24 Goodgymers ran between 3-7km to stack logs for Skip Garden and garden for Belsize Community Library!

Welcome along to Elize who was on tour from Lambeth! No newbies last night but plenty of regulars, always lovely to see you. Please do sign up for group runs so I can plan tasks accordingly.

In the news this week:

1. The GG Christmas Party is on Saturday 1st December near Elephant and Castle - dress as something beginning with C for Camden like Clint Eastwood, Cat Woman or a the Canal! - full details here.
2. Frances is leading a 16km long run this Saturday along the Southwark Circle - sign up here.
3. Plus there is a Community Mission helping Crouch End Open Spaces on Sunday, free picnic to finish!

After our introductions we warmed up and split into two groups:

Skip Garden Report:

Frances led a team of 11 to help Skip Garden, managed by Global Generation this amazing charity in the heart of St Pancras puts on educational programmes and activities for children and adults.

The task this time was to stack up tons and tons of logs which will be used to make pizza's in the kitchen, which in turn funds the charities activities.

After the task was done the guys enjoyed a progression run around Granary Square and an early finish to the pub.

Belsize Community Library Report:

A team of 13 of us headed up, up, up the hill to a new task - Belsize Community Library is a charity and community run centre of learning that puts on lots of meeting and activities on top of the obvious quality book borrowing.

The Hills Have GOOD!

We met Emma, the Business Manager, who tasked us with sawing away a tree, sweeping up and weeding. We split into teams of 3-4's and got to work. Weeders weeded planters and pots, sweepers swept leaves and rubbish and sawers tidied up an overgrown tree. We made sure most people had a go with the sawing - nice!

After 30 minutes we'd collected up 6 bags of leaves, weeds and tree that will hopefully be composted by our friends at Antrim Allotments. On our way home we went via Primrose Hill and learnt how to effectively run down hill - flying!!!

Well done all! Sign up for next week here.

PB out

23 Goodgymers ran to help Cecil Sharp House and St Pancras Community Assoccasion!

Welcome along to newbie Annie - great to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Danny spoke about volunteering at the Fulham 10k next weekend, full details here.
2. Come along to the social tonight in Bethnal Green - see more here.
3. A massive well done to Abi whose 50th Good Deed it was last night - amazing!

SPCA Report:

After only a 1km run a group of 13 arrived at St Pancras Community Assoccasion, this fantastic charity help the local community through support, programmes and sports activities.

We met Graham who split us into three teams; Katherine and Sarah were tasked with laminating Yoga Posters and putting them up around the streets of Camden. Natasha joined them on the run around town, they put up 15 posters and made it to the canal!

Team two (Cordelina and Rachel) hooved, swept and mopped the floor in the children's playroom. This helps the caretaker massively.

GOODwork!

Everyone else was tasked with gardening - trimming back overgrown plants, digging up roots and sweeping up soil and leaves. The team worked over two areas, one in the main garden area and the other alongside the netball courts.

After a group picture and thanks from Graham we headed off for a run along the canal and back home.

Cecil Sharp House:

Frances led a team of ten to the wonderful regular task Cecil Sharp House, the task this FALL was to clear all the leaves from the pathways in the walled garden and from the entrance. Overall the team collected 15 bags of leaves that will go to be composted into leaf mould (fantastic for the plants!).

Susannah wanted to pass on many thanks to everyone for their hard work! On the way home the guys did some intervals between lamposts and a sprint finish to finish - nice!

Sign up for next week here, we have a new task helping Belsize Park Library and another task (tbc).

PB out

17 Goodgymers ran 6km to help Kentish Town City Farm pack up from their Apple Day!

Welcome along to Tom whose first time it was last night - great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Abi Perrin who ran her first half marathon at the weekend - amazing!
2. The GG London Christmas Party is on 1st December and the November Social is on Thursday 8th November in Bethnal Green, come along!
3. Amazing work to Liz who hit her 50th Good Deed on Friday while on a mission, she brought some biscuits to celebrate - yum!

The evening was started out by Hanry sharing some vegan chocolates with us, it was his treat as it's World Vegan Day today (Thursday)!

