15 Goodgymers ran between 5-6km to help North London Cares and Cecil Sharp House!

Welcome along to Lydia whose first time it was last night - great to have you along.

The main news this week is that it's the GG Christmas Party next Saturday down near Burgess Park - full details here.

North London Cares Report:

A team of five; Frances, Chris, Beth, John and Kat took to the streets of Somers Town and St Pancras to leaflet for the wonderful North London Cares. This amazing organisation helps people over 65 with care, support, winter materials and social clubs.

The group leafleted about the Winter Wellbeing Programme, delivering over 200 to let lots of people about the amazing support on offer. After finishing their deliveries the guys enjoyed a run around the canal and Granary Square.

Double Tasking, Double Good

Cecil Sharp House Report:

Ten of us headed the 1.7km to help a Camden favourite, Cecil Sharp House - this home of English Folk Music is a fantastic organisation that does educational programmes and activities for the local community.

Splitting into teams we armed ourselves with brooms, grabbers and bags. The task as ever was to collect up all the leaves we could in 30 minutes! Hanry focused on raking the lawn, and everyone else methodically made piles and collected them up.

Susannah was incredibly pleased by our work in clearing the back garden, front entrance and the side lane. Overall we collected up 20 bags of leaves - wow!

We finished up with a group picture and a longer run home.

Sign up for next week here - tasks tbc.

PB out

30 GoodGymers helped Freightliners City Farm, ran 5km and did a fitness session!

Welcome along to newbies Jenny, Evelyn, Rose and Lily - whose first time it was last night, hope you enjoyed it! Also welcome to Pete, GG Stockport Runner, who was doing a bit of tourism last night!

In the news this week:

1. Come along to the last Thursday social of the year this week in Bethnal Green - see full details here.
2. November's Long Run is on Saturday 17th November along the wonderful Southwark Circle led by the fantastic Frances - see more info here.
3. Lastly of course is the GG Christmas Party - gonna be lots of fun! What woman will I dress as this year?

Corrrrr what a fun evening, we were off to the amazing Freightliners City Farm where Liz (Farm Manager) was on fireworks watch as the animals can understandably get a bit jumpy around with all that banging! On our run there we did a little run around Highbury Fields and arrived at the farm ready for work! While everyone chilled out with the animals Liz explained the tasks to me:

Team Poo: Remember Remember the Poo of November.... A strong team of 10 armed with gloves, wellies and forks worked hard to shovel and fork poo over three piles. Essentially new strawy poo was put on top of the older firmer poo on pile number one, the task was to fork the top layer of strawy poo from pile number one to pile two and three. It was steamy, it was smelly but the team did amazingly well.

Scrub-a-dub, pub

Team Scrub: Another team of 10 was tasked with scrubbing and cleaning the classroom floor next to the indoor animal enclosures. Firstly the team took and carried out tables, chairs and more so they could fully assess the floor. Then using a combo of hot water, paper-towl and scrubbing cloths to clean the floor - and wow that floor was dirty! Good work guys!

Team Everything Else: The remaining 10 people shifted bags of debris and wooden rubbish into a van, plus they swept and raked leaves and straw around the gardens, yard and animal pens.

Once we were finished we headed off to the Emirates for a round of circuits, a fartlek session and biscuit time! This was beautifully followed by sparklers fun and a trip to the pub - thanks for organising Graham :)

Sign up for the next week here, we are off to shift 5 tonnes of woodchip/mulch for The Single Homeless Project.

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