25 runners ran 8k to paint a Youth Centre

Painting, sanding down walls, and squirting funny sticky foam into holes...it's not very often you get to do that while out on an 8k run. But that is exactly what we got up to on this week's Camden GoodGym run. We were tasked with helping out at The Winch- an inspiring Youth Group in Swiss Cottage.

Help for Children of all ages

They work with children and young people between 4- 25 years old, offering a number play groups, after school clubs and even enterprise programmes helping local children create livelihoods doing something they love. They needed some help sprucing up the main hall upstairs. It's used as the centre's main source of income but is looking a bit shabby. With all their other commitments they just can't find time to do it themselves.

Best view in London

It was a 3.77km run from our meeting point in Somers Town Community Centre to The Winch- including a run to the top of Primrose Hill. The climb is a bit of ball breaker but the view's a beaut- looking across the whole of London. We didn't linger too much however and were quickly up at the Youth Centre ready to start painting.

GoodGym suprise!

Tasia from the centre met us at the door- and was pretty shocked to see a team of 25 people! She couldn't believe that many people would be crazy enough to run and paint on a cold January evening. As a result there wasn't quite enough rollers to go round- so a small team starting filling holes with squirty poly filler and sanding down the rough walls before paint could be lathered on top. We only had 30mins so we got down to it pretty quickly.

Run home with added hill sprints for the hardy

We broke into two teams on the way home- one keeping the run nice and social, and the other pushing the pace home. The faster group had an added challenge- they stopped at Primrose Hill and legged it back to the top....twice! Phwooooaaar. We carried on back to the Community Centre- feeling double-y virtuous after a hard workout and a nice bit of painting for a good cause.