25 AMAZING runners ran 7km to spread the word about the mini marathon event in aid of the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice!

For those of you who saw any of the London marathon a few weeks ago, you will know that there were a lot of world record attempts.... fastest marathon in a toilet roll outfit, fastest marathon in a star costume, fastest marathon in a pair of wellies.... you get the idea. Anyway, we set a whole load of our own records last night, one of which being OUR BIGGEST EVER TURNOUT!!! 25 people. TWENTY FIVE. I mean, that's just amazing isn't it?! So I just want to say a massive thank you to ALL OF YOU for being there last night! It's great to see so many of you coming back each week, which hopefully means you are enjoying it and that really means a lot... so thanks! :)

Ok, enough of the gushy stuff..

So another great thing about last night is that we welcomed a fair number of new runners! Zeena who I managed to poach from Greenwich Training, Amy M who came to my bootcamps last summer, Lee who happened to spot James in his (crinkled) GG T shirt in the park! And last but not least, the lovely Glenn! Give them all a cheer!

GoodGym Olympics!

6.55pm approached and a giant circle automatically formed. Kind of like one of the Olympic rings, perfect timing for Vickie to chat to everyone about the GOODGYM OLYMPICS! Please sign up (deadline is 14th May), it will be a great day, loads of fun events as well as some semi-serious ones so there's something for everyone!

We talked about potatoes for a bit and then headed out for a warm up. Some high knees, booty-kicks, star jumps and wonderful partner leg swings which everyone seemed to embrace except Vickie "Don't Touch Me" Burns. I now feel extremely privileged to have received a hug from her once. Or maybe I dreamt it.

We took a group photo and tried the whole jump thing which I'm sorry to say didn't quite work which is 100% my fault (well, my phone's fault). But on the plus side the video is hilarious.

We split into two groups so that we could hit two areas of Greenwich with our flyers. Ben P & Ben C took half up the hill and around the Vanbrugh Park area while I took the other (definitely more enthusiastic) half around Greenwich with the promise of no hill........ (yeah sorry about that).

I do enjoy a flyering task however it's almost impossible not to lose anyone. I think I managed to lose Alex & Mridula within the first 30 seconds but everyone always somehow manages to come together at the end by some miracle!

We got rid of the flyers pretty quickly but Alex kept revealing more. Where was he stashing them? I would rather not know. After all the leaflets were gone, we did a few loops of the bottom of the park and then headed back to meet the others!

Ben C take it away!

Since I wasn't in the other group, here is a little account from Ben C of the happenings!

"Glad to report no clashes with political candidates canvassing the area. James mused on what to say if asked on the doorstep about the flyer. He considered leading with the question 'Do you have any small children in the house? DBS or not the rest of the group thought he might want to consider something less calling 999 provoking. Newcomer Lee flyered his own apartment block, keeping the good close to home."

7:59:51?

Our group arrived back with a few minutes to spare and just in the nick of time the others sped around the corner with a few SECONDS to spare. Perfect! Now time for the absolutely-amazing-fun-and-nothing-to-worry-about time trial!!!

THE GG TT

Ok so I want to put something to bed about this time trial. I saw A LOT of very nervous faces last night. Perhaps it's the name "time trial" that is scary? In which case I am very much open to referring to it as something else. The shape of the route kind of looks like a bum, so we could call it The Bum Kilometre?? Of course open to other names!

Anyway, as I said last night, even though the setting may feel like a race, it is absolutely not that AT ALL. Yes, we have some exceptionally fast runners in the group and of course there is going to be some natural competitiveness but at the end of the day it is you against yourself. You know how lovely everyone is, no one else in this group is judging you. Apart from Ben P judging James. But apart from that, everyone wants everyone to do well which is what makes this group so amazing in the first place. So I hope all negativity has been eradicated and you can now look forward to the next one rather than dread it :)

So the official Strava results are in and James and Amy B hold the current male and female course records for the segment. WELL DONE!!! Also Helen and Mridula both got 1km personal bests according to Strava which is amazing!!! I hope everyone logged the time that I shouted out to you and then you can use that for next time to see if you have improved :)

Well done to everyone for putting in so much effort! It is not easy doing a fast kilometre especially at the end when you have already run a fair bit! But you all did amazing and it was great to see everyone clapping and cheering and supporting each other! You guys ROCK!!!!!!!!

Once everyone had got their breath back, we did a few stretches and called it a night :)

A few little reminders:

Lots of you were talking about Ealing half last night. A bunch of us have signed up already, all the details are here. Sign up using "GoodGym10" to get 10% off, it will be a great day! And if you have never done this distance before it is a great first one! Plus you can feed off this amazing support network :)

For those of you who are new, please join our Facebook group. People are posting about weekend runs, races and other random stuff!

One more shout out about the GoodGym Olympics. Let's get an epic team together and do our borough proud!

Thanks so much for coming last night and being a part of OUR BIGGEST RUN EVER! Hope you all had a great time and see you next week!