Simon Fitzmaurice

On Monday evening, Area Activator Simon jogged over to the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road for our regular Goodgym Islington group run meet-up. Little did he know, the streets were full of football fans getting ready for the match! Despite this, Robert successfully navigated the busy roads to meet up for a social run past the match day stands, excited families and pub bound friends out for a good night, towards Market Road Gardens off Caledonian Road.

Upon arrival, we met up with Steve, Caitlin and Mali at the Heyward Adventure Playground site, a lovely wild permaculture garden designed for local residents and visitors of the connected community youth club. All of our required tools and equipment were found in "Florence", the former milk float at the back of the gardens- wheelbarrow, clippers and gloves.

Our task for the evening (set up by Octopus Community Network) was to cut away around a set of pathways and trails set across the wild flower gardens. Nettles and ivy has started to grow over the paths, becoming potential obstacles for children and parents. We were careful to not cut away to much of the greenery, as the plan is to maintain as much natural growth as possible for the local animals and insects (including the friendly snails brought out by the rainfall earlier in the evening).

We had made some massive headway over course of 45 minutes, especially between the 5 Goodgymmers- can't wait to see our progress in the daylight!

Halloween Headtorch Run

On Friday 29th October, we will be leading a special social run across Hampstead Heath and the extension, in the dark! Approximately 10km total distance, on potentially soft and muddy ground. Starting and finishing at the Bull and Gate Pub in Kentish Town.

Sign up here, and look put for spooky goings-on!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/ghoulgym-halloween-headtorch-run-hampstead

We had a stellar turn out for our regular group run with Achilles International VI guiding session at Maida Vale this week. 5 Goodgymmers (returning runners Harvey, Rachel and Katy, with new starter Alex), and lovely running volunteers Addie, Albert and H were on hand to enjoy a solid evening of track running at Paddington Rec Track.

VI runners Naqi, Andrew, Richard and Tom joined us for the session, and we walked together to the track side before setting off at our own paces. Track Mafia, the local running group were also down for a session, and were really lovely and supportive of our regular Achilles runs.

We will return next week at 6-6.15pm, Maida Vale Underground Station. See you then!

Last night, Goodgym Islington were treated to a gorgeous Autumnal evening for running around the Canonbury and Highbury boroughs. 11 runners in total joined us at the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road (including new members Audrey and Benedetta- welcome!), where we enjoyed a chat about our weekend adventures (congratulations to Steve on his excellent running at the Adidas City Run yesterday- we also look forward to hearing from our Manchester Marathon heroes too!). After a warm-up on the Emirates slopes, we ran together past Highbury and Islington station, and on to the Canonbury Tavern.

Our task this evening was to distribute flyers for an amazing local project called FoodCycle Islington (a charity that Alison has previously helped with!), who offer hot cooked food for anyone who requires it, no questions asked. The organisation are currently looking for volunteers, regular assistance, funding and new clients, so these local flyering sessions are important to the development of the cause. Area Activator Simon arrived with 250 flyers and a stack of maps for the immediate area, and our 5 teams of Goodgymmers ran across the borough to share the FoodCycle message. Simon stayed put at the Canonbury Tavern watching bags (the pub itself is about two houses away from George Orwell's residence, according to a blue plaque!).

Our team made short work of the flyering task (amazing how efficient a crew of Goodgymmers with maps can be!), so we enjoyed a more scenic run back to the Emirates Stadium, passing Highbury Fields on route.

Wonderful running everyone! We will be returning to Market Road Gardens next Monday for more gardening goodness!

Cross Country Fun this weekend!

Racing is well and truly back after a long hiatus, so now could be the perfect time to join the Goodgym Race Team!

https://www.goodgym.org/race-team

Goodgym are entered into the Met League Cross Country season 2021-2022, a series of 5 muddy trail races across London. Expect hills, puddles, countryside, river crossings and lots of laughs with good people!

Seriously some of the best running fun available, and 100% open for all runners signed up to the Goodgym Race Team.

The first in the series is this Saturday in Claybury, East London.

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/met-league-cross-country-claybury

Achilles International are an amazing organisation who link guide with blind and particially sighted runners, and they are looking for potential guides for future training sessions.

Goodgym (and parkrun) communities have been very supportive of this team over the years, so we are looking to see if we can introduce more runners to the world of guiding.

Paddington Rec Track Running

From this Thursday through to Spring, Achilles International will be hosting their weekly VI running group session at Paddington Rec Track, an open access 400m track, 5 minutes walk from Maida Vale Station.

How do I get involved?

We are looking for volunteers to come and help our runners from Maida Vale station, over to our meeting spot near Paddington Rec Track, and back again afterwards. TFL staff are on hand to assist with the runners journey to and from Maida Vale.

We are looking for guides to navigate the runners during the session (paces and distances will be discussed beforehand), and to look out for obstacles and hazards during the run.

Open to runners of all guiding experience

If you are not confident with guiding a runner at first, you are welcome to run with a guiding couple to watch their techniques and how it is done.

What do I do now

If you are interested, sign up here.

We will contact you on Wednesday, and link you to the Achilles International WhatsApp group to discuss our plans for Thursday evening.

Introduce yourself, and let us know your guiding experience, and we will work together to create an awesome group!

Area Activator Simon and John met up with Lorena from Single Homeless Project on Ashley Road Crouch Hill for a lunchtime gardening session in the resident's communal social space. Goodgym Islington have visited this lovely project many times last year during, and it was great to see our plants were growing strong after a warm summer.

Our two Goodgymmers were tasked with clearing a mass of overgrown branches and ivy out of a shared greenhouse space (revealing a lost lawn mower underneath!), and then weeding the beds next to the main pathway into the garden. The weather was a bit unpredictable, so we had to hunker down a few times to avoid some sudden downpours from Autumn showers. Perfect rainbow weather!

Within an hour, we both succeeded in clearing a great deal of the green overgrowth, and were able to fill a compost bin with new material.

We plan to return again in the near future, so watch this space!

On Monday evening, our Goodgym crew braced themselves for a potential wash out, following a torrential downpour at 5pm. However, we were pleasantly treated to a warm autumn evening of gardening at Grenville Gardens instead!

7 Goodgymmers (regulars, familiar faces and new attendees including Jonathan and Matilda- welcome!) met up outside the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road before we set off for a 1.5 mile run up Sussex Way. Area Activator Simon almost took a wrong turn on the way up to Archway, but luckily Kike and Steve were on hand as backmarkers to correct the course!

On our way over, we chatted about our weekends- a lot of us watched London Marathon on TV or in person. Congratulations to Steve Coman and Sam Chapman on your Marathon endeavours! Super inspiring!

Upon our approach to Grenville Gardens, we met up with 8 other Goodgymmers waiting outside the community gardens, and found Sarah, a local FROGG (aka Friend of Grenville Gardens) who invited us into the space.

Our main task for the evening involved transferring masses of lovely home grown vegetables and plants (lavender, mint, spinach and other greens) out of a large broken planter, and then dismantling the flower bed using electric drills. Our headtorch heroes on the opposite side of the park were busy digging holes and trenches in between other plants, ready for community bulb planting on the weekend. Another team set about clearing loads of overgrown ivy from out of the flower beds (a very satisfying job after the rainfall- nice soft ground to work with!).

After almost a full hour of activity, we downed tools, and parted ways. 6 of our runners ran back to the Arsenal Stadium (enjoying the down hill on quiet streets!), and a few of us enjoyed a few social drinks at The Highbury Library on Drayton Park as part of our monthly routine (back again next month!).

Thank you for joining us, folks! We will be back again next week to help with flyering for FoodCycle Islington. See you then!