17 of us fully charged and raring to go met at Wholefoods this evening. In the awesome pack was Sam from Liverpool, Rosanna from Southwark and Matt from Kingston – All on a first tourist trip with Richmond and most welcome, as was Christina on her first ever GG adventure and welcome back Naveed, Ciara and Emily on your 2nd run out too!

The brief was kept as short as we could to allow for time on the road this evening but it included heaps from a task vote of action, a shout out for the Richmond run festival this coming weekend and then a huge congrats to Anita on achieving a first place in her category in the Richmond Duathlon this weekend – Very Proud of you!!

Jack delivered a super warm up on the green, squeezing in a mini circuit and even BURPEES!!!! To which all performed remarkably well (some did just seem to stand with hand on hips but assured me they were just doing the drills VERY FAST – I believed them of course!) We were POWERED UP so time to get our stride on.

Fast feet make light work! #community #tasks #doinggood #getfit #running #charity #volunteering #warmup #goodgym #richmond pic.twitter.com/hRYPjKBe1n

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 10, 2019

The run was long and straight for the most part with no hills. It was referred to as a little boring in fact but we decided it was made all the lighter for the great company we ran with and of course it cheered me up to hear that hills are more interesting. So, the way forward is to the hills – we have seen the light ; - )

Warm up time! Thanks to Run Leader Jack for putting us through our paces! #goodgym #runninggroup #richmond #warmup #fitness #volunteering #community pic.twitter.com/Mm3umyACg8

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 10, 2019

The task tonight was a NEW one for us, so super excited to be helping at THE MORTLAKE OLD POWER STATION which now houses the venue for Mortlake Youth Centre and what a great place it is. Danielle, our task owner was ready with all tasks in place; so after some quick hydration and some explanation we powered through as much tidying and cleaning as we could in the art room and kitchen, prepped as many bottles as we could for the youths who attend to creatively upcycle, cut as many SPOOKY labels as we could to be used for Halloween craft and then lifted huge items (SOFA included) to make space and allow better use of the areas available.

Powering up our cleaning skills at the Old Power Station Youth Centre #richmond #barnes #goodgym #volunteering #fun #runninggroup pic.twitter.com/AffQB0E3Yg

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 10, 2019

Phew…what a lot to do mid 7/8km run. We loved it though and made as much use of the time as we could.

The Youth Centre is a great space in our community for the youths to have access to and Danielle was super to welcome us so that we could help contribute to this facility.

As ever time goes to short and now head torches a glow, we bobbed our way back in and out of some smaller darker alleys and walks until the road was a straight stretch back to Wholefoods for some stretching and a chance to refuel.

Next week we celebrate GoodGym turning 10 years old. To celebrate we will be having drinks and food at One Kew Road in Richmond after the run. The theme of our party is "What I wanted to be when I was 10" - you can come in fancy dress to either the run, the pub or both!! Sign up here - https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-runs

Oh and not forgetting...a GG tourist had a great idea tonight regarding who write's the run report. From now on if no one volunteers then I will nominate a Task Force member...it could be you! (Insert evil laugh here)