14 Westminster GoodGymers ran over 7k to help One Big Family Homeless charity prepare the food for the weekly soup kitchen and organise the charities storage after a flood.

A Day lite task!!!! First one of those for ages!!!

Welcome to our GoodGym first timers for their maiden run with the crew!!

A Westminster favourite this week with our monthly visit to One Big Family Homeless Charity in Victoria. One Big Family support many of Westminsters Homeless community throughout the year and every Wednesday provide a Evening meal to those in need while also distributing vital supplies.

With everyone on top form and an extra bounce in our stride we powered our way South this week with a strong pace. Rounding the Corner of Ebury Estate in no time have got a nice sweat on!

After a quick hand wash we got down to business bagging the pastries and making the sandwiches for the evening. A Tune or Jam option this evening while Doughnuts were the main stay for desert!

With only 5 loads of bread and about 125 patties for the evening to sort out we were done in 20 minutes!

With some time to help we came to the aim of the store room flood disaster!! After some squatters had messed about with the boiler the store room had flooded damaging some of the charity’s supplies. So we removed the last of them and reordered everything so things were in easy reach and the community Centre was still useable.

With everything ship shape we powered our way back throwing in 5 long bursts of speed to push our running fitness!! Even throwing in a cheeky hill at the end for fun!!

All back at base stretched out by 8 with a lot of Good under our belts!!

Great job Team!!

Be great to have you along for our Easter/Chocolate Homeless Food Run next week!! All donations are massively well received and help to make for a great evening!!

Smooth Running

Joel

10 Westminster GoodGymers tan 8k to make the beds for the final Homeless Shelter of the Winter at the American Church.

With Spring (and rain) in the air we were greeted with daylight to start and nearly finish the session this evening!! Welcoming everyone along with a special shout out to GG first timer Teddy.

Flipping the script somewhat we decided to dominate most of our running early doors and headed off to Regents Park to tackle the famous Outer Circle!! 20 minutes of Foot to the floor running around the Royal Park had us all (mainly Paul) in a spin! Everyone really working hard to maintain their strong Tempo!

With sweat dripping we trotted over to the American Church to make the beds. Great to see on the last night only 6 beds were needed as the vast majority of the service users have now found more permanent accommodation!

Quick as a flash the beds were made and there was even time to have a little play with the Church cat.

With an action packed session we took the direct route back to base where we stretched out and headed home with a top session in the books!!

Next week we are off to Open Age Community Centre in Pimlico where we will be cleaning the kitchen in preparation for the Charities amazing Sunday Lunches to return through the Spring and Summer!!

Also a keep a look out for a Lunch time GoodGym Running Club on Monday’s in April starting on the 9th meeting at Westminster Pier at 1pm.

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

16 of GoodGyms finest ran 7k around Westminster to get Easter started by give out 200 Hot Cross Buns to the boroughs homeless community.

Starting the session like it was raining Hot Cross Buns! Thank you for everyone bringing along such generous food donations!

With bun mountain needing taming we had to get creative as someone (me, sorry!!) didn’t bring enough bags. So we paired up the buns and armed ourselves with 200 sweet smelling Easter inspired food ammunition!!

Getting into our stride as we navigated our way on our nearly 7k route around town. Keeping a eagle eye out for those in need of a little nutrition and a smile on the chilling fake Spring evening.

Making our way through Piccadilly, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Charring Cross, Big Ben, Victoria and Green Park spreading the Hot Cross Bun love far and wide!!

Everyone we met seemed really appreciative of our efforts and definitely had a little smile on their faces as we run by.

Thank you all so much for coming along and making it such a positive evening. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

Be great to see you next week for our visit to the American Church to make beds up for the final Homeless Shelter of the Winter season.

Next month (18th April) on our Food Run we will be giving out Easter eggs. Be great to have you along for that run to!

Smooth Running

Joel

p.s Thanks to my wife for her first ever pun (only asked her 200 times)

16 Westminster GoodGymers ran 6k to One Big Family Homeless Charity in Victoria to help make food for the evenings soup kitchen and sort out a room full of clothing donations.

