Three brilliant Hounslow GoodGymmers made the journey over to Westminster last night to help transform a hidden little space tucked away in the middle of a maze-like estate. It definitely took some finding but once we arrived there was plenty waiting for us.

One local resident had invested in an impressive collection of herbs and flowers ready to plant - all very much fitting into the purple theme. After some careful positioning, it was time to get everything into the ground.

It wouldn’t be a community gardening task without the usual challenges: hard soil, a selection of “interesting” tools, the puzzle of making the planting plan work, and some particularly persistent allergenics floating around. But the team powered through and managed to get all the lavender, sage and thyme planted.

The result looked fantastic by the end of the evening, and the task owner was delighted — confirmed by a lovely message from him this morning. With a bit of rain over the next few days, the space is going to be flourishing before long: sweet scents, more flowers, better biodiversity, and extra forage for the nearby bee hives. All the good things.

Great work team!

Kymm and I arrived at Waterman's Park in the May sunshine ready to get stuck in helping local volunteers to maintain the green space.

We were joined by Gus and Luis and were briefed on today's tasks; give the dragon path that the volunteers have created in the middle of the park another trim to keep the shape, or weeding and pulling up lots of long grass threatening to steal all the light from the plants.

In the warm sunshine and with the ground dry from lack of rain it was thirsty work. The volunteers were happy to have our help and assured us several plants would now survive with more access to sunlight, and hopefully a long drink.

We needed cold drinks after an hour in the sunshine, before Gus headed over to Hanwell Hootie and the rest of us headed home for a lie down!

Marathon week had arrived and the buzz was in the air from the very start — excitement, some nerves, and plenty of discussion about Sunday’s big event. If you’re around, come join us to cheer — it’s one of the best days of the year!

Last night we headed out in both walk and run groups towards the allotments in Chiswick, where our friends at Wild Chiswick had plenty lined up for us. We had a great turnout, so with all hands on deck and no shortage of jobs, we got stuck in.

There was watering to be done, a leaky pipe system to wrestle with, raised beds that needed weeding (carefully avoiding the fragrant mint plants), trees to be planted, and even the construction of a dead hedge. Everyone found a task and got moving quickly all set in beautiful surroundings. We even had a very friendly duck who was there to oversee our activities (hope there were no anatidaephobics there last night...).

Despite the season, it was surprisingly chilly — though the good news is that there are perfect conditions expected for those gearing up for the weekend’s races.

Good luck to all our marathoners taking on Sunday, to Florian heading to Hamburg for the half marathon, and of course to everyone getting their parkrun fix. A proper weekend of racing lies ahead, built on the back of a great evening of doing good together.

Same time next week — we’ll be back at Chiswick House!

Last night in Hounslow had that unmistakable GoodGym energy - a lot of laughs, and a sense that small actions add up to something meaningful.

We headed over to Turnham Green to support the brilliant Friends of Turnham Green, a community group doing big things. This park is a shared green space, a place where people can connect with nature in the city. Keeping it cared for means it stays welcoming, safe and ready for new growth.

The mission? Collecting sticks and branches. Spread across the whole site, the team got to work collecting fallen wood, clearing the ground so it’s ready for planting. It’s one of those deceptively simple tasks that makes a difference — tidier paths, safer footing, and open space for future planting. There’s something very satisfying about that visible before-and-after, and the team absolutely delivered.

With the task complete, it was time to turn the focus to fitness.

Lower body was the theme of the night. We powered through split squats, embraced the burn with mountain legs, and even flirted with the elusive pistol squat. Determined and very impressive efforts all round.

A few well-deserved shoutouts:

• Big cheers to Breda and Gus for their great work last week and especially Maxime who led his first session
• Congratulations to Steph, who somehow managed to run three races last weekend. Incredible effort.

There’s another fantastic session coming up this weekend with the wonderful Hope Church, helping to create a garden for people using the food bank. A really special project with real impact — definitely one to get involved in

It was a bumper night in every respect last night—with so much to celebrate across the group. A huge shoutout to everyone who made the trip over to Cluj, racing everything from 10km right up to the marathon—seriously impressive stuff and plenty of great race reports filtering back. Add to that, there was lots of exciting news buzzing around the group, and it really did feel like a special evening from the outset.

We were also delighted to welcome Eleonora to her very first session—fantastic to have you with us! And big news - Eleonora is the brilliant new Area Activator for Elephant and Castle —watch this space for upcoming runs there.

A mighty group of 21 runners and cyclists assembled, ready to do good, and for the first time in months we made our return to Chiswick House. With the sun shining and temperatures firmly in the “is this really April?” zone, all the ingredients were there for a cracking session.

We made our way down to the estate garden, where we met Freya, one of the gardeners, and followed the cart down stacked with dozens of watering cans. We got straight to it, hydrating the new plants and giving everything a much-needed drink in the warm weather.

We then got stuck into digging up stubborn ivy roots and tackling plenty of weeding. Great teamwork all round.

With the task complete, it was onto fitness. Taking full advantage of the dry ground, we powered through a continuous 6-minute core blast. No breaks, no mercy—just solid effort from everyone. Strong work!

Then it was time to head back, easing out the legs with some well-earned stretches and soaking up the last of the evening sun.

Looking ahead, we’ve got a big weekend coming up: Maxime will be leading his very first session on Saturday—heading to Popesfield Allotments this Saturday

And next week, we’ll be teaming up with Friends of Turnham Green for more good deeds in green spaces 💚