16 GoodGym'ers ran 3km back to school to paint 'The White House' blue & green

You can feel the warmer weather coming (honestly it is, the Met Office says so...), the evenings are lighter and longer, its the best time of the year for running and GoodGym! Following a quick downpour before we all arrived we were lucky that despite the grey skies the weather was set fair for the rest of the evening - yippee! Amongst all my wonderful regulars tonight, it was lovely to welcome along Bilal and Francesca for their first H&F group run - hope you both enjoyed it and hopefully see you again soon!

News yourself in all this week's news...

Firstly there was lots of superb racing to celebrate from the weekend, well done to Eloise and Matt who ran the Fulham & Putney Half and got a nice new shiny PB! Well done to Bex, Catherine and Tom for their Towpath 10 runs - and a big beltated Happy Birthday to Catherine! 🥳 It was also great to have Jonny running with us again after a deserved week off following his amazing Manchester Marathon run! Plus of course some parkruns! 🙌🏼

1. April London Long Run - Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath join Catriona on Saturday 27th April from 10.30am as she leads a scenic run loop around Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath followed by lunch.
2. Fulham Palace parkrun GoodGym takeover - Saturday 29th June! - Our friends at Fulham Palace parkrun will celebrate their 300th parkrun event...and the best news is that GoodGym will be helping out with a BIG takeover event! - please fill out the spreadsheet on the sign up page with your preferred volunteer role or pacing time.
3. GoodGym Olympics 2019 represent H&F on Saturday 3rd August in events from Egg and Spoon to 5000m!

Another nifty fifty 5️⃣0️⃣!

AND, a big congratulations to Tom for reaching his 50th good deed - some awesome work & good deeding over the past year and a half, Tom!!

Too school for cool

With the name, number count and short pulse raising warm-up completed, we headed off on our short 1.5km run to our task tonight at Flora Gardens Primary School. With one quick wall sit completed en route - for some weird reason, Johnny 'no mates' joined the group this week on the same wall, madness! - it wasn't long before we arrived at the school gates and were buzzed inside by the school's Business Manager, Jeanette who was waiting for us inside the school's 'The White House'.

Jeanette (the honorary GoodGym member and avid parkrunner!) welcomed us into 'The White House' and into the main room that the team had painted in previous weeks, it was all beginning to look a lot more vibrant and colourful throughout the building thanks to all the efforts and hard work of my GoodGym team (and of course, from the wonderful, Jeanette!). Jeanette explained to the group that in the building the school run a before- and after-school club where meals and snacks are provided so that no child goes hungry. Unfortunately like most schools, they were facing tough financial pressures so did not have the Monet to pay for full price paint and professional redecoration of their school buildings. Thanks to Community Repaint, a brilliant scheme that redistributes leftover paint into their communities at around a third of the price, Jeanette had managed to source around 60 litres for under £150 and for the second time, the many helping hands of GoodGym runners to help revamp some white rooms. What a steal!

No bog standard blue & green

Tonight's task was to apply the second coat of the bright 'Gilbert Green' and 'Heavenly Horizon' colour to the once white and dull walls of the conservatory and toilet. The team split into two groups, with Jonathan pretty keen to take up his painting battle with the toilet again..who could deny a man this opportunity?! In 60 minute makeover style, half of the group had quickly armed themselves with paint brushes and covered up their valuable GoodGym tees and sportswear with the free oversized L'Oreal t-shirts that had been sent to the school - normally used for when the children do arts and crafts so as to protect their school clothes, genius! Jason oversaw the painters and took some fabulous photos of the transformation (and thanks to popular demand, more fun eccentric filtered photos - make sure you check them out!).

Ball for your core needs

While half of the group were painting away under the watchful eye and camera lens of Jason, the other half headed outside for this week's fitness session.

Queens and Wimbledon may be a few months away yet, but tonight one Wimbledon tennis ball 🎾 would provide the team with a tough core workout.

First up was the plank circle, everyone had to hold the plank position as a tennis ball was passed round the circle, with the bonus of a press up when the ball landed in their hands.

Next up was the line twist, everyone sat in the v-twist position and the ball was passed up and down the line, amazingly, no one dropped it in either of the groups...further v-sits avoided (phew!). Everyone seemed to love these core exercises as there were no challenges or asks for deuce...just the sighs and heavy breathing of hard work, great work all!

Upon arrival at the school we’d noticed a short felted track complete with a timer...this of course had to be test run by everyone. Despite the corners proving tricky to negotiate on two feet, everyone successfully made it round. The time of 13 seconds was definitely the modal result, with an impressive run of 6 in a row at 13 seconds being the highlight!

And finally, there was the numbers game, a short 5m sprint battle to the tennis ball when your number was called. Johnny very amusingly ‘won’ his round as he spotted another tennis ball in the playground that was closer - aced it, Johnny!

New balls please...

With the rotation of the groups seemless, the walls in the conservatory had had their second coat of paint efficiently and skillfully applied and were now looking a lot fresher and brighter than a couple of weeks ago, and the toilet was markedly improved, with one final painting session needed to apply the finishing touches. With time ticking on, the team helped Jeanette clean-up the paint brushes and I captured a lovely team photo amongst the backdrop of the 'this is what we've painted before' green and blue main room - instead of jazz hands this week, we went for hands in the air (like you just don't care) to mix it up!

There is tow alternative but to take the path back to base

We said our goodbyes to Jeanette and headed out of the school and headed off on the final part of our run down through Furnival Gardens, along the towpath and back to base - with a couple of bonus squats and spotty dogs thrown in when we regrouped. Everyone ran a strong pace back and aside from a couple of quick stops for the traffic lights, there was no stopping everyone! Back at base we all regrouped and completed a quick cool down and stretch off (with the reward being cake at the end!).

Cake no bones about it, it was the best gingerbread cake EVER

Cool down and stretches complete the class were dismissed to enjoy some delicious and all-round epic homemade gingerbread cake made by the very talented baker, Catherine, in celebration of Tom's 50th good deed! Thank you very much, Catherine - what a treat and fantastic way to finish off the evening!

Next week's task is TBC - keep an eye on the WhatsApp group and the weekly fitness email that I'm sure you all read every week ...Sign up for next week’s run here. Have a fantastic long weekend and Easter break!