Runners, walkers and cyclists from GoodGym Ealing completed a scavenger hunt this weekend! With a glorious bank holiday weekend, its where you would have found a few of us had the pubs been open!

For the challenge, with 13 clues to go on, and a combination of letters to be found, off the gang went (seperately, and keeping safe distances from others, of course!)

Tracey ''I managed to convince my boyfriend to join in by doing it by bike, and in the good weather yesterday. We really enjoyed it, great clues, it was nice to see some new bits of Ealing.''

It was a long route (my bad!), to find the 13 pubs, but with a couple of nice days to do it over, being out in the sunshine for all that time wasn't so bad!

Liv ''No way I would have run 11 miles otherwise!''

Sevan ''That's twice as far as I'd run 2 weeks ago, was good to be given a bit of a push!''

If you're still scratching your head over the answers, you would have found yourself going to:

Clue 1: The Forester

Clue 2: The Dodo

Clue 3: The Grosvenor

Clue 4: The Grange

Clue 5: Roddy’s Bar

Clue 6: The Sir Michael Balcon

Clue 7: The Plough

Clue 8: The Village Inn

Clue 9: The Aeronaut

Clue 10: The Red Lion

Clue 11: The Station House

Clue 12: The Wheatsheaf

Clue 13: The Rose & Crown

Maybe our post-lockdown monthly socials will take us to a few us these soon!

And once the clues were cracked, all that was left was to use the letters I'd identified in each pub name (i.e. the second to last of the second word) and et voila...

Marieke ''obvs the answer is GOODGYM EALING. 🤘🤘🤘''

Excellent scavenger hunting by GoodGym Ealing, I'll drink to that! 🍻

And the number was 26!

This week, because of the 2.6 challenge, lots of people have been challenging themselves to do exercises that involve the number 26 in some form. We've seen people running 2.6 miles, 2.6km, do 26 burpees or complete 26 laps of the garden. Some even ran the full 26.2 marathon distance! So this week we thought we'd jump in on the action.

In a workout designed to combat boredom, we completed 26 different exercises lasting just 26 seconds each. It kept the body and brain guessing, worked up a sweat and it was over before we knew what had happened! You can complete it as many times over as you like and the full set lasts 13 minutes. If you'd like to do it at home just set a timer for 26 seconds, 26 times over (I put in a 4 second reset in between each exercise), clear some space and get going!

• 1. Jog on spot
• 2. Star jumps
• 3. High Knees
• 4. Football stances
• 5. Lunges
• 6. Squats
• 7. Skipping
• 8. Side lunges
• 9. Burpees
• 10. Ski jumps
• 11. Press ups
• 12. Lizard lunges
• 13. Tricep dips
• 14. Plank
• 15. Right side plank
• 16. Left side plank
• 17. Mountain climbers
• 18. Pulsing Bridge
• 19. Toe touch crunches
• 20. Double leg raises
• 21. Single toe taps
• 22. Sit ups
• 23. Russian Twists
• 24. Donkey kick pulses right side
• 25. Donkey kick pulses left side
• 26. Plank

The challenge was set - With a four day Easter bank holiday weekend of running, walking and cycling to play with, how many locations could GoodGym Ealing members find with only a few clues to go by?

The answer was quite a lot with all of you doing EGGS-traordinarily well! And based on the feedback, I think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed it, got to learn some new things and see some new sites.

"I’ve clearly got too much time on my hands" - Alex

"Inspired idea and good fun!" - Michelle, Tony and Henry

"I enjoyed that, thanks! And my longest run in absolutely ages" - Tom

"If I did (visit any) it was entirely by accident..." - Chris (who claims to have not taken part but his Strava tells me otherwise)

"Chris enjoyed it, because he did loads of Pokémon-ing on the way 🤷" - Jenni

Here are all the answers:

1. Famous film star Charlie Chaplin went to school here - Hanwell Community Centre

2. The Architect Charles Jones designed this central Ealing building - Ealing Town Hall

3. Regularly voted London's best pizza, this famous Ealing pizza restaurant was voted 'the number one pizza to try before you die' in 2013 - Santa Maria

4. Weatherspoon's pub named after famous film producer - The Sir Michael Balcon

5. Famous film studio of which aforementioned film producer was Leader of - Ealing Studios

6. The former home of British Men's Wimbledon Tennis Champion and now famous clothing brand - Fred Perry's Blue Plaque House in Pitshanger

7. Hotel where former Vietnamese Prime Minister worked as a pastry chef/kitchen porter (allegedly, reports are sketchy) - Drayton Court Hotel

8. Site of the 2001 Ealing IRA bomb - Outside Metro Bank on the main Broadway

9. Spot which has a unique engineering feat that crosses a road, a railway line & a canal - The three bridges on Hanwell Canal

10. The White House and home of Polish Prince - The White House on Park View Road

11. Embassy of country lead by dictator and supreme leader Kim Jong-un - The North Korean Embassy on the North Circular

12. Birthplace of British rhythm and blues and the Rolling Stones - Ealing Jazz Club

13. Primary school of Director and Artist who won an Academy Award, BAFTA Award for Best Film, and Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture for 12 Years A Slave - Little Ealing Primary School

14. Either one of the two closest over-ground stations on the whole tube network - South Ealing or Northfields stations

A last minute change of plan won't stop us!

Last night's task was a very last minute call around to all the previous places we'd had the pleasure of helping in hope there was something we could do! Unfortunately our task for Cultivate London that was scheduled for last night was curtailed by our contact being very unwell, get well soon Rosie! Luckily we have a few more dates booked in to help her at the DIG site in April ( sign up nice and early here! ) so we'll still get to go and help later on!

