Having looked at the weather forecast in the morning I was slightly trepidacious that the weather would put some runners off, I mean who wants to run in torrential rain and snow?! Turned out I needn't have worried as a massive 27 GoodGym runners in Hammersmith & Fulham were keen to do precisely this in order to run to do good in their community. It was great to see so many new faces, a big welcome to, Alice, Georgina and Claire who all joined us for their first GoodGym run. Hope to see you all again very soon, hopefully the weather will be kinder next time! It was also lovely to have along GoodGym tourists, Mathilde, India, Jen and Africa who joined my wonderful regulars on a very cold winter night with adverse weather conditions! Thank you all for coming along.

Since the rain was coming down with some force we sheltered under the Better Gym car park for the intros and a quick round-up of the week’s news.

The news this week, a run stop shop

1. JANUARY CHALLENGE 2019! - We're into the last few days of the January Challenge. The GoodGym targets of 6,000 good deeds and 80,000 kms run are in touching distance, will we make it?! As a group we hit BOTH our 2019 targets for good deeds and distance run last week and have a trophy for each as a reward. We're also sitting very nicely at the top of Division D. Awesome work H&F team, great team effort! Track the January Challenge progress here.
2. The Vitality Big Half (10th March) - GoodGym has some £10 community entry places for the Big Half. If you're interested, please email bighalf@goodgym.org Deadline for applications is Wednesday 30th January. Names will be drawn at random from those who want a place.
   
3. London-wide GoodGym social - Thursday 7th February at the The Prince Arthur Pub, near Old Street - Celebrate GoodGym, Heroes of the months, January IPOTM (International Pun of the Month), IPOTY (International Pun of the Year) and January Challenge Results! Sign up here.
   

Lots of racing at the weekend too, big well done to Tom and Chris in the very muddy and hilly Maverick Trail Race down in West Sussex and to Johnny and Sarah who ran the Morden Hall Trust10 Trail Run AND ran their 50th different parkrun! Impressive! Well done all, great running.

Following a name and number count we headed out into the heavy rain to get ourselves warmed-up (well sort of!) and headed up on our short 2km run up to St Mungo's Reconnection Post. Stopping briefly for some jumping jacks and squats when waiting to cross the roads we arrived in super quick time at St Mungo's Reconnection Post and were met by one of the Reconnection Workers, Marcia. As Marcia located the keycard for the room that we were going to be working in, I briefly explained to group about the valuable services St Mungo's Reconnection Post provide to vulnerable and homeless adults with complex needs in the community, such as the 'No Second Night Out' service – as well as providing 25 beds, they also work with the residents to get them reconnected in the community or repatriated back to their country.

All-sorts of clothing, snow many clothes!

Tonight's brief sounded simple but in reality was quite a challenge. We had been asked to help organise one of their store rooms which had become filled full to bursting, quite literally, of a fantastic array of donated clothes by the public and previous residents. A few weeks ago we made a start on the room but due to the sheer volume of clothes and bags within the room had only been able to get so far. This week we were back to (hopefully....maybe) finish the job off!

A different kettle of squish

One bonus of tonight's task was that it was inside, however, we were very limited with the space in which to work and with 27 GoodGym bodies we had to be both creative and extra efficient with all our sorting. With the group divided up between two rooms and along the corridoor it was time to sort. Jason provided a brilliant contact point between the two rooms and corridoor, and even participated in the well known challenge, just how many coats can one person carry?! With excellent co-ordination, communication and all round teamwork it wasn't long before the room started to look clearer and the shelves fuller with neatly folded and stacked clothing - plus we could now see the floor! Half an hour flew by as always and the task came to a nice natural end point, for now!

Too clothes for comfort

Since we could now get in the room I decided this was the perfect opportunity for a group photo, despite it being a tight space everyone got up clothes and personal, well neatly packed in and we managed a great team photo in the room we had sorted. Andrew also providing a brilliant photo op - check out the photo of him sat on the throne (chair) admiring the wonderfully sorted and folded clothes now on the shelf and in boxes. In just two half an hour bursts it's amazing what you have all achieved, the room is unrecognisable from our first visit - well done all, great work!

Check out the transformation...

Snow joke, the weather really was that bad!

We said our goodbyes to Marcia and headed back outside into the driving cold rain. With many shivering and with snow just starting to fall we unanimously decided to forgo the fitness session this week and head straight back to base. With base only a short 2km away it wasn't long before we were all back and having a quick stretch off inside the warmth of the Better Gym Leisure Centre. Cold and damp to the core it was time to call it a night and we headed off for our monthly social which comprised of drinks, food, chats and general merriment - a perfect way to end the night.

