18 GoodGym'ers needed no schooling in the art of destruction at Flora Gardens Primary

It was a hot one last night with flying ants galore but that didn’t stop 18 GoodGym runners joining together to help the local community and get another good deed done.

News, news, news

1. Asics London 10K Aid Station Volunteering - Sunday 21st July - Come and volunteer at the race, you'll get FREE entry into another Virgin Sport race and get to cheer on loads of other GoodGym'ers. For all the details on how to sign up click here.
2. London City Relays - Thursday 11th July - GoodGym takeover day OR on Friday 19th July - Mr Jonny Knight is running a stage at 10.05pm. To join him, click here.
3. Morden Hall 10K - Sunday 28th July - the monthly free trail run. Click here for all the details.

After the brief news round-up we began the warm up with some high knees, heel flicks, side lunges, skipping and the classic shooing the chickens; and then we were off on the short run down to this evening's task at Flora Gardens Primary School.

There would be no second week off from the weekly wall sit as we briefly paused en route to ensure we got it in! They say lightning doesn't strike twice but Mr Johnny Wren was again left on all on his tod!

Getting hammered in school 🏫

After the short run down to Flora Gardens we were greeted at the school gates by Jeanette who led us into the main school building and provided us with the details for the task this evening. Tonight it was demolition and destruction! A new task for us H&F lot which we got stuck in to straight away! The task involved removing shelves and units from the old reception room in the school so it could be turned into a brand new meeting room. The room was a bit of a squeeze so whilst some helped out inside, some ventured outside instead to lend a hand removing some pesky weeds.

Masters of destruction ⚠️

Back inside, there were some school trophies spotted in the room - some even older than us GoodGym'ers, these were moved to safety along with some other useful bits and bobs, such as notebooks before the destruction began! The shelves and coat hooks were quickly removed using some excellent screwdriver skills and taken outside so the caretaker could remove them early the next morning.

Stop! Hammer time 🔨

All that was left to deal with was the two units that were firmly embedded into the wall and floor. With a huge team effort involving hammering, kicking, and pure brut GoodGym strength the units were finally removed and taken outside, where some more strength was used to break the units into smaller more manageable pieces. There was Johnny's no-nonsense and effective 'throw it up in the air' and watch it smash to pieces method, Lucy's powerful 'downward kick' and Jonny's well, lets just say slightly less effective 'karate chop'. Great work team!

Squirrels think frogs are ribbiting creatures 🐸

Meanwhile outside amongst the squirrels, including one that had hopped into the frog bin, the weeding team had found a rather weedy patch to tackle, and although the ground was tough in places, they were able to transform it into a lovely looking flowerbed using the tools from the school’s greenhouse. Another great job done!

There's always time for some child's play! 🃏

Tasks complete we all regrouped at the school’s adventure playground, where some GoodGymers took on the obstacle course challenge - providing some fantastic agillity and balance based fitness! After a quick photo shoot we then moved to the larger football area for another fitness session. After splitting into two teams, each team was given a list of numbered exercises that corresponded with some numbered cups. A member of each team had to run, choose a cup, find the corresponding exercise and then complete the number of reps stated. One team seemed to complete a large amount of press-ups and squat thrusts, whilst the other team seemed to conveniently avoid these completing more jumping jacks instead. We then formed a circle and completed a tough abs session (without Mr Abs on tour, but a session definitely inspired by him!), then it was time to head back.

Hold door horses 🚪

A slight issue with the door meant we were unable to set off straight away....thanks for everyone’s help in trying to resolve this! However we ended up being lucky with a chance encounter with another one of the school employees, who was able to ring Jeanette and assure us it was OK for us to leave. We set off for the short run back with some choosing to push the pace and sprint to the end (always good to see!) and got back to the leisure centre for a quick warm down. Well done everybody on a fantastic team effort tonight and thank you again for all your help in solving the door fiasco!

Next week we're heading up to the Nubian Life Resource Centre to help out at their Josiah Braithwaite Community Garden. As it's the monthly social we'll then be heading to Wagamama's post-run! Sign up here. Have a lovely rest of your week and weekend. See you next week!

Big kudos to Catherine for this week's top pun!