Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us, happy birthday dear Hounslow, happy birthday to us!

That's right, the Hounslow group is officially ONE. We have taken our first wobbly steps into the world of doing good, and have the quads to prove it. Last night was truly a night of celebrations. We cheered Andy who shares his GoodGymiversary with Hounslow, and Will who was also at the first ever group run. We welcomed the lovely Jeremy to the group for his first ever run - throw a cheer his way, Hounslow! A huge well done to Remy who tackled the horrendous-sounding Luton half and showed that race what for.

After a discussion on the best thing about birthdays - cake, friends, joy, cake, gin, gin and wine,having a whole week off work, cake and more cake - we did our warm up and set off for William Hogarth School. It was a short run there so we did it fairly nippily, looking forward to our indoor task. Unfortunately, when we got there ready to do some flatpack assembly, we found that Ikea had literally not delivered, so we were tasked with raking the outside area which was providing a nice home for many, many leaves.

Undeterred we got stuck in, filling up no less than seven black bin bags to the brim with those leafy pests. Great upper body work out, team. We stopped for a quick photo underneath the apt 'celebration of work' banner and then hit the road again. It was so nice of Hounslow to put on a fireworks display for our first birthday just as we finished the run, and it was only right that we stopped for a quick rest to enjoy them.

But not for long - we had a birthday fitness session to do! We divided up into three teams and played a game of Ana(erobic)grams. The idea was that everybody collects letters by doing exercises - one tuck jump for every good deed, high knees while naming Hounslow tasks, guessing the number of good deeds, planking if you were at the first ever run, high fiving someone whose name began with 'R' and many more - until all 15 were collected. Then came the great unscramble. It really came down to the wire, but it is my pleasure to announce that in first place, winning a round of drinks, was.....the Chizzee Rascals! Way to go Andy, Will, Natasha and Claudia.

All that was left that a trip to the pub for the quiz - kudos Team BetterGym for coming SECOND! - and to eat some cake. Except it didn't quite happen like that, did it? Least said, soonest mended - but check out the photos for the full story.

It's been a cracker of a year, Hounslow. Here's the the next, and the one after, and the one after that. And a huge cheer for all your brilliant personal achievements over the past week.

Wednesday are pretty good. You've got half way through the week and the weekend is just about in sight. What could make it better? A run. What about a run with a group of mates? And throw in a community task that makes you feel good about yourself. A fitness session? Go on then! Lovely stuff.

Firstly, a huge well done to Remy and to Will who both smashed the Royal Parks Half on Sunday. If you've got the need for speed, don't forget that GoodGym are organising a trip to the Bucharest Festival of Running next May - sign up for details. It promises to be a fun weekend of running, eating and exploring and everybody is welcome!

Tonight we were heading back to a local school - Strand on the Green - to help out with a list of jobs that needed doing. But first - the warm up and the weekly Hounslow headscratcher. If you were invisible, where would be the first place you'd go? The Whitehouse, the Pentagon, North Korea, Downing street - looks like we've all got a bit of the secret agent in us.

Sand-on-the-Green

It was only a short run to the school, so we set off, licketysplit , at a nice fast pace. One mile later we were there, finding Claire the caretaker waiting for us with a trailer of tools. Michelle got the work sweeping the bike shed and paths, Claudia took the scooter park, Remy, Will and Andy tackled the fenced play area while Ross, Adam and Jo dived into the huge pile of blocks that needed sanding.

Half an hour of elbow grease later, the jobs were done and dusted and we kicked off with our fitness session. It was a bit of a bumpy start with the flip a coin game, but eventually we got there, splitting into two groups with each side doing an exercise depending on the result of the flip. Next up was a timed obstacle course, which wasn't exactly plain sailing either and was eventually called off thanks to an apocalyptic shower of rain that came out of nowhere. Like a bunch of naughty school children we sheltered in the bike sheds under it had passed. Next week normal service will be resumed, promise!

We were just about to hit the road when disaster struck. It really wasn't our night. The code to the electric gates had mysteriously stopped working, and after several attempts at opening it from the outside and scaling the fence, it was hero Andy with super long legs who managed to hop the gate and release us. Well done Andy!

All that was left was a speedy run back to base, a few stretches and a bit of thawing out. Don't forget, Team Hounslow, that whatever the world throws at us, we all sand together.

Next week, we're back to school - a different one this time, for a spot of painting.

