25 amazing Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to The Hive to get the Preparations for Re:Generation started by painting a building (as you do).

So I was nervous that maybe the task was going to be a bit big for Team Hackney, I was then doubly nervous when the temperature was 0 degrees ❄️❄️ and triply as nervous at 6:50 when we only had 4 GoodGymers at the Bakehouse. But my overly positive (as my wife would say) nature was rewarded as like lightening ⚡️⚡️ an amazing 25 energised and enthusiastic GoodGymer turn out ready for action! Definitely a Team Hackney come back PB

We continued our balance focused warm ups with some agile high knees to 1 leg balances and honed our coordination with some beautiful skipping both for height and distance as well as throwing in a few powerful tempo intervals to really get the blood flowing 🏃🏽🏃🏾🏃🏿🏃🏻. We dominated a series of squats and lunges in preparation for the Motherships take off. As the Mothership arrived we arranged ourselves into 4 dynamic strike forces ready to take on the Motherships missions. As the Mothership kept a steady pace up Richmond Road the Stike forces were being sent on super speedy 🏃🏼🏃🏻 and strength building 💪🏽💪🏾 missions before reporting back all the good work they had done to the to the Mothership 🚀🚀.

We arrived to [The Hive](to a celebrity welcome as we were being filmed as part of the Re:Generation festival. We bounced up the stairs to the 3rd floor to find something oh so Hackney! A sea of juggling performers and tight rope artists cordoned off from the walls with road work barriers and while 20 rollers and 10 paint brushes lay next to 20 paint pallets filled with gleaming white emulsion paint. Yes this sounds far fetched but it really did happen see

We grabbed brushes and rollers and with so much energy we had Gee and the team at The Hive running around the building finding more areas to paint as we moved at break neck speed painting wall after wall and staircase after staircase! Team you were awesome 👏🏾👏🏻👏🏽👏🏻🎉🎉. After a serreal 45 minutes of paint roller brilliance 🎨🎨🖌🖌 from Team Hackney we had painted 7 walls and 6 flights of staircases! Wow just Wow!!

Gee and the rest of the guys from The Hive could not believe the transformation and were so greatful for everyone's help and are really looking forward to our return next week!

A massive thank you to Nilesh and Forest Recycling Project for providing the paint and hopefully we will have many more projects with them in the future.

We left like a blur and ran the 2k back to base where we warmed down and stretched out happy and satisfied with our evenings work.

Was great to see so many happy smiling faces enjoying themselves, doing Good and getting fit. Lovely to hear so many ideas to make Hackney a nicer place to be and amazing to see new and very strong fitness habits being formed. Keep coming back and fitness, fun and Good deeds are a guarantee!!

Next week we are back to the Hive to continue our Re:Generation preparation by painting the ceiling (with rollers on extendable pols) of the the 3rd floor sign up here and don't forget about the starter session next Thursday the 28th which will be same format just a little less running (everyone is more than welcome).

Good luck to everyone running the Victoria Park 10k on Sunday!! Pace it well and finish strong 🏃🏾🏃🏿🏃🏼🏃🏻 you will hear me with my cheer squad no doubt!

Lastly a huge thank you to Kev for his help on the run last night and also in preparation for it!! An amazing 1 man Task force 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

See you all next week

Silky Smooth

Joel