you joined me in Willesden Green this week matching my 'world record' attendance numbers as we had our first run in the light as we enter British Summer Time. A BIG GG Brent welcome to Emily, Hannah and Helen who attended for the first time - great to have you with us. Welcome back to Karen who hadn't joined us in some time and for you regulars - well we love to see you too!

Old favourite

Tonight we were heading off to visit Colin at the old police station in Willesden Green, it's a volunteer led project converting the old police station into a community hub for all kinds of things to then be able to take place there.

It's a short run down to the station and we were impressed to see that much of our previous work was blooming at the front of the building - all the planters were full of beautiful flowers!

Colin gave a us a bit of a tour so that we could see some of the activity that had been ongoing, the front reception was pretty much complete, some screen printing equipment had been installed and as previously mentioned much of the gardening had been done.

Our task tonight was to do some more planting and move rearrange some of the flowers that were yet to be painted. Along with this there were various odd jobs to be done - plenty to keep us busy!

Kittens!

Colin being Colin he couldn't help but add some extras on to our tour and our work...first up everyone got to meet the little kittens that live on site - cue all the cuteness! I decided to take on the 'evil taskmaster' role and eventually got everyone split up and on to the tasks.

Everyone worked hard for a good 30 minutes including a 'five minute challenge' for the 'planters' outside - it made for a fun finish and just when we were ready to leave Colin found us one last task!

One more task, one more task, one more task

Clare, Danny, Pete and Samina. rather 'un-abley' assisted by myself took care of that last job helping Colin to move a planter from the police station site across the High Road to the Islamic College.

One swift group picture later and we were off for a run back - we headed back on a slightly longer route that took us out to Gladstone Park (check out the parkrun there every Saturday) and then back to base. A quick stretch off later and we were all done with some of the group staying at the pub for a deserved drink.

We're doing some leafletting for Cricklewood Library next Monday (bank holidays don't stop us!) so sign up and join us!

Cheers, Pritesh