Last night eight runners braved the rain to help out at a local foodbank, got completely soaked, and still ended the night with a smile on their faces. What a team.

It started at the Town Hall with a little light drizzle and a lot of good news. Well done to Dave and Andy who both did great times at the Gunnersbury parkrun this weekend, to Remy, who gritted her teeth and beat the grueling Winshester half marathon, to Natasha who smashed a 5k race, and to Will, who joined us after an intense 10k the night before. What a week of running.

With a short warm up and a quick discussion about our favourite chocolate bars - which ranged from healthy dark chocolate and lime to good old Lion bars - we set off on the 3k run to Ealing Road Baptist Church. Shout out to Jennifer who had a great run down there, and to Michelle for battling jetlag womanfully! We also saw some excellent fartlek from Andy, Will and Remy.

Roger, the Pastor, was waiting for us with water and jobs as we soggily trooped into the building. A quick shake off and we were ready to get stuck in. It started with stacking books and chairs, which we completed in no time at all, before we moved onto the foodbank which Roger runs for local communities in need. With Will and Adam skillfully dismantling a stack of shelves the rest of us formed a (somewhat chaotic at points) human chain to empty and pack up the food. It turned out to be a lot of fun as well as a good upper body work out. Even if we did have to have several attempts at taking the video. " You actually have to move" said Natasha.

By the time the jobs were done the rain was coming even more steadily, which gave us a nice opportunity to 'cool down'. We're fighting a embittered battle to 'Beat the Streets' in Hounslow at the moment, and each have a card which we tap against a whole load of stations across the borough to record how far we've covered. So, despite the rain, off we went looking for meters, happily tapping and squatting our way round and noting all the good pubs that we weren't stopping at.

Before long we had made it back to our starting point, and with a few stretches we finished the night, already anticipating hot cups of Yorkshire tea, warm dressing gowns, even warmer showers and cold prosecco. Next week, it'll be warm and dry as we tackle the fly posters and graffiti under Turnham Bridge, so go on, sign up here.

Don't forget the social next Thursday at the fabulously named Blacksmith and Toffeemaker in Angel, where we will represent Hounslow at the monthly international pun of the month competition!

We had a Hounslow first to kick off the night yesterday evening - a massive congratulations to [Andy] who is the first of the group to reach that 50 good deed milestone! Give him a huge cheer for this achievement. To celebrate there was cake, lots and lots of cake. We were also treated to a fabulous honey cake made by Remy (who had also run a barnstorming half marathon at the weekend) to mark Rosh Hashanah. Shana Tova everyone!

We were also given our cards by Dave for our team to take part in Hounslow's Beat the Street, welcomed lovely GG ers Alex from Ealing, and Helen and Jordan from Wandsworth, and were very happy to have Jennifer back in the group.

We will rock you

With our task waiting for us just across the road, we had a quick topical chat about our favourite celebrations - Christmas, Passover, St Patrick's day, Norwegian national day and, erm, pancake day all topped the list - and then hopped over to Turnham Green to find Jan waiting for us with tools, bulbs, plants and gloves ready to get stuck in.

Apparently we have had lots of compliments about our previous job on the green where we cleared a huge meadow of thistles, so it was great to move onto the next stage of the job. With Alex and Jennifer tackling the central area planting some beautiful pots, two other teams spread out over the different areas to get to grips with the weeds. The light was fading quickly, but with some headtorches and sheer grit we cleared the rockeries and planted packs of tulip bulbs which we will admire next spring as we do our sprints.

Tulips, two legs

Job done, we moved on to our fitness session, kicking off with some Indian file round the park to get our heart rates up. We then had a quick game of 'grab the light' (the name needs some work) before moving on to the real session, which was a tough one. We concentrated on three areas - core, glutes and arms. Starting with glutes we did six exercises for 45 seconds, including lunges, squats, power skips and hip thrusts before moving onto abs. For that we used the benches to smash out planks, holds, plank jumps and side planks as well as, of course, dead bugs. Finally we tackled those difficult upper body drills with press ups, tricep dips and even an arm wrestle.

After all that, all that was left was to do a good stretching session and to eat cake. Ever run should end with some. Sign up for next week's run, where we will put those beat the street cards to good use.

22 awesome runners ran 3km to clear leaves at Ballast Quay Garden!

After a few weeks of 7k+ runs, it was nice to stay local for a change! And you can't get more local than Ballast Quay!

