10 GoodGymers came along for a Bank Holiday Special and of course Patrick's 500th Good Deed!

We started the evening about all the amazing things Patrick has achieved over the last four years. He has been a Run Leader and Taskforce Member for Islington for many years, attends both Hackney and Camden group runs regularly, does a huge amount of missions and of course has visited his coach weekly for over 3 years. Patrick is the fourth person to reach 500 Good Deeds, that's absolutely brilliant! I can't put into words how GoodGym has benefited from Patrick doing so much for so long, he is legend, he is king!! Woop Woop!

Erm back to normal GG business I suppose, in the news:

1. There is a monthly GoodGym social on Thursday in Peckam - see full details here.
2. Community Mission in Islington helping CREOS on Sunday 19th May - full details here

After congratulating Patrick for his huge achievements we warmed up and headed West and a bit North to Barnsbury Square Gardens. There we met the lovely Lucy who is the head of the Friends of Barnsbury Square Gardens. She explained the biggest task they needed doing was loosening up the ground, because of the tree's taking the available moisture and people using the park the ground gets quite compact! Our job was to turn over as much ground as possible.

Hail King Patrick!

We split into three groups across the square and worked hard over the 35 minutes to get lots done. Patrick talked to me about the how volunteering has massively impacted his life over the last four years (and more), how he takes a lot of pride in the work he as an individual and we as a GoodGym group do to help our community. Meanwhile Ben and Claire were making shapes with the area they dug over, this included Australia, potentially Germany and definitely a fish! Lucy was very pleased with our great work, we'll be back to continue on 17th June :)

After we consumed some extra special yummy biscuits we took a group picture and then headed back to base for a stretch and an early finish.

Next week I am in Sofia so Chi (Run Leader) will be leading the group - you'll be going to the Rose Bowl, sign up here.

PB out

17 runners helped Compton Square Gardens with some gardening in the storm!

Welcome along to Kaite and Marianne whose first time it was yesterday - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. It's the GG Monthly Social next Thursday (7th June) in central London - it's going be awesome come along!
2. Well done to Kike who did a Sprint Triathlon on Sunday and to Alex who did Hackney Half Marathon last weekennd!

This week we were meeting at the Arc Centre and it was fitting as the storms were building..... After we warmed up Linda Robson (from Loose Women) cheered us on and we were away - we headed north via the New River Route for a mile run before our arrival at Compton Square Gardens outside the Union Chapel.

Compton Square Gardens is a beautiful set of public gardens in the centre of Islington, Juliet and a group of volunteers help maintain it more and more as the funding from the local council has been cut. Juliet told us that our task for the evening was to remove a certain weed with blue flowers that is running havoc in the gardens!

It's about to get exciting!

As the thunder and lightning started we split into three groups went two by two across the two gardens to dig, pull and fork out all of those pesky weeds we could find. The rain got heavier and different groups had better cover than others. With the wheelbarrows getting constantly full of weeds and thrown on a huge pile over we were soon done.

Everyone worked really hard over 30 minutes but got absolutely soaked haha!

We ran the most direct route back to base, stretched out and ate some biscuits - yum!

Sign up for next week here we will be helping Waterside Adventure Playground and Age UK - we'll be meeting back at the Arsenal Hub.

PB out.