After we warmed up we headed the 3km up hill to Kentish Town City Farm, this wonderful local charity had a very successful Apple Day on Sunday. We helped them prepare for it last Wednesday, well this week our task was to pack everything up. When we arrived we admired and hung out with the pigs - according to Abi one is confident and the other shy.

We split into tree teams:

• One group started to carry the tables and chairs down to the office building near the entrance of the farm.
• Four people sorted, grouped and packed up the poles and parts of the Frelighters gazebo that had already been taken down.
• The final group of 8 deconstructed and bagged up the KTCF gazebo.

Goat Massage!

Once the 2nd and 3rd groups had completed their tasks everyone got to work moving stocks, bags of muck and everything else to where it needs to live!

After 30 minutes we were all done and went to play with Rosie the Kid (goat), some of just got a stroke, others admired her jumping skills and one lucky Hanry got a back massage - hope you feeling good this morning!

Thanks to everyone for coming, next week we are off to help Cecil Sharp House and St Pancras Community Assoccasion - 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

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

29 GGers ran 5-10k to help Abbey Community Centre and Skip Garden!

Welcome along to newbies Ellie and Jenny, plus welcome back to second timers and regulars!

This week was all about big numbers for the Camdenites:

1. Frances Powrie hit an amazing 300 Good Deeds - FP has been smashing missions and group runs for over three & half years and she is an amazing part of GG! Well done!
2. Equally as GOOD Chris Howson has now hit a 60 month streak for group runs, that's 5 years in a row! Wow!
3. Long run this Saturday from Wandsworth to Croydon on the Wandle Trail - more details here
4. Social on Thursday 4th October at Islington Townhouse - News, IPOM & More - details here
5. Sofia 2019 here and for race suggestions for 2019 please see the form here.

Skip Garden Report:

21 of us headed to Skip Garden, it's been a while since we've helped Global Generation with their work but it was great to be back under the pretty lights and amongst the skips, bees and chickens.

Harvest Festival prep!

Our task was to be heavy lifters, a group of four lifted ten huge heavy bags of soil, a bookcase and a planter from a storage cupboard to the back entrance. Meanwhile the main group formed a chain gang to move logs, crates and more from one location to another for storage.

After finishing up we headed to the canals for some running and then everyone smashed a time trail around Granary Square! Everyone smashed it!

Abbey Community Centre Report:

A team of 9 headed north via Primrose Hill on a speedy mission to deliver leaflets for the wonderful Abbey Community Centre, based near Kilburn, about their older persons services and community cafe.

The brilliant Brent Trainer Pritesh was on hand to lead the gang around town - great job!

Please note someone left a John Lewis suit & suit bag in the Living Centre - please contact me if that's you

Sign up next week here when we'll be helping Sheltered housing and Coram Fields.

PB out

19 Goodgymers ran 4-8km to leaflet for QCCA and garden for Cecil Sharp House

Welcome along to newbies Ellie, Lucy and Jason - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. September's Long Run will be led by Beth Nelson and Andy Cowan - full details here.
2. Cross Country Season starts soon and we'd love for you to join, there is one race a month from October to February for £5. See more details here.
3. We are going to Sofia in May 2019 for racing, spas and buffets - come join us here.

After our first intro indoors for a while we warmed up, getting all dynamic with our stretches and loosening our hips up.

Cecil Sharp House Report:

A team of 11 of us headed the 1.5k to Cecil Sharp House, the home of English Folk Music. Meeting the wonderful Susannah she put us into action:

• A team of four planted seeds, including winter lettuce.
• We spread across the driveway, sweeping up leaves and debris
• Using our favourite tool, the scraper - we cleared the weeds in the pavement cracks

Over 30 minutes we worked hard and made a big difference, Susannah was so happy with our work!

We headed to Primrose Hill for some shuttle runs and circuits - nice!

Leafleting for QCCA Report:

8 GoodGymers headed off towards Kentish Town to distribute leaflets for Kentish Town City Farm and Castlehaven Community Centre, highlighting the activities going on in the community. A few runners were very tempted to join the bingo sessions! We split into pairs and sped through the streets, distributing the leaflets in no time. We made our way back to base where Rosie channelled Paul and led a thorough stretching session.

Sign up here for next week here, we are off to help Skip Garden and Abbey Community Centre.

PB out.