Thank you all for coming along, hope you had fun and have now all warmed-up and dried off! Have a great week. Sign up for next week's run here.

Thank you to Jason for backmarking and many thanks to Catriona for the extra photos and for organising the social!

Despite the noticeable cooler temperature it was lovely to have a massive 19 GoodGymers join me for tonight's run down to Age UK H&F - maybe the lure of the indoor task and post-run birthday cake contributed this?! It was great to welcome along Rebekah and Steph on their first GoodGym H&F group run, to have Anders back with us for the night and to the numerous GoodGym tourists, who I did not bribe to come along....Emily, Helen, Amy and Chi from GoodGym Wandsworth and further afar! What a wonderful bunch of runners I had tonight!

Once everyone was assembled, glow sticked up (thanks to Sarah!) and signed in we left the warmth of the Better Gym Leisure Centre and headed outside to our warm-up spot where we huddled together as we ran through a quick intro and round of the week's news:

1. Adidas City Runs Fulham 10K (18th November) - If you're running the Fulham 10K next month, sign up here. If you'd like to volunteer and earn a 50% discount on the entry price of another Adidas City Run event, sign up here. Email Danny (daniel@goodgym.org) if you have any questions.
2. The big C word......GoodGym London Christmas Party! (1st December). Hosted by GoodGym Southwark. Fancy dress theme - the first letter of your GoodGym area. £4 donation. Lots of killer tunes and dodgy dancing! Sign up here.
3. GoodGym H&F Christmas Party - will be on Monday 10th December. Location TBC.

With the group in a nicely formed circle we did a quick name and number count as we began our circular warm-up to quite literally warm-up and raise our pulse rates. Following some dynamic side-to-sides, lunges and the classic 'shooing of the chickens' hamstring stretch, and most importantly the check that Stravas were set we were ready to set off on our short (ish) 1.4km run down to our good deed for the evening. Jason was fantastic supporting the runners at the back and we made it down in quick time to begin the task at hand! We were met by Aileen one of the lovely volunteer co-ordinators from Age UK H&F who greeted us with a fantastic atmosphere (MTV Hits!) and of course a very warm welcome. She explained to the task for tonight was to help spruce up the Age UK H&F Activity Centre, an amazing place that provides delicious home cooked meals to support those isolated and vulnerable residents of H&F for only £4 a day! Bargain! They also provide computer and technology classes (I reckon they just come to see Johnny!!), health and fitness classes, and a whole host of other great activities (talk to Johnny for more info)! Aileen was incredibly organised and split the team in to two groups.

The first group were challenged with tackling the kitchen, in teams of three the challenge was to wash, rinse and dry the walls and any other surfaces to give the kitchen cooks a sparkling clean kitchen to prepare their meals in. Aileen again was fantastic providing us with sponges, buckets, cloths and all the sugar soap (a big hit with those who love to clean!) that we needed, which allowed the team to get straight down to it. Walls, fridges, cupboards, and even fire blankets were cleaned high and low leaving the kitchen sparkling! It wasn't long before Johnny appeared with two jars of biscuits (who can believe there were any even left?!) to give everyone an energy boost and reward for doing such a grand job!

Whilst operation kitchen was in full swing, the second group were tasked with moving furniture from one room to the other, think cabinets, cupboards and so many folders! Not only was everything moved quickly and efficiently but everything was put back in to it's rightful place and order, very impressive....I reckon it could be the start of a very successful GG removal company! After finishing up a fantastic job, group 1 joined group 2 in the kitchen to help them finish off the cleaning, enjoy a biscuit and pose for a cracking team photo.

Task complete, and another good deed in the bag, we set off on our second run of the evening taking us along the river and down to Furnivall Gardens. And here was where the fitness began... once again I'm sure GG H&F would like to send their utmost regards to Andrew and Chi for their fitness inspiration! First fitness activity of the night was Sally squats, where it was noted Sally likes to go down a lot more than she likes to go up! All be it with some slight technical issues Sally's squat challenge was completed. Then it was down to Mr Abs on tour to round the fitness up with a session set to deliver us a six pack, no problem, although disclaimer, abs may not appear instantly!. Two minutes of abs done, all that was left to do was to head back to base and end the night with a stretch, a pat on the back and a trip to the pub to celebrate the lovely Catriona's birthday! Sadly, Catriona was unable to join us the run as she had become the latest victim of TFL travel and points failure, the anti-GG group run recipe!

Thanks all for coming, here's to a fab week of running! Hopefully see you all again next week. Next week we're off to help out at St Mungo's Reconnection Post, sign up here.