We met on a cold, dark January evening outside Papagayo cafe. Some GG spirit was bound to cheer everyone.

We started the evening with a short warm-up. Liz led the way, whilst Lee back-marked, ensuring nobody got lost in the darkness.

We were greeted by Gill, who explained the task for the evening, clearing the weeds from the footpath. Equipped with tools and head torches, we soon removed the weeds and left GG joy.

We returned to Papagayo for mulled wine, chips, cake and most importantly, good conversation!

We met outside Papagayo cafe for a quick warm up. We quickly set off on our journey to Harlesden Gardens (AKA Fairy garden). At the task we met Fairy Garden-mother, Gill.

Princess Tabitha, Prince Lee and Princess Liz quickly set to work, cleaning the tools. They scrubbed the trowels, spades and shears until they were as shiny as a mirrors. Then we could ask, who is the fairest of them all?

Meanwhile, Princess Helen and Princess Samina dug out the weeds.

Finally, our work was done and the hard workers could travel to the ball (AKA Papagayo cafe). Sadly, the pumpkins weren't ready for harvesting, so we had to travel by foot!

Pete, Karen, Samina and Liz met outside the Queensbury. Unfortunately, the pub wasn't open this evening. We weren't shaken, just a little extra weight for our run. Liz led a short warm-up before we set off for our run.

At the task, Philip, Sabina and Danny were awaiting our arrival. The instructions were to pull the weeds, shake the weeds and drop them into the bucket. (No stirring required). At first it appeared like a long task, but everyone worked really hard and soon cleared a large section of the path.

Time for a quick photo shoot before running back. We didn't quite make it as far as the Queensbury. We finished our run outside Papagayo with some stretches and a cool beverage.

Monday's forecast was miserable, with another evening of rain to enjoy, but five Goodgym Brent members knew that a fun night was in store so met at the Queensbury, ready to take on some gardening. Luckily for us the rain had stopped by seven and after warming up we ran 3km to Harlesden Town Gardens. This community space is no longer open to the public due to the COVID testing site , however the garden still needs alot of maintenance and Goodgym Brent were eager to help out.

Philip met us and escorted us past the security, to show us the path in desperate need of weeding. The wet weather and lack of visitors has been great for the wild flower lawn, but has meant weeds have had the chance to break into the path. So we set to work weeding away ..... a rather relaxing task

Once the time was up we added the weeds to the compost , and had a tour of the garden including the many fairy hide outs...and the throne room . We will be back again soon (hopefully on a drier day!)

We then ran back to the Queensbury, making it through Roundwood park just in time before closing, Amazing effort everyone !

As the nights are rolling in, head torches became the new fashion at Goodgym Brent

15 runnners ran a total of 6km to Harlesden Town Gardens to help with the task of removing cardboard slips from coffee cups that were used for a B3 event the previous week

After a quick warm up and welcoming two first timers Laura and Jenny we set off to the task . It was approximately three km to the task but with a slightly longer route than planned as we had to run around the Fairground in Roundwood park. Philip was waiting at the task to meet us to let us (and lock us) in. He had saved us a huge stash of cardboard cups for us. To the untrained eye they may have looked like they could be composted but he explained that was a plastic lining that had to be removed. So we set to work peeling the card from the cups , definitely a first for Goodgym Brent. We set to work peeling the plastic and avoiding the coffee spilling out of some of them. In not too long at all we had the cardboard removed, ready for composting. Philip kindly gave us a tour of the gardens and offered us some rosemary to take home. In no time at all it was time to run back, and we finished off with a cool down before heading home (via the pub). Get well soon Pritesh! We all hope to see you next week

GoodGym is TEN!

On a muggy night in Brent TEN wonderful people joined me to run 7km, do some weeding for Harlesden Town Garden and celebrate ten years of GoodGym!

After a calamitous start to the evening (forgotten kit, intro fail and general lateness - all from me) we got ourselves together and headed off towards Harlesden.

In our intro tonight the main focus was on the 10th birthday - talking about the City Hall event last week, the Fit Together publication, our flag plans for the evening (see pics), Super Saturday for missions on the 21st and of course cakes for tonight. We also welcomed Helen who joined us for her first ever GG run, what a time to join.

The run there took in our first photo opportunity in Roundwood Park, home of the GG Brent 1km Time Trial. We all posed for the photo and so began the battle of the phones - spoiler iPhone X for the win!

Photos done and we were one our way again and it wasn't long before we got to Harlesden Town Garden. There we met Phillip who let us in and showed us the work to do. Some intensive weeding around the raised planters. Everyone gloved up grabbed tools and got to work. What we hadn't accounted for was how quickly the light was going to come in - before we knew it we were in a lot of darkness. Not to be stopped everyone with phones used them to provide light to finish the task off.

With that all done we posed for a group photo with the flag and then we were on our way. Harlesden Town Garden is a long-standing task for GG Brent so it means a lot for the flag to be there.

With everyone gathered we headed off, I goaded everyone by threatening a super long run on the way home but it was all a ruse to disguise the next flag stop. This time it was Willesden Sports Centre the original home of GG Brent. We posed outside and then were on our way again. We managed to do a quick on the run photo and video and then continued home.

With quite frankly more than enough photos I decided we should definitely do some more so we posed with the new Willesden Green railway bridge murial, one outside our current home, the Queensbury and finally one inside. We made sure we stretched and then it was time for a celebratory drink and some cake!

Happy 10th Birthday GoodGym, thanks for bringing this wonderful community to Brent!

I'm away for the next two weeks but you have Liz and then Claire in charge.

Cheers,
Pritesh