On Monday evening, Area Activator Simon was joined by a top crew of Goodgym runners from all across the London boroughs (including Matthew who had just run all the way from Wandsworth as part of his half marathon training- great job!) for our slightly quirky group run with Slow Ways.

The Slow Ways virtual mapping database is an interactive guide for safe pedestrianised walking across the entirety of the UK (started during the 2020 pandemic). Other mapping programs prioritise quick point-to-point journeys, avoiding note-worthy routes within your local community. Anyone can suggest a walking route or verify a course for others, and the whole project only works with the help of fellow walkers, runners and cyclists.

After dropping off our bags at The Arsenal Community hub on Benwell Road, we ran together towards Angel Station to start our Slow Ways survey as a group. Our plan is to run the "Angel to Dalston" route together during the hours of darkness (approx 2 miles in total), and to check on any important information that we can feed back to the website. As we began our run, we jogged together down to Colebrooke Gardens (just near the entrance to the east side of Regent's Canal), while following a GPX file on OS Maps.

Next stop was to wiggle down some lovely quiet residential streets down towards the Packington Estate (and past one of our favourite task locations- The ARC Centre, still serving coffee at 7.30pm!). This was about half way through our journey, and all is going well (Toffee the dog was still trotting along with no sign of stopping!). Our next diversion lead us to The Regent's Canal tow path, over to De Beauvoir - a section that lacked wheelchair access and proved to be quite dark at this time in the evening- important things to note for our route verification exercise!

We ran parallel to a busy Kingsland Road, following the quieter residential streets instead (and passing a very tame fox, who was not bothered by our presence in the slightest) up to our final location- the intersection between Dalston Junction and Dalston Kingsland stations. Slow Ways completed!

Emily and Louise took the opportunity to hop on a tube back home at this point, while the rest of our crew continued our run back the Emirates Stadium via Mildmay Grove, Canonbury, Highbury Fields and down Whistler Street and Drayton Park. After a solid 10km of total running, we celebrated with a chat and a few refreshments at The Highbury Library. Wonderful running everyone!

View our Slow Ways Review for Angel - Dalston Route 2 (AngDal2) here:

https://beta.slowways.org/Route/Angdal/9131

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NEWS

Penn Road Gardens volunteer open morning

Sunday 26th February - 10am

Our friends at Penn Road Gardens will be hosting their monthly open gardening session on Sunday morning. Plenty of composting, mulch making and bulb planting planned. A great way to spent a Sunday morning, along with coffee provided by the neighbours!

Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/penn-road-gardens-open-morning-february-de0ec236-9f26-463d-b954-d7863a30faad

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Track Attack Time Trial- Victoria Park

Sunday 26th February- 11am

Our monthly social time trial event returns for our February edition- back to Victoria Park Track.

Area Activator Simon will be hosting a friendly and non-competitive 1 mile and 5km time trial on the former Victoria Park Harriers cinder track, accessible for all park users. Great fun!

Always followed by coffee and light breakfast over at The Hub Café.

Sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/track-attack-february-2023-victoria-park

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Goodgym Islington Group Run and Social!

Monday 27th February - 6.45pm

Next Monday evening, we will be running over to Thornhill Square Gardens to help the lovely resident gardeners which preparing one of the largest community green spaces in Islington for spring planting.

Sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-run-thornhill-square-garden-food-for-flowers

And afterwards, we will jog together to the lovely Tofu Vegan on Upper Street for some delicious Chinese cuisine and refreshments!

Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/february-social-tofu-vegan-upper-street