A terrific turnout

A great Tower Hamlets turnout saw us heading punctually off to the beautiful Meath Gardens this evening for an evening of weeding, planting, carrying, wheeling and watering.

Our task owners for the evening, Julia, Joanna and Tunde from Friends of Meath Gardens, were exceptionally well prepared – this was project management like no other.

And so to work...

Teams were soon despatched to clear the areas around the new trees, so the trees were ready to be watered, while other teams headed to the canal to fill oversized buckets and wheel them back on trolleys (or carry, in some cases). Further gardening teams were assembled to tend to borders in need of weeding and plant newly donated shrubs.

So efficient were the runners, Tunde was soon having to dart off and find additional buckets. Joanna quickly stepped in with trowels & gloves and redirected the displaced runners to a nearby border while they waited for more water vessels.

A Good Gym-er without a task needs fixing quick. No wild flower-spotting and enjoying a break for these runners – they like to be busy like no other.

Back to base - at race pace

All too soon it was 8.15 and time to assemble for the group pic. Then we headed back to base at 3 different running speeds: thanks to Becky and Dave for heading up the 8-minute mile lead and navigating the route back; Laura and Izzy for the 9-minute mile pace and task force member Leanne for back-marking, both there and back, and leading us back at an 11-minute mile pace.

Tarmac-toning

On arrival back at base, the team took the news very well that not only were we going to perform some seated stretches on the tarmac, we were also going to squeeze in the Boxer’s Crunch and Captain’s Chair – so our cores didn’t feel left out after all the upper body work of the evening obviously.

And then we headed back to the hotel pretty much bang on 8.30…hurrah!

Well done...and welcome

And so to this week’s other thank you’s and welcome’s… Thanks to Bryon for leading the route out with me and co-navigating (and not even waiting to be asked about navigation); task force members Leanne, Bryon, Sarah and Becky, for being so hands-on, as always: early and available to our new runners, and, along with Becky G, helping to make our Olympic dream take shape and become reality…

And welcome to Ignatius, Ellie, Briony and Ellen, whose first run it was. Thank you for all your hard work, for learning all the ropes so very quickly, and for becoming part of the team so effortlessly. I really hope you’ll join us again soon.

We're a two-task run next week...

Next week it’s a two-task week: we’re needed at Hollybush and Weavers - two, great, fun outdoor tasks, doubling up as a good little workout again, no doubt, so do sign up here.

And, I for one just can’t WAIT to do it all again then.

Have a wonderful week in the meantime!

It was an eager team that set out for the Royal London tonight. After being very patient with tonight's extensive task-briefing, the Tower Hamlets crew flew down the mile-long route to the hospital where our delighted and excited task owner, Nancy, was meeting us, along with colleagues Richard and Marufa.

Numerous tasks

This was our first time at the Royal London Hospital where we were booked in for a variety of different tasks.

David headed up the postering team, tasked with putting up information posters on as many of the hospital's 14 floors as the team could manage in the short time available.

Becky headed up the gardening team, whose job it was to weed, litter-pick, and generally tidy up as much of the hospital's designated green space as possible.

Issmaeel had the job of leading the walking-route-planning team, a key task that involved planning a hospital-based walking route as part of the End PJ Paralysis campaign ("For patients over the age of 80, a week in bed can lead to 10 years of muscle ageing, 1.5 kg of muscle loss, and may lead to increased dependency and demotivation. Mobilising (moving) has been shown to reduce falls, improve patient experience and reduce length of stay by up to 1.5 days.")

Leanne and Miranda has the task of spray-painting wheelchairs for the trauma ward, which proved to be one of the trickier tasks...

Our 45 minutes in the hospital flew by, and before we knew it we were congregating for our goodbye pics. It seemed no sooner had we arrived, than we were heading back through the revolving doors, returning to the hustle and bustle of Whitechapel Road, where we soon picked up the pace following tonight's speedy pacer Danny as fast as we could manage back to base.

New faces!

We were a group of 26 tonight = it was a joy to have both new and familiar faces in the team. Hello, and welcome, to new GG Stockport trainer, Lisa , who joined us on a busy night, and who stayed smiling, and unfazed throughout the whole evening, and lent a hand continually to all the teams.

Hello and welcome too, to Christie and Clare, not new to GG, but new to Tower Hamlets. Thanks for the hard work, so many smiles, and really hope to see you again soon. And welcome too to Insiyah who joined us for her first GG run - it was lovely to have you on board, thanks for all that hard work, and please come and run with us again soon.

And a big UK GG welcome to Colin , who was visiting us from Canada! What a treat for us, and well done for all your work.