We welcomed back Glenn who ran with us a few times earlier in the year but had a break to climb Mont Blanc... NICE!! We were also joined by the lovely Winnie who usually runs with GG Southwark :) And lastly, Helen who turned up with a little baby bump... amazing news!!! SO happy for you Helen!!!! Maybe if it's a boy you can call him Jim and if he's well behaved you can say Good Jim :)

After a little warm up we got on our way, starting off with a lap of the uni that much resembled the time trial route that was to come later on in the session! We arrived in no time and were greeted by the amazing Diane who has been looking after Ballast Quay Garden since the early 60s. Such a legend! And of course Tom the dog was there too! WOOF!

A few tasks were on the cards. The first one being a hedge/plant/thing that needed trimming back which Alex and Steve attacked straight away. Some heavy compost bags needed shifting from one side of the garden to the other. And finally, all the leaves needed clearing. There were two brooms and a dustpan and everyone else got stuck in with their hands, filling up the bins! After about 5 minutes, the first bin was full... but amazingly Diane said it was absolutely fine to just chuck all the compost and leaves over the edge of the wall into the Thames.... she even checked with the council! So that was fun.

20 minutes later and the place had never looked so tidy! AMAZING!

We took a group photo and even Tom decided to join us! Diane had kindly left out some juice and biscuits so a few people tucked in... gotta fuel that time trial!!!

Everyone's favourite fitness session

The first Wednesday of every month means only one thing, our 1km time trial around the uni! We have done this for a few months now, hopefully some of you are seeing some improvements???? Here is the official Strava leaderboard and you should be able to see all of your attempts on there too, provided it picked it up alright on your GPS.

After the TT, we had a nice little stretch and finished up a bit earlier than usual... the pub was calling after all!!! We headed to the Old Brewery for some food and drinks and were reunited with Mridula, Vickie and Pulin who went to do the mission in Shooter's Hill.

WHAT A LOVELY EVENING :)

Thanks so much for coming last night! I know there wasn't a huge amount of work for you all to do but you have saved Diane A LOT of time and effort and she really appreciates the work that you do so well done! See you next week for a NEW TASK!

A huge task, a monster fitness session, and cheese jokes. What more could you ask for from a Wednesday night?

With a lovely turn out of excellent Hounslow regulars and some GG tourism from Wandsworth (hello Jordan, Matthew and David!) it was set to be a great night as we said our hellos and well dones. Please give Andy, a cheer, for he has nailed no less than eight good deeds this month - way to go! Great job Jo, Adam and Dave who all took on Gunnersbury parkrun last Saturday and produced some great runs. Finally a massive congratulations to Andreea who rejoins us after getting married!

We had a bit of an upside down night, as our task was just opposite our start location on Turnham Green. So after our news and a quick round of 'what's your favourite cheese?' (halloumi coming in at number one) we met up with Jan (favourite cheese - pyrenean mountain) who provided us with gloves and tools and headed straight over to the task before our run. This was not before we were treated to several of the cheesiest jokes we could hope for from Adam. Let the record reflect the best of them:

Did you hear about the explosion at the cheese factory in France? All that was left was de-brie. How do you approach a Welsh cheese? Caerphilly. What did the cheese say when he looked in the mirror? Halloumi.

Lovely stuff.

Off we went with Jan, who showed us a huge wild meadow section of the green which had a rather intrusive thistle problem. After demonstrating what exactly was a thistle, we donned some pretty hardcore rigging gloves and got stuck in. There was some unfortunate thistle throwing incidents, a blanket refusal to film a video which showcased our work, and a few scratchy-bitey things, but after half an hour, the area looked much better. It's great to be able to help out in an area which we use so often for our fitness sessions, and which is enjoyed by so many local people. We'll be back next week to finish off the job.

Next was our tough fitness session. After a dynamic warm up, we kicked off with a very speedy Indian file fun around the green (and a bit of playing chicken with the traffic) before launching into our monster circuits session which featured no less than 15 stations. It sounds like a lot (it was) but each cardio-based exercise was interspersed with a strengthening drill. After toughies such as sprints, squat jumps, reverse crunches and mountain climbers, we finished off with the killer plank twists. Fantastic work, team. All that was left was a quick game of Bulldog which saw the super speedy Natasha claim the title - and not for the first time! She's the one to watch.

Don't forget that next week we have a curry social next week - everybody welcome, please join us at Waterman's for some well=deserved fun and food after the run, for which you can sign up here. You just Gouda be there.

ps Kudos to Adam who came up with this report's killer pun!