The Goodgym crew were back in full force for the 5th edition of the Camino Ultra London Epping Forest races. We have been lending our help to our fellow runners (over the 25km and 50km distance) since 2021 (the original Lea Valley 50km after lockdown), and we are thrilled to support accessible local grassroots endurance events whenever we can!

https://www.caminoultra.com/

The majority of our team assisted with setting up and managing the Butler's Retreat aid station in Chingford (a few paces away from the Epping Forest tourist information hub). Daz and Simon were up before 6am installing a gazebo, arranging nutrition and food and filling up water canteens for over 500 runners making their way along "The Green Corridor". Half of the runners were running from The Golden Fleece in Wanstead Flats for the classic 50km distance, while the other half were running the equally competitive 25km distance from Epping Cricket Club to Wanstead.

As our first runners reached the aid station, Lorna, Ramón, Emma and James were on hand to help with filling water bottles and providing care for their journeys. Eslam and his lovely family formed a cheer squad near the Butler's Retreat café, and alerted the runners about the upcoming road crossings. It was an absolute blast and a lovely way to catch up with our running friends!

As the day started to draw in, superstars Louise and Sam helped with running the 8.8 miles to Wanstead Flats while removing all of the course markings on route. An essential task (especially for the future of this wonderful race), and left in capable hands. Well done!

Thank you all for your efforts today. Keep your eyes peeled for future tasks at the Camino Ultra London Lea Valley Races on March 2027!

Monday night was another big one at Cranbrook Community Centre!

We got stuck into improving the outside areas, with plenty of leaf picking, clearing up and getting the garden looking a little more loved. Lucinda also came prepared with the lights and made sure everyone had gloves, which definitely came in handy as it started getting darker!

We also had a couple of new faces join us, including someone doing their very first GoodGym session! It was lovely to have them join us at Cranbrook, and hopefully we’ll see them back here again soon

But the biggest celebration of the evening was for Kareem, who completed his 100th GoodGym session! 🎉 It was also his last session with us for a while as he’s moving on to his next plans, so it was a lovely way to mark the occasion. We’ll definitely miss having him around, and wishing him all the best with whatever comes next!

A big thank you to everyone who came along, got stuck in and helped make a difference to the outside space. Another Monday night well spent!

This month's social gardening club saw Sam and Future Leader Rasheed team up for the first time. The front garden outside No.19, which is the old residence of the former boss of St Margarets House, was being desperately overrun with wisteria so we got to work with shears, trying to remove the vine's roots wherever possible.

The next St Margarets House social gardening club is on Wednesday 21st October 4-7pm, hope to see you there!

REPORT BY NAZIFA

St Matthew’s Gardens had certainly accumulated its fair share of leaves, so it was time for the GoodGym crew to get involved! 🍂

The task was mainly focused on clearing leaves from around the garden and churchyard, with a little bit of litter picking thrown in too. There were* A LOT* of leaves to tackle, but everyone got stuck in. We picked, swept, gathered and bagged them up, with plenty of bags being filled along the way

I made sure everyone had bags to collect the leaves in, and it was great seeing everyone working together to clear the paths and tidy up the area. There was definitely no shortage of leaves, but we managed to make a good dent in them!

It was also my first time leading a GoodGym session, so I was really happy with how everything went. As Emma would say, I can’t “be-leaf”it was my first one!

A big thank you to everyone who came along and helped out. It was a really good experience for my first time leading, and I think we all did a great job