Eight of us made our way to Strand on the Green school, running walking and cycling a total of 4km to help with the school with some jobs.

Chris was leading tonight's session after our lovely leader Ana was struck down by the post holiday lurgy. Get well soon!

Chris gave us a run down of the job's we'd been asked to help with.

1. Sanding benches on the astroturf
2. Digging out a patch of ground by the car park and covering it with tarpaulin
3. Transporting some of the rocks from an area by the entrance to the school to hold down the tarpaulin.

After 45 Minutes of vigorous sanding with one body torch between five Goodgymers that will teach us .... the older benches were looking much smoother and ready for treating. Take a bow Kymm, Katie, Emily and Gus for putting your backs into it even when the light was all but gone.

Meanwhile Chris, Jon and Luis dug out the area that was to be covered by tarpaulin and transported the soil to the secret forest. Before Emily and I joined them with the rocks we'd located by the entrance.

After the traditional end of task group photo we headed back in groups and warmed up at The Pack Horse.

It was a bit of a red letter day at GG Hounslow last night as we got to proudly induct our first ever run leader in Hounslow history! Ladies and gentlemen of GoodGym, please put your hands together for (just about to be) newly qualified Run Leader Michelle!

Leading her first session Michelle kicked off with a friendly welcome and run down of the evening ahead, before taking us through a few dynamic warm up moves. We then headed off together, with Jon back marking, to our task location at Chiswick House.

We soon met Aaron, who let us know that the focus of the session would be to clear a big area near the gate of weeds and some very tall nettles. So grabbing gloves and making sure all our vulnerable bits were covered up, we set to it.

It's that time of year again, and last night marked the official wearing of the first headtorch. Forget daylight saving time, its GG headtorch time that is the true indication of the change in season.

We worked hard for 45 minutes and the transformation was dramatic - we even emerged free of stings and scratches. Michelle then lead us back to base before taking us through our paces with some great stretches showcasing our varying flexibility levels (I aim for the ground and hope for the best).

Well done and congratulations to our fabulous new leader - if you'd like to join Michelle and share some of the fun in taking a session, then don't hesitate to let me know. The more the merrier, the gooder, the gymmier!

Matt, the Run Director at Gunnersbury parkrun gave GoodGym a big shout out at the pre-run briefing as we had 6 volunteers around the course this morning. We also had 6 familiar faces running the course too.

Before the parkrun started, we celebrated Michelle's amazing achievement of 700 good deeds. She is often found running or cycling all over Hounslow and Ealing boroughs to do good, with special guest appearances in other parts of London too, She was given a "700" rosette, which led one parkrunner to ask if it was Michelle's birthday 😳

Back to the parkrun, Steph and Jon were marshalling, Michelle was handing out finish tokens and Kash, Harvey and Sevan were barcode scanning. While Harvey was running the course, Michelle, Kash and Sevan helped set up the funnel, then waited for the first finishers to appear.

The Run Director was very insistent that all of the barcode scanners need to stand in a line, facing in a specific direction and not, in any circumstance, turn to face the funnel. Matt said that he would guide the runners to us. Kash and Sevan stuck to the instructions, waiting to serve the finishers. Harvey, when he joined them, also automatically took his position in the line facing south 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️

First a dribble, then a flood, finishing with a long tail. In all, Michelle's fast fingers dished out 682 tokens which the barcode scanners needed to process. Most of the runners were pleased with their times or if not, at least happy that they'd managed to finish in the unexpectedly warm weather.

At the end of the task, the group headed to the café in the park to eat Michelle's 700th birthday cake and talk about Lithuanian courting traditions 💑

GoodGymers traveled on foot, on two wheels, and even accompanied by four legs to the historic Gunnersbury Park Estate last night. The centenary celebration of the creation of the estate is coming up, so we joined the group of residents to help with a tidy up ahead of the big birthday event.

One by one we arrived to be greeted by a welcoming committee spearheaded by Rosie the dog and fellow GoodGymer Stephen. After treats had been dispensed, we learned there were two separate tasks to be completed. The first was a big gardening job on the green, and the second a paving challenge at the entrance to the estate. So while master masons Chris, Remy and Kash began mixing cement and digging trenches, the rest of the group headed down to the green space.

Led by Tony, we divided up to tackle the extremely spiky trimmings cut down by the tree surgeon, chopping them up into manageable sizes. There was also litter picking to be done, sweeping, clearing and a general tidy up.

We worked until night fell, and headed back up to admire the job done by the paving team. Impressively, in just 45 minutes they had managed to mix cement, dig channels for the paving stones and relay them in prime position. Great work everybody. There was even time to leave the inaugural paw print in the wet cement (just don't tell Rosie).

Next week we will be back for our regular visit to Chiswick House when you will have a treat as Hounslow's newest (almost) qualified run leader will be leading the session....who is it to be? Come along to find out!

If you are all about the dramatic before and after pics then this the run report for you!

Despite the grey skies, nine GGers met at Chiswick Allotments to carry out a couple of big tasks that had a transformative effect on a widely used local resource.

We met with Kouroush, who is chair of the allotments, who divided us up into two groups. One to tackle the road that leads to the plots and one in the yard in front of the shed.

Georgia, Alan, Jon, Michelle and Lucy (once she had scaled the wall) got started on pulling up all the weeds encroaching on the length of the path. From overgrown and messy to clear, clean and tidy - what a difference! Now the entrance to this community space will look so much more cared for and welcoming.

Meanwhile the dream team of Kash, Divya and Gus were tackling the yard. Spades and forks were simply not the one, and within minutes they were dispatched in favour of loppers and shears. Watching out for wildlife they got to it, cutting down ivy and clearing weeds. In between snail talk, RSPB membership, tales of Ealing tasks and even a restaurant recommendation or two, wheelbarrows full of waste was filled. Have a look at the amazing after photos to see just what was achieved. And if that wasn't proof enough then have a look at the photos of Gus' pristine white gloves pre and post task!

There is a community mission which could do with some extra help this weekend, so if you're free why not sign up to this gardening task at Harvard Hill. Happy GGing one and all!