28 GoodGymers ran 4-8k to help St Christopher's Place and St Mungo's!

Thanks for coming along guys! The GG Monthly Social is tonight in Old Street at the Prince Arthur from 6.30pm - sign up here.

I'm sad to say I will be leaving my role as Camden Trainer in August, I'm going to be moving to Sheffield to do a Masters. I'll miss you all very much and of course we'll have a leaving party!

St Mungo's Report:

Eleven of us headed of to help a new task up near Swiss Cottage - St Mungo's! This is a fantastic homeless charity that has sites all over the London and the UK. We had a lovely run up there, avoiding Primrose Hill and passing some big houses. Upon our arrival Kat and Will met us to make our group thirteen!

Our task was simple but effective to clear all and any weeds in four parts of the garden, open up the back garden as it was heavily outgrown and bag up any dead plants that were already piled up. Splitting into two's, three's and four's we got to work and made a huge impact in 20 minutes - Abi said it was the hardest she'd ever worked at GoodGym - nice!

Overall we collected up 17 bags of weeds, debris and rubbish - well done! After a group picture we headed home via Primrose Hill for the view and lesson of running downhill - all the fun.

Poo Hand Kate

St Christopher's Report:

The other group went to St. Christopher's where they pulled up weeds (assisted by "the weed lady" and a small child), cut down a sapling that had pretensions of being a tree, and swept/cleaned the area. Katie unfortunately seems to put her hand in cat poo, and then proceeded to do the run after with her hand stretched out to one side trying not to hit anyone haha.

This was the first time we went to help this task for over a year, they are connected to Camden's Origin Housing consortium and always appreciate our help. After the task was completed Frances led a 3.5k run via the canal and Granary Square to home.

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Cecil Sharp House and another task (tbc).

PB out.

27 GoodGymers ran between 4 and 12km to help St Christopher's House and Kingsgate Place

Thank you for coming guys, no newbies this week but lots of new and old faces!

On Mental Health Awareness Day it's as ever important to #runandtalk like we do each week, and remember the positive impact running has on our mental health. Read (and share) Tower Hamlets Trainer Laura article on this very subject.

In the news this week:

1. Cross Country Season starts this Saturday, there is 5 races for £5 over 5 months. It's awesome! You need you be a member of the GoodGym Raceteam - see details here.
2. There is a Community Mission helping Crouch End Open Space next Sunday (21st) where you'll be laying a woodchip path and will be rewarded with a picnic - sign up here.
3. On Sunday 21st there is also the monthly long run - this time led by Simon Fitzmaurice and goes from East Finchley to Hackney Wick - see the run here.
4. GG November drinks with be on Thursday 8th in Bethnal Green - more details to come!

St Christopher's Report by PB:

A team of 17 headed to help a local Origin Housing Project St Christopher's. We took a round about way to get there as it was seriously too close.

Upon our arrival we met Dave from No.4 who let us into Dave's at No.1 where all the tools and bulbs were. Getting into teams we did the following:

• John, Steve and Katie planted some mystery plants in 5 places over the courtyard
• A team of 8 planted 40 daffodil bulbs across two big planters: digging 3cm down, placing the bulb in the hole and covering it up again.
• We swept and bagged leaves and weeded all over the court.
• Abi and Frances clipped back trees, bushes and plants around the garden.
• A different Abi watered the whole garden!

Last summer we went to St Christopher's to help them pull away and cut back all the overgrown thistles, brambles and other nasty things that covered the garden area. Now the flats look beautiful and lush, our help today meant the garden can be maintained for Autumn - good work.

After Steve Lee took a group picture we headed to Granary Square for a fitness session, first some conditioning and then x3 90 seconds will an acceleration over the last 30!

Kingsgate Place Report by Rosie:

The lovely Diana greeted us with a selection of drinks and snacks which we enjoyed after the task. We split up into two teams of 4 and 5 to plant some bulbs in flowerbeds outside the flats. Rosie, Tom, Ellie and Stevie C were on bluebells and snowdrops, while Hanry, Alex, Josie, and Jason took on the daffodils.

Flower Facts

We learnt that daffodils have to be planted at 15cm depth, bluebells 10cm depth and snowdrops 5cm depth - interesting! Throughout the run and task we chatted about #runandtalk. As ever we admired the view from Primrose Hill: hazy but still beautiful!

Next week we are off to help Scope Charity Shop sort donations and clean the shop - sign up here.

PB out