Report By Collins Nomafo

I made my GoodGym Brent debut last night and boy it was an eventful evening and certainly one to remember. It was a Bank Holiday relocation for the group which met at the Mosaic Youth Centre on Kilburn High Road.

Upon arrival, I was greeted by the wonderful trainer, Ellie Wood, and the charming host Lukasz. Right there Ellie warned me: “we are all C-R-A-Z-Y!”

Claire joined us a few minutes later and all four of us cosied up on the sofas in the reception area while waiting for Pritesh. If anyone told you waiting is boring, they never been to GoodGym Brent! I mean the chatter and banter was top notch and it was combined with our host Lukasz keeping us in total suspense regarding the task for the day.

He did, however, reveal our reward early on and yes we loved it! The kitchen was filled with fruits for the end of session smoothies so we certainly knew what we were doing at the end. Get drunk on smoothies!

Pritesh arrived and it was a drum roll moment because it meant Lukasz had to reveal the secret task for the day. We had to transfer some boxes from an office to another room, then get some books and DVDs out of a cabinet in another room to be transferred to the library. Finally, we had to empty 2 filing cabinets which contained some stationary and all kind of stuff and then move them. Sounds straight forward and an everyday task right? Think again!

We moved the boxes and emptied the cabinet but opening the filing cabinets was like finding a treasure chest. Wigs and masks could only mean one thing really. It was time to GET WIGGY WITH IT!.........The pictures tell the whole story. See if you can spot Amy Winehouse! Yes! Amy Winehouse was at GoodGym Brent!

Task completed. It was time to head out for the run. It was a short jog to the Kilburn running track. We started slowly by doing a whole lap as a trio and then did individual 200m and jogging back the remaining 200m twice. That was the warm-up! It was then time to take on the track in turns individually while being timed by Ellie. I took off first on my first 400m timed run then was shortly followed by Claire and Pritesh rounded it up. We did 3 laps each during which Pritesh set a Personal Best with 1.18 and Claire was Ms Consistent setting the exact same time twice. Oh yeah and I ran out of steam on my last lap ☺

It was then time to return to the Youth Centre to get drunk on smoothies but the jog back turned out to be another adventure. It was a very short journey back but half way through I cramped in my left calf and was in agony. Thankfully I had the amazing Ellie to ease me through it. We thought we got rid of it but a few metres later it came back with a vengeance attacking both calves leaving me in double agony but again the whole group made sure I was ok before I was back on my feet again. But well, they say the number 3 signifies completion so I experienced a third cramp with the Youth Centre in sight. Again in my left calf and this time up my left thigh too. However with the finish line so close and smoothies waiting at the Centre, Ellie helped me stretch it and breathe it out.

Back at the Youth Centre it was Ellie’s homemade sugary salty healing potion to start me with and then it was time to get JIGGY with the smoothies. We had an awesome time before we unfortunately all had to part ways.

Join us next week so you do not miss out ☺

Collins Nomafo