With a welcome shift in weather from last weeks Narnia like run we had a HUGE 21 runners out last night with two new members joining us for the first time. A Big welcome to Harriet and Victoria

This week we were back to two tasks as we sent a small sub team off again to help at The Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter. This week taskforce member Jenni led Michelle, Tony and Clare down, so thank you guys for volunteering to be on the smaller run!

We started off with a quick group huddle to discuss to route and to come clean about the fact I wouldn't in fact be running this evening... I felt incredibly guilty but a few niggles meant I didn't want to risk a run last night so instead I was lead bike for proceedings! A few warm up drills saw us nicely warmed up and we were off!

With Michael C backmarking for us we all arrived safely to Hanwell Community Centre with Shan & Michael K ready in waiting for us to get started. The team at the centre were sure they had some bits we would help with when we were left without a task at the last minute, so thanks to them for accommodating us with short notice last night!

We were working across the site doing a bit of cleaning, sweeping and tidying. There was a good mix of things to do, window cleaning and prop sorting were the key tasks, everyone was particularly excited about the group picture that would come of all the great props in the basement we were helping to organise.

What a PROPosition!

With it being the first Tuesday of the month (our dedicated social night!) minds soon turned to the pub so we wrapped things up and headed back to base and complete the run/cycle back to meet the other team. Finishing up nicely with a little leg busting round of exercises we were finished for the evening. Lovely to see so many in the pub afterwards and Jenni and I were happy to be able to share some biscuits we were gifted from a mission a few weeks ago!

Next week the lovely Ana of GoodGym Hounslow and Wandsworth will be covering while I am taking care of some business in Barcelona... it's a lovely spring cleaning task at a local church and it's a new venue we've not visited before so let's show them what we're made of and get stuck in, sign up here!

See you in a couple of weeks!

It was a blustery evening in Ealing but that didn't put off the 16 fantastic runners from coming out on our second double task week last night!

We met at our usual spot, the wonderful Bodyline Studios who very kindly accommodate us every week, before deciding who would go to each task for the evening. Taskforce member Michael C agreed to take Tim, Alexander & Emily off to The Ealing Winter Night Shelter to be on hand for a few tasks to help their evening run smoothly, while the rest of us were excited to be heading to help A Mile In Her Shoes sort donations.

The two tasks were very close to each other so after a few warm up drills we all headed out on the same route together, swerving down the busy Uxbridge Road, dodging pedestrians for some extra agility practice on our run!

We arrived at our first stop (which just so happened to be the pub!) letting the small group of night shelter helpers head on a bit further down the road to complete their mission for the evening.

We were using the function room at The Grosvenor to sort donations, so a massive thank you to them for hosting us and being so friendly and helpful all night.

Inside we were met by Nicola from the charity who explained a bit more about what we were doing for them, and it was basically Christmas! Unlike previous tasks we'd done before instead of just sorting into sizes/type we were opening up all the packages sent in and donated from members of the public. It was lovely to open things up and see all the lovely messages and notes people had sent in with their donated kit!

There was a lot to get through so the night was just about getting it all open and sorting into three sections, usable by the charity, not usable but good condition so can be resold/redonated elsewhere and finally a no thank you/bin pile.

Sorting the good, the bad and the ugly!

A few brutal decisions were made as unfortunately not everything that's donated can be utilised by Nicola and her team but at the end of the evening we had a HUGE pile of great kit that can be used as part of the process to empower women affected by homelessness to find their feet through running!

We even had a bit of a catwalk show with Tony strutting his stuff in a striking pair of jellyfish(?!) themed lycra tights, it was a strong look!

We were joined back at the pub by the night shelter sub team who had been busy sorting the shower schedule, making tea and walking around the grounds to litter pick and make sure the area was safe. They also helped with all the last bits of clearing up from our task so they really did provide the total package last night!

Amazing work last night, thank you to everyone who was involved! Next week we continue the theme of combating homelessness as we have another double task week at The Night Shelter and The Hestia Refuge, get yourselves signed up nice and early here!

This week the message was loud and clear, we need to smash this January Challenge! And with that 18 fantastic runners came out to do some good with their evening. This included two newbies brought along by existing members of the group, welcome Tony and Pat and well done to their recruitees Sophie and Michelle!

After a quick warm up (not needed quite a much this evening as it felt positively balmy after the arctic temperatures from the weekend!) and the usual health and safety briefing of 'there may be sharp tools, please don't stab eachother with them', we were off!

It was a straight forward run tonight with only one turn to make, so with clear instructions we set of in different pace groups to make our way down there. We made a stop at the turn to reconvene and do what runners do best, talk about food! We each discussed our favourite cakes with interesting choices all round.

With our appetite now heightened we completed the final bit of the run to arrive at The Log Cabin ready for a big weeding session!

It was straight down to business with three groups spread across the site to take on the weeds and a few other clean up jobs around the playground. Michelle & Michael definitely chose well with a cheeky go on the swings on offer in their area!

Talk soon turned to puns and newcomer Tony came out with some blinders but they may have been slightly too risqué so we've gone for a toned down combination from the group instead, loving your work though Tony, keep 'em coming next time!

We finished up with a quick fitness session in the playground to get everyone's heart racing before a nice recovery run back to base. It was a tough little three way plank, squat and lunge interval session with the intensity rising with each round.

Quads were burning!

Thank you to everyone for coming out and hopefully see you all next week when we'll be completing the last task and run of the month. It's the last chance to make it count for The January Challenge so sign up now!

Happy Running!