On the last run of 2019, and of the decade, 15 GoodGym'ers had a Santastic evening planting bulbs at the Josiah Braithwaite Community Garden!

Oh it’s beginning to look (and sound) a lot like Christmas! Tonight, 14 wonderful GoodGym’ers joined me on the final run before the Christmas break, festively dressed in Christmas hats and earrings, and high in spirits.

In a Tuesday evening double-deed special, 6 of these GoodGym’ers had just come from a Community Mission for the Shepherd’s Bush Families Project, where they were serenaded by the angelic voices of Katie and Lucy who sung and danced their way to the BetterGym...in the words of Buddy the elf...”the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!”

Big welcome along to Beverley who joined us for her first GoodGym H&F group run - thank you for coming along, hope you enjoyed it!

You snow the drill...news, then 'elf & safety

1. Win a limited-edition GoodGym sweatshirt 👕 - bring a friend to a community mission in December and post the story of your community mission on social media with the tag #winterwarriors. All the details can be found here.
2. New GoodGym badge alert! - attend a community mission between Thursday 19th of December and Sunday 5th January to earn this new winter warrior badge.
3. H&F Community Mission - 'Operation put the hall back together' for Shepherd Bush Families Project on Thursday 2nd January from 11am-1pm. Join Lucy to help move furniture and toys back into their hall, please sign up here.

Time waits for snowman

With the news and all important 'elf and safety briefing covered we had a quick warm-up which comprised of some high knees, jumping jacks, spotty dogs, lunges and some festive 'shooing of the turkeys'.

Before we set-off on our run we had a quick fitness fix through a brilliant team performed of the 12 Days of GoodGymas:

• 12 stars a-jumping
• 11 squatters squatting
• 10 lungers lunging
• 9 runners a-leaping
• 8 press-ups
• 7 lungers side-lunging
• 6 dabbers dabbing
• 5 spotty dogs
• 4 squat jumps
• 3 burpees
• 2 single hops
• and a partridge in a GoodGym tee!

Bravo team! 👏

No rain, deer

The pouring rain had convenient stopped and with everyone nicely warmed up we headed off through the busy streets of Hammersmith up towards Shepherd’sBush, pausing briefly for the beloved wall sit en route. Thanks to all the rain there were quite a few shouts of "puddle" and after a splash, "sorry, puddle!".

Sleigh, what?!

We entered into the Josiah Briathwaite Community Garden, part of the Nubian Life Centre, and were greeted by the lovely Susannah. The Nubian Life Centre provides adult day care services for the Afro-Caribbean community with health issues such as Dementia and Alzheimer's.

Susannah explained that the garden was used by the elders for their Saturday gardening club where they grow organic and medicinal food. The young'uns also come along to pick and eat the apples and cucumbers in the garden, and they're also taught skills such as cooking and felting.

Yule never guess who got here first!

One of the tasks for the evening was going to be the sweeping of the paths, but the Christmas elves had beat us to it and had formed neat piles of leaves that Alice was quickly able to clear-up and bag using the small but efficient dustpan and brush!

Working in Claus proximity

The other task for tonight was a first for many...bulb planting! There were 2 species of bulbs that the team were planting tonight, the edible Camassias and Allium. With the key planting techniques covered: how deep in the soil to plant, which way up to plant and how you should plant in triangles and not straight lines, the team gloved up and split into smaller groups of 3 or 4. Each group took a handful of bulbs, a floodlight and a trowel and set to work.

With fabulous team and trowel work it wasn't long before all the bulbs were expertly planted in the planters ready to flower in the spring. Great job team. Amazing work as always! All that was left to do was to pack-up the trowels and gardening gloves, and of course take our team photo with some perfectly-lit conditions thanks to all the floodlights!

Time to head back? Sleigh it ain't so

Following a quick final chat with Susannah about the Gardeners' World visit last year - check it out here - we all said our final thankyous, goodbyes and Merry Christmas' and began our run back to base.

Following a speedy run back to base, we were treated to a special Mo led cool down and stretch off, in the words of the man himself, "ah that's lovely that!"

2019...it’s a wrap! 🎁 What a TREEmendous 🎄 & RUNderful 🏃🏼‍♀️🏃🏻‍♂️year...time to get Santa-mental! 🎅🏼

Thanks for another fantastic year team! And for the chocolate treats! Have a lovely Christmas and Happy New Year!

SEE YOU IN 2020...FIRST RUN OF THE YEAR - TUESDAY 7TH JANUARY! Please sign up here.