10 lovely ladies and 1 lucky lad, repped the red tee massive, ran 8k and tasked all the way to Stonebridge Park!! POW POW

Run Report by Samina!!! Today we ran the full and frantic 5 miles, through the streets of Neasden, over the bridge and down the North Circular to our beloved Sufra, community food bank to help with their allotment and community gardens development.

Clare AKA "Mouse in the house:", took the lead on the front pack and guided the group through Neasden with Enrique also near the front pointing out Neasden landmarks in the “Curious Incident of the dog at nighttime” (Oh yes we have all the famous playwrights in Brent DON'T CHA KNOW). Also in Monday's team was newcomer Sabina, back for a second week in a row, regular raucous ravers - sister sledge Tabitha and Deborah, 'lets get a move on Speedy legs' Liz and fresh from her North London half marathon, queen of the medal hoard Sadhana.

Bringing up the rear was Ellie, supporting Ozlen and Thais on there first ever 8k, which they smashed to smithereens!!! Oh yes that's just how we roll in Brent! Badass!

After running down the busy North Circular route leaving the dazzling light and sights of...... ah hemmmmm: Tesco and Ikea behind us, we finally saw the arch of Wembley and turned our last corner to arrive in under 30mins at Sufra food bank where we thirsty bunch were greeted with glasses of water in the kitchen and Liz rightly reminding me that the food including biscuits and bananas wasn’t for us!!!

Within 5 minutes we were guided outside by the always smiling lead of this amazing project - Mohammed. YAY to St Raphael’s garden to collect 50 tyres from around the yard. The team Rolled up our sleeves as well as the tyres and kept rolling, rolling, rolling, in fact, to get those tyres energetically from around the yard, after which they were neatly piled high whilst Enrique and Tabitha tried to video us in action.

Joining us on the task was the resident feline visitor to the site and when the task was done, Ellie stroked its shiny black fur. As for Me-Owwwwwww I just cracked on with the next part of the task - Loading rocks into the wheelbarrows to create drainage for the site. It was a not-so-glamorous job, but someone had to rock it.

and as the other task of collecting the stones was in full swing, Ellie could been seen through the gates lunging desperately trying to exercise her spare tyre away.

We then joined forces outside the gate with Tabitha joking ‘we’re so tyred’ and ah haaaaaa the pun of all puns was born!!! YES!!! So as the team left those tyres behind, we began the last leg of running back down towards the North Circular before parting company with Sadhana and her jazzy new leggings, under the glowing arches of the Macdonalds M. So the rest of us began running all the way back to the Queensbury, where it was laughs, chats, fast-feet and a jolly good(gym) time, all the way home.

Last thing on the menu was one final stretch and wave farewell, ending yet another Magical Monday in wonderful Willesden.

See you next time!!

We had GoodGymmers from all over the place last night.

Bex and Rachel were joining us for the very first time. Lucie was checking us out after completing a Thursday fitness session and Ewa was back at GoodGym after last getting involved in 2015!

Then we had Matt and Chris from Bristol, Heather and Damian from Barnet (who both did wonderfullly at Brighton Half at the weekend), Jacqui also from Barnet, Lewisham and Greenwich regular Tom (shhh, we think he is meant to be with Adele this evening), Ewa from Tower Hamlets, Steve Lee from Camden and wannabe-Islingtoner-but-feels-sorry-for-Camden Frances.

Big news. Last night was Damian's 50th run Go and give him a big cheer.

Aidan took a strong group over to St. Luke's for more planter filling. That is pretty much done now so well done to everybody that has shovelled, wheelbarrowed, shifted and turned over the last few months.

Simon, Graham and Kike took care of the Caxton contingent, whose job it was to yank up all manner of unwanted foliage from the community centre's front garden, especially thistles, which we managed to rid the area of completely.

Yes, we all got wet, but so what? It's almost as though doing good is some sort of water repellent.

Treats for the evening were provided by Simon. Homemade flapjacks. BIGGGGG apologies to those who were off doing a lap of Highbury Fields and missed out. By way of apology I will be baking again next week and this time everybody will get some.

With Pancake Day looming there was only one thing to debate: should we stick to the traditional lemon and sugar filling, go for more exotic stuff like Nutella and banana, or go completely crazy and choose a savoury option? Most did go for modern, fancy fillings but there were a few traditionalists among us. Aidan insisted that it was unacceptable to have only one pancake anyway so you may as well have all the fillings. Go for it!

Next week we have a whopping three tasks and they're all great. Freightliners Farm, Thornhill Square and a brand new adventure at Urban Wild Gardens. Plus of course there'll be more flapjacks Sign up now

Be flippy,
Simon

Hi, Hi We're your weather girls (and Dan) and have we got news for you......You'd better listen "It's raining Brent, oh yes, it was raining Brent but a special (eight)" Came, for: 4Miles, lots of smiles and a mean clean up of Harlesden Methodist Church. ITS RAINING GOODGYM

If you didn't catch that - The rain was frighting!!! So much so I needed a pep talk call to Ruth at head office to get me pumped to hop on the old moped and brave the tube strike fall out traffic, in the torrentials, to get to my crew!! The love oh for the love... It's deep and its real!

And to my delight 7 more die-hard Goodgymers greeted my soggy entrance, with gleeful smiles and motivated madness in their eyes! ahhhhh my running familia and happy to see them was I!!

Welcoming Newbie Amy into the folds were the sexy six sisters with soul - Liz, Karen, Tabitha, Debs, Andrea and of course Moi!!!And it couldn't be a weather girls special it weren't for our "Tall, strong, dark and Lean. Rough and tough and never meannnnnnnnnn - Dan Heller of course!

Humidity is rising (uh rising), barometer's getting low. According to all sources, the street's the place to go (we better hurry up) and hurry we did! 'Cause tonight for the first time (this year)Just about half-past seven For the first time in (2017) history. It's gonna start raining Goodgymmmmmmmm!!!

Okay I'll stop with the singing now! So hot to trot we buzzed down to our task for the eve, Harlesden Methodist Church for the big clean! Slap bang in the heart of Harlesden High Street, this place is more than just a community church hall. The fantastic team offers a range of amazing services for the locals including counselling, homeless soup kitchens, clothing trade events, funding drives for the community, you name it they do it! So what better place to give back than here!!

So we set to work for a 40min blast of spruce up power, but not to let the fitness slide, simultaneously utilised the copious amounts of stairs for walking lunges and squat jump drills, taking it in turns to power up those glutes and work on those quad muscles too!!! BOOM

It wasn't long before DJ Dan's music was blasting out cheering us on through the task and drill, helping the time to fly by and before long - DING DING.... Disco over, it's time to roll out once more.

Packing up swiftly and back on the road quicker than you can say glitter-ball, the team got straight back to it, engaging those newly woken up butt muscles in hill sprints and solo dashes all the way back to base, the final 2 miles!

So despite the rain, the cold and the awol tubes, Goodgym Brent, proved once again, that obstacles do not exist when you are determined, motivated and jumping into Jan with POW POW Power, enthusiasm and Goodgym-Vibes!

See you next time!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE