Soundtrack for tonight's report!

19 superhawwwwwwt GoodGymmers took to the catwalk in the Wood Green High Road to help the fashionistas-with-a-socially-conscious-attitude @ Traid with a totally chic task. They are so hot right now!

Special shouts for Nat and Rich, who joined us tonight for their first ever time on the goodgym Runway. Julie, who joined us tonight after a break in which she only went and crisscrossed this beautiful island on foot. And finally, props to Nurjehan who made time in her GoodGym globetrotting to join us and... check notes... indulge in a bit of shopping at Traid. Talk about panache. Kudos all the way.

Being Fashionable Is In Our Jeans

For tonight's task, we cautiously met at HQ with a very dark sky threatening rain. But the show must go on and all that , so we bravely warmed up and before we knew it, we were avoiding the paparazzi as we lithely made our way down towards Wood Green.

At Traid, we were met by Ricardo and Veronika, who gave us free rein to chuck clothes on the floor and vogue-dance our way through the task. Since there were 19 of us, I'm happy to say that within 20 minutes, a very happy Veronika announced we had completed the job it would have taken many hours to finish. BOOM!

We said our goodbyes to some of our GoodGymmers who had to go elsewhere (the perils of working with A-Listers!) and the rest of us made our way to one of the well-lit basketball courts at Ducketts Common, where we had a fun-filled if slightly shambolic (Euclides-trademarked) fitness session.

During the warm down back at HQ, we could not stop talking about Sara's vegan carrot cake she's bringing to Finsbo's parkrun on Saturday for her 100th parkrun! Join us if you can.

Other than that, see you next week for Lordship Rec shenanigans.

Peace!

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans...

You have the best plans laid out, you think you know what your evening is going to look like, you start thinking ahead for a good pun. It always works as planned, right?

No need to worry. After a last minute task cancellation, 9 lion-hearted GoodGymmers galloped to rescue tonight's Haringey GoodGym task.

The wonderful folk over at the Bridge Renewal Trust offered to host us tonight at the last minute and our GoodGymmers huddled together and ran the whole 2k to the task as a unit. We even managed to fit in a quick sprint race on the way.

At the task, Russel from the Bridge Renewal Trust welcomed us at the Chestnuts Community Centre where we were tasked with bringing a massive circular flower bed back to life. They're hoping to turn it into a community-led food garden, involving local school children. That's all we needed to hear! We weeded. Oh, reader, how we weeded. We worked on this bed whilst chatting away and in no time, it was looking a lot better. We hope we've given the Trust the head start it needed to get the project going and we can't wait to come back and help again.

After a glam photo session, Rock Star Dave led us on a very fun sprint warm up, and then it was a quick 800m dash around an ol' faithful Haringey GoodGym Strava Segment for us.

We said our goodbyes to Flo, whom we are losing to the Goodgyms south of the river and then headed back to home base, tired but happy.

Can't argue with that!

Tune in next week for more shenanigans. Even better, join us!

Kudos, Kudos, Kudos

Loads of new faces this week! Yes! Send some love to Liz, John and erm John who were joining us for the first ever GoodGym run. They were aces. Also special shout out to Rhiannon, joining us for her maiden Haringey GoodGym run. She was a Haringey natural! Boom!

Scythe Of The Times

Our 16 wonderful GoodGymmers congregated in the last sunny patch of grass in Tottenham Green Pools, where Nurjehan crowned her triumphant return from holiday by leading a very spirited warm up session, peppered with praises for Goodgym tourism.

We then took the scenic route to Lordship Rec, running through beautiful Downhills Park, before meeting Sally from Friends of Lordship Rec outside Broadwater Farm Community Centre.

We were dismayed and incredibly relieved in equal measures to find out we would not be using super sharp scythes but Sally armed us instead with a multitude of wheelbarrows, rakes, forks, and gloves and put us to work.

A couple of sections of the Rec had been scythed earlier in the day and our task was to collect the hay left behind and use it to create doghnut-shaped nests around a number of baby trees and some more mature trees that might need extra moisture over summer.

Our GoodGymmers split into a few groups and set to work. These doughnuts might not have been covered in sprinkles but that didn't stop us from digging into them with gusto and about half hour of work later, the fields looked great, if we say so ourselves.

Having put the tools away and bid farewell to Sally, we had an easy-peasy uphill squat relay race, and we then dashed back home with a spring in our step.

Next week, we'll be saying hello to the turtles and cacti at Wolves Lane Centre - join us!

5 goodgymers came out to help on the day. 2 of us ran 5km that morning at Pymmes parkrun and Alexandra parkrun each. We then all met at Chestnuts Park at 10:30am to help set up. We moved tables, put up signs and handed out 'activity cards' to the children. It was a hugely successful day at Chestnuts Park.

They had tons of activities for children, young teens, adults and the elderly too. There was free zorbing for the kids, face painting and activities such as a bouncy castle. The adults had loads of community stalls to visit, with information on recycling in the community and the redevelopment trusts were there to advise on the new projects being planned. They had a wonderful Zumba session for all ages and then a specialised elderly movement class to encourage those less able to stay active.

Goodgym had a stall too so we raised awareness about the organisation and made some contacts for possible future community missions. We offered people the opportunity to do 1 of two activities to get on our leaderboard: 10 burpies in under a minute (for kids) 20 for adults, or do an 800m Strava segment around the park. We had a few takers and taught people what a burpie was!!

Colin was the organiser from the bridge trust and he thanked us for taking part. He even said they wanted to nominate goodgym for a volunteering award as he thought it was a great organisation! We left with lots of balloons and good memories!!

What a lovely little heaven of green Westbury Banks is, eh? We were lucky to help them to clear up nettles, pick up some debris, and spruced up their tree avenue.

Kudos central!

Big cheers and shout out to Holly who joined us for her first ever run with GoodGym - she was aces! Send some love her way... Also a warm welcome back to Shani, running with us again for the first time in a while. Woop!

Nettles, nettles everywhere

Following a lovely warm evening run through Haringey, including a peaceful spell through Downhills Park, we arrived at Westbury Banks Nature Reserve where task owner Luke welcomed us warmly and put us to work straight away. Some of us were entrusted with clearing the tree avenue at the top of the reserve, whilst another sub-team cleared up some very tall nettles. We also cleared up some wood, planted some small potted plants, and then even had some time for selfies. Success!

Party time!

Next week, we're celebrating our 4th birthday... Woohoo! Come and join us for some cool runnings, fun tasking, drinks and nibbles, and some general merriment.

Last but not least department!

Don't forget our community mission at Chestnut Park this weekend... come join us!

Peace!