...And to the thank-you's

And so to the thankyou's which seem to grow each week. Thank you to David , for being on board with last minute planning and for heading up the postering team. Thank you to task force member Becky for tonight's stats, heading up the gardening team, and for welcoming new runners and Lisa, and being such a warm and welcoming face of GG.

Thanks toDannyfor being our speedy pacer back to the hotel.

Thank you to task force member Leanne, for brilliant backmarking as usual, and more behind-the-scenes planning with me, and a massive thank you to Issmaeel, for bundles of behind-the-scenes planning (this started middle of last week for poor Issmaeel) with his insider knowledge, and for heading up the walking route team.

Thank you to Polly and Si, who we left in the hospital briefing Nancy on the team's brilliant walking work. That's above and beyond, and I was very proud of what you achieved. And I can't WAIT to do it all again next week...

SPEAKING OF NEXT WEEK...

...Moving on to next week, come and work off Royal-Wedding-party-calories on Monday! We’re staying local at Cranbrook Community Garden to help the team get ready for their big Open Day, before heading to beautiful Meath Gardens for a special Ab Attack workout. Sign-up is here.

...And don't forget the GoodGym Olympics on June 30th!

…And don’t forget the GoodGym Olympics on June 30th. A description of the events you can enter is here, while event info and sign-up is here. The deadline for signing up for an event is June 3rd.

Do come and join in the Olympic fun - whether you fancy a speedy Summertime sprint or just spectating & sandwich-eating, there’ll be something for everyone. And I’d love to hear from anyone interested in designing our flag and torch!

27 sunshine filled Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to shift a tonne of mulch to an enchanted secret path.

Welcoming a bumper summer turnout of energetic GoodGymers we had big celebrations this week!! With Anna reaching a perfectly paced Century of GoodDeeds! A massive congratulations to Anna for all her hard work, positively, and consistency!! A huge thank you to Clair for her expert and very tasty special Edition celebratory Cake.

On we went to Abney Park and a speedy pace this week to spread out the tribe on our way to Stokey to avoid too many bottle necks along the way. Meeting Tom we armed ourselves with tools a-plenty and delved into the overgrowth of Abney Park!

We a team of strong Shovellers and our endurance bunny team on the wheelbarrows we got into a nice rhythm filling and running the 400 metre loop to tip out the mulch.

Our team of precision rakers had the mulch under control to sculpt it into a perfect springy path way in the depths of the park!

With an seemingly ever growing mulch pile we had to really pick up the pace to complete the path in 40 Energised minutes of GG action!

With time tight we swept up the last of the mulch to leave it tidy for a film crew on Thursday and even a little chat with a UK Jazz legend before we dropped the running hammer dashing back to back in record time!!

Stenches out, 11 of the crew headed out to Tad Turkish restaurant to enjoy a celebration meal with Queen Anna!

See you next week

Smooth Running

Joel

p.s pretty please sign up for the session even if it is 1 minute before you arrive, makes my life much easier! but if you forget please still cone along!

26 Spridng stepping GoodGymers ran 6k to help the amazing Hackney Wick Community Garden.

Loving having so many GG newbies along this evening!! Thanks to you all for coming along to join the Hackney fun!

Heads up that next week our superstar Anna will be hitting her 100th Good Deed next Tuesday!! To celebrate we will be heading to Tad Turkish restaurant after the group run. Please come along!!

Another shout out for the GoodGym Olympics!! We need a big, strong squad this year!! Will be loads of fun so please sign up here.

Weather you are running, cheering or volunteering at the Hackney Half we will be setting up came at Here East (opposite to Wick garden) post run for food and GG Olympic craft!!

If you want to be in with a chance to run London Marathon the ballot is open!! If you want to enter Click here

Running in the sunshine (although a little cold) was a lovely start to the session! With peteR leading the way we navigated to the river Lea on 17 swift minutes of running!!

Splitting up into 5 groups we got going, Watering (soaking shoes), wood snapping (breaking tools), wood pallet shifting (throwing pallets), flower bed creating and digging over (cutting water pipes), and filling a tin bath with bags of clay (Phil nearly making have another knee operation).

40 minutes of graft and smiling action, with a little time to visit the secret second garden where there are peanuts planted!

With reward for all the hard and fast work we got our refuel with oranges, biscuits, water and nuts!! Happy days!!

Needing to get a shift on we split into 2 groups for the run back. Rich and Eva guiding one group directly back to base. While the Ladder Squad ran to do battle with the ladder roads next to Victoria Park!! Dropping serious pace on the long straights before a short recovery across the tops of the road! One almighty interval along Well Street Common to finish and we were done!!

Thanks for coming out and look forward to seeing next week!

Smooth Running

Joel