Last night GoodGym runners Lucy, Louise,Charlotte, and Rue, with Simon joined Achilles International’s visually impaired runners for a brilliant evening around the Olympic Park.

We kicked off in a circle, introducing ourselves by pace and whether we were VI runners, guides, or shadowers. Simon explained the routes before telling us about his upcoming dawn-to-dusk ultra with Sikhs in the City, where he’ll run as fast and as far as he can in daylight while fundraising for Achilles. Support him if you canhttps://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/simon-fitzmaurice?utm_medium=CF&utm_source=CL A huge cheer for Simon, followed by an equally warm welcome for all the first-time VI runners and guides.

Then we paired up and were off!

I had the pleasure of running with Charles, a fantastic runner and an equally good teacher. He talked me through the instructions that work best for him and how to use the tether effectively.

Running around the Olympic Park is always special, but guiding made me experience it differently. Alongside the Orbit, gardens, canals and tree-lined paths, I suddenly noticed every changing camber, slight undulation, cracked path and change of surface. Things I would normally run over without a second thought became important.

An hour and a half later, we were back at the Aquatics Centre swapping running stories and already thinking about next time.

A brilliant evening of running, learning and connection. Good luck to Simon with the ultra, and a huge thank you to Charles.

This week we saw a massive group turn up at Paddington Rec Track. We had our usual Achilles UK and Goodgym group plus special guests from LSE. Group is getting bigger and bigger with loads of new guides. Another great session tonight and the rain held up, so a nice and dry one.

The usual suspects Veronika ,Simon and Steph Ducat were back for more guided running at the Emirates. Today we welcomed Zak for his first session as a guide. We also had the chance to have our 4 legged friend Mario.

Chilly Thursday evening but this didnt stop VI Runners and guides to turn up in mass as Paddington Rec Track for a great session. Goodgym Brent was present in force tonight with Dennis and Ryan. Steph Ducat doing his usual thing of running and taking pictures 📸. Viv who is one of the VI Runners did a PB tonight on her 5km with Ryan : well done !!

A great evening spent at The Olympic Park, Stratford, running with VI (Visually Impaired) Runners from the Achilles Intl community.

Another great session at Paddington Rec Track: loads of VI Runners and guides tonight. was it because there was a picnic after the session or the chocolate cake that birthday boy Breandan brought tonight? We will never know! We formed our usual circle at the track, introduced ourselves and said what each person wanted to do tonight. This is the circlenif trust as both VI Runners and Guides put their trust in each other. Welcome to Ryan for his first guided run and he took the challenge of being shadow to Tom who does nearly 10km with a 400 meter finish sprint!! Well done. Then Lucy didnt just stick to guide running : she joined his small group of 5 for a fitness session with running involved - hats up to her. Veronika, Maria, Harvey and Steph Ducat teamed up with a VI Runner to run around the track. After a great session most of us stayed for a small picnic near the track.