Awesome squad ready for speedy food preparing action in Westminster! With some very busy pavements this week we had to navigate some Central London back roads to make our way 3k South to the Ebury Estate and the One Big Family base.

With a hot food offering ready and waiting to feed Westminsters Homeless community we had a few less sandwiches to make than normal but had the added difficulty of cutting the bread buns into matching slices for easy chewing.

With a high quality sandwich production line churning out Ham, Jam and lemon curd (which caused some curdling controversy). 100 sandwiches cut, buttered, spread and bagged all ready for consumption in 30 minutes!!

Going 2 to a bag we dominated getting 400 pastries ready to give away in a speedy 15 minutes of action! Leaving time to sort out the clothes donation store cupboard. Starting as a huge clothes mountain, in 15 quick minutes we had men’s and women’s piles of jumpers, trousers as well As towels, hats and The biggest pants ever made!!

With everything ready for the One Big Family to feed Westminsters most vulnerable we zipped away picking up the pace on our 3k bounce back to New Balance.

Stretched and warm we made our way home with a job well done!!

Next week we will be heading out on our monthly loop to hand out food to Westminsters homeless community. This time we will be handing out hot cross buns if you would like to contribute a bag or two of hot cross buns please bring them along to the session they will be most appreciated!!

Have a great week,

Smooth Running

Joel

10 Energised GoodGymers ran 4k to make 17 beds at the American Church and demolished a 20 minute circuit for fun!

On a night of multiple Goodgym boarder crossings we had the pleasure for helping out our friends in Camden continuing their weekly task helping the American Church prepare for their Winter homeless shelter by making up 17 beds!

After welcoming our GG newbie Matilda and congratulating our returning Big Half conquers we headed off to shhh Camden as GoodGym Camden had their massive Southbank task and need all hands on deck for that!

A surprisingly short run given we crossed boroughs enabled us to get stuck in early. Laying the game of bed Tetris first to squeeze 15 beds into the main room with a further 2 into the back room.

We then had the big debate of the evening, Which is the best way to put a duvet cover on??? Seems this is a highly controversial topic and might have to go onto a band list as so many of you are wrong!! Only Francis had the right method!!

A very enjoyable task making up beds for 17 of the most in need people around! Getting a great insight into how the homeless shelter works, who they help and hopefully maybe a lead so we can find similar projects in Westminster.

With some time on the clock we zipped over to Bedford Square to unleash some circuits mayhem!! Flipping between Cardio, legs (lots of legs), a burst of upper body graft and some plyometric moves to round out 20 minutes of muscle pumping fun!

A recovery 2k back to base with plenty of chat of possible Spring/ Summer Running races going on!!

On that note as I said I have a special GG discount code for Hackney Half! Here it is vsgoodgymhh18 I also have discount codes for the British 10k and Oxford Half marathon in October. Drop me a line and I will send those over if you want them!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

19 GoodGym Superstars donated 300 cereal bars then ran 8k to give them to Westminsters homeless community.

Welcoming along a bumper group for this great Group Run! Welcoming of first timers to Both GoodGym and Westminster to the running party!!

First the session couldn’t happen without your amazing generosity to bring along your cereal bar donations!! A special mention to Oliva and Rhys who brought along over 100 bars, very much appreciated!!

Trying to build on our knowledge base we kept the same route as last month with plenty of options to nip off to find those in need of a little assistance. Great to see us seeking out many people who would otherwise be missed from the help that is on offer to Westminsters homeless community.

We were in constant motion covering a lot of group both running and walking over 90 action packed minutes. From a few Strava readings at the end the total distance covered was over 10k!!

It was not always easy to find people but with our super stamina we just kept moving until we did! Hopefully by the time everyone gets home over 300 bars will have found there way to a homeless person.

Running through Oxford Street, Piccadilly, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Charring Cross, Westminster, Victoria and Green Park we covered a huge area superbly!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures but who knew counting to 19 would be so difficult!!

A heads up for next month that we will be giving away Hot Cross buns to Westminsters Homeless!! If you are available and would like to donate some buns please come along on March 21st!!

Thanks for being so great tonight, have a great week!

Smooth Running

Joel

p.s Thanks Annabella for the extra pictures!!