Tonight we once again ran the long 10km to Acton to continue to support Old Oak Community and Children's Centre with their fight to get the garden space revamped and also stepped in to help with some food prep ahead of their community BBQ tomorrow night.

We had 16 of us out tonight including Alex who despite hitting 100 good deeds isn't resting on her laurels and came straight back this week to start totting up the good deeds towards the next big milestone! We had the lovely Tash back with us after starting with GoodGym a couple of years ago, that's the great thing whether you come once a week or once a year, you've still made a huge difference and we always having you no matter how often you can make it!

After some quick introductions getting to know your fellow runners through some Mexican wave squats (yes, that's a thing!) we set off on what was a lovely evening for a run, bright and sunny but not too warm, perfect weather!

Our help is grately appreciated!

At the centre we were met by Elly who always has lots of great tasks for us to help with. These small tasks between 16 of us on one evening save her and the team lots of time and resources so well done team! Tonight we split into two groups, one outside continuing to weed and clear the garden space and one group inside doing some food prep for their community event. Tash definitely helped speed the grating process along and utilised her food technology experience to pump up the indoor team to complete the task at hand.

Meanwhile outside the garden was really taking shape and the before and after was really clear to see! Loads more crates of garden waste removed and a clean sweep for the playground, cracking effort all round!

After that it was just a case of getting the 5km back under our belts, well done to everyone who pushed themselves tonight on the distance. 10km is a long way and everyone got it done! After some stretches back at base we were done!

See you all next time!

Only mad dogs and Englishmen would run in that weather, oh and 14 runners from GoodGym Ealing too!

Big kudos to Darren and Mathilde who didn't shy away from a long run and some hard graft for their first GoodGym experience!

We also had the lovely Dani join us for the evening, she's going to be the new Trainer for GoodGym Derby starting very soon! Thanks for leading a nice little pre-run dynamic stretching session for us!

With no time to lose and 10km to run we all set off, regrouping at every turning so no-one got lost. Our speedy Chris led from the front and I led the party pace at the back where we had constant discussions of disbelief about just how hot it was! But GoodGym runners are hardcore and we all made it in one (sweaty) piece!

Our task tonight was to help Old Oak Community and Children's Centre give their raised beds a much needed de-weeding session. Elly from Peabody was there to meet us and explain a little bit about how what we were doing there will have an impact!

• The centre is used for lots of community led activities including the amazing Bubble & Squeak Eat which is a surplus food initiative we've helped with before at GoodGym Ealing
• The long term goal over the next year is to reinvent the garden space as a place to learn, grown and enjoy for local families.
• They are hoping to start growing produce for their holiday hunger cooking programme and running gardening activities with families

Wow, we best be getting on with that weeding then!

Everyone got stuck in and it wasn't long before the beds were looking a lot more useable and a lot less full of weeds! We stacked up all our garden waste ready to be collected at a later date and left the garden in a much more workable state, hopefully our little effort will have a big impact on the staff being able to crack on with this great project!

Now just that run back to contend with... spoiler alert will all made it! Great work everyone, hopefully next time we run that far it'll be a little cooler but the next few weeks are lovely 5-6km runs so it'll be a breeze in comparison!

Starter for 10!

Last night 10 of us met to run 10km to help Bubble & Squeak Eat, a group of entrepreneurial children from West London who are fighting food waste by selling surplus food in the school playground and to the local community. It was all hands on deck to clean their storage shipping container in East Acton!

No new members last night but we did have Michelle from Hounslow on her #westisbest GoodGym tour! With a long run ahead of us we did a couple of leg wakening exercises while waiting for the hardy crew to assemble and swiftly started our journey out towards Acton at 7pm sharp. The run was a change of scenery for us as lots of our tasks centre around Ealing and Hanwell, it's always good to shake things up a bit!

The whole group kept a really good pace last night and we all stuck together to get the long run done as a team! Special mention to Larissa who is most definitely due a parkrun PB based on last nights pace and Jenni whos strava says last nights run was a 10km PB!

We arrived at the task to meet Elly who coordinates the project, she was ready and equip with buckets of water, sponges and cleaning products ready for us to give the container a good scrub down. The container serves as the main storage space for all the surplus food they acquire so after a bit of heavy lifting to clear the space (a great workout!) we all got stuck in taking sections of the container to clean as well as washing down the fridges.

The container was crowd funded and it was really great to chat to Elly about how the initiative works and the ways in which it helps the community, such a worthy project!

Running a tight ship!

With such a long run last night we didn't have too much time but with 10 pairs of hands we made light work of the task and got everything gleaming in the space of 30 minutes! Now that's what I call team work!

Living in the area Michael was responsible for our route back and took us a dubious back route but I'm glad to report we all made it back safe and sound and no-one took the bail out tube back option!

Great work everyone, we hope to go back and help Elly at the project again very soon!

For the second and final time...its been a pleasure Ealing! Thank you for making me feel welcome over the last 2 weeks.

Tonight 9 of us gathered together for an epic 10km run! And everyone started from the beginning which was helpful for me as I had 8 human sat navs carrying me through Ealing town, across roads that were busier than Santa's grotto at this time of year.

We ran to old Oak community and children's centre, although we nearly ended up in someone's house....number 76 Jen, not 75!

Once there we met Elly, who told us all about a project put together by Old Oak community centre and the primary school opposite which has its roots (literally) based in conversations at an after school club in the children's gardening project. Innocently, in discussing with the children the topic of food the subject of surplus waste came up and the young entrepreneurs jumped onto the idea of trying to eliminate waste and enable those with less have more. Elly explained that in addition these young 4 to 12 year olds having such great business acumen that they are also very creative and have designed their own festive food Christmas cards which they sell at £3.50for a pack of 10. This is what we were letting the good people of Ealing and Hammersmith borders know about this evening as we posted some 200 leaflets. If you would care to purchase some of these cards yourself feel free to check out "Bubble and Squeak Eat" online.

A big thank you Elly for welcoming us this evening.

Fully informed and clutching leaflets we studied the map and split up into 3 separate groups. There was lots of us avoiding going close to the local Wormwood Scrubs Prison, could they lock us up for putting this splendid leaflets through letter boxes reading 'No junk mail" we wondered. Michael had no fear and was happy to spend his birthday with Goodgym causing a riot.

Once back together we gave our congratulations to oneanother for such speedy work and then wished each other a Merry Christmas as we separated, heading off to different home destinations...although I'm still confused why there was no invite for birthday tea and cake Michael?

Although a little later than planned the last ones standing stuck together and finished the full 10km set out. Well done everyone wherever you finished.

Thanks again Ealing, Merry Christmas and welcome back Olivia next week ; )