Five intrepid GoodGym regulars travelled across the dusty plains of London Town to meet this morning at St. Dominic’s School in Homerton.

The task was mammoth as was the double Broxap Shelter complete with four lockers, the heaviest sliding doors, the curviest Perspex, and two enormous Sheffield toast rack bicycle stands. We donned our trusty gloves and got to work, helping Bea and her team dismantle, label, and haul (with care) the 1tonne bike shed up the ramps, over the fences and eventually on to the 7.2 Daly truck.

Once the second truck-load was ready to depart Emma jumped back on her trusty steed and cycled home. With incredible will-power (fuelled by lemon drizzle cake, coffee and plenty of water) Audrey, Jack, Louise, and Md made their way to the afternoon task at Sebright Primary School in Haggerston to unload the rack and put it all back together.

Lending their hands for the second part of this Bike Shed thriller, Sooz and Matt should be commended for their diligent patience. They were left twiddling their thumbs for a good part of an hour as the dismantling overran. Maybe the timings were over-optimistic given the shed’s size…

Meanwhile, en route fast from the dismantling, Bike Shed originals Audrey, Louise and Md blitzed a sweaty scenic run through Victoria Park whilst Jack lazily took a lift in one of the vans - enjoying the A/C and eating cake whilst doing so, probably.

When the truck finally arrived at the school we carefully worked in teams to lift, manoeuvre and place down the heavy pieces in an organised fashion. Our work mirrored an Ikea instruction manual on the playground.

The trickiest part was moving the perspex roof covers, which bent and wobbled, teasing us that they might crack and make all our work in vain. It took all of us and some chuckle-brotheresque communication skills (to me, to you) to slide them off of the truck’s footbed and stack them daintily on top of each other.

By the time we had unloaded and organised the pieces it was sadly time up for the gang. With no time left to reassemble we vowed to fight another day should we get the call from the parents in need.

The Bike Shed saga, to be continued…

There are plenty of new youngsters coming down to this regular GoodGym x parkrun task at London Fields. Today's first place and first timer to London Fields clocked in an impressive 07:27 and it wasn't even his personal best!

A crowd of usual GoodGym suspects joined the ranks with Rue taking up the post of Run Director - with his trademark warm up routine slightly shortened for the hot weather. But the cries of "You're amazing" could still be heard across the Fields.

Sooz was trusted with Timekeeping and tokens - an easier role today with only 30 participants - and Sarah of course could be found under her tree.

Join us next week for more fun at the Fields!

A whole wave of first timers joined London Fields juniors today, alongside a regular bunch of trusty GoodGym volunteers.

Sarah took up her usual spot under Sarah's Tree™ and Sooz snapped up the fox's tail having missed out on tailwalker the previous week.

With Rue on timekeeping duties, the stage was set.

There were 15 young finishers today supported by GoodGym and local parkrun volunteers (and even some volunteers from further afield!).

All wrapped up within the hour and finishing with coffee and cake.

We were pleased to be joined by parkrun's event delivery director Helen this morning, along with her son, who had been staying nearby in Dalston, and so saw a Sunday morning parkrun volunteering opportunity at the Fields - she'd asked if she could lead the warm up and who were we to turn down such a request.

With marshals recruited from the parent group (including a couple of first timers...thank you), Rue on timekeeping duty and Hilary as Tailwalker, Run Director Nick did the safety briefing before handing over the stage to Helen to get our 24 runners (plus coaches and tail walker) fully warmed up.

It's fair to say she put them through their paces, but everyone joined in, following all the movements (including mimicking different varieties of beans...you had to be there) with much enthusiasm and excellent synchronisation.

With warm up complete, and a few still catching their breath, it was to the start and Rue counting down 3-2-1...and they were off for another two laps of the Fields in perfect running conditions, with Hilary ensuring no-one was left behind.

Another successful Sunday, great to have Helen join us along with all our other volunteers - same time, same place next week, but the warm up may be a little less energetic...

This day started out with me meeting the Hackney Quest team at there office. Once everyone was ready, we took a long walk through the streets and parks of Hackney towards Nightingale Estate. During that walk, I gave a little introduction into what GoodGym is along with some insight into our Movement for Change initiative. During that time, Bella filled me in a bit more about Hackney Quest and Hackney in general.

Once we arrived at Nightingale Estate, we had a nice talk with the organisers before splitting up into groups of three to handle different tasks. Ayesha and Cyanna tended to the flower beds whilst me and Bella got rid troublesome weeds. Once we all completed our respective tasks, we finished by watering all the flower beds and pots.

As we walked back to Hackney Quest, it was great to hear Ayesha's passion for volunteering in Hackney. The cherry on top was Cyanna saying she had friends that would love to get involved in the work GoodGym does. Despite the small numbers, this session felt very impactful.