Wow what a night, it was amazing! There were 36 GoodGymers running between 5-10km to take on two tasks to help the community in Camden as part of our 3rd birthday fun!

We kicked off talking about monthly drinks today, the amazing work of the JOGLE Team cycling 1018 miles in 15 days and Alex Kenmure being the only GG Camden runner who was there on Group Run Number 1 and has been doing it for the full 3 years - boom!

The first group of 18 people left and went to Abbey Community Centre to help pack heavy duty envelopes, report by Pritesh:

Goodgym Camden’s very own Pritesh ‘Colombus’ Mistry was at it again taking a group that started at 10, became 14 and ended up with 18 hardy runners going for the 10k option! Yup, that’s 10k of running on a Wednesday evening before we even factor in the task!

With back markers set (thanks Tom and Steve) the group quickly headed off after the fun filled briefing from Paul (it was birthday night after all!). It’s always a challenge with a big group and with a mix of new and old heads at all ranges of running ability we kept up a steady pace knowing that time was of the essence.

10k? Task? Do we want more?

Of course we do and to everyone’s delight (ahem) we took on Primrose Hill during our long run to the Abbey Community Centre. Pritesh may have been a bit vague about the route (“oh its not that far…no I don’t think there are any hills…”) but everyone powered through and worked those arms and legs to get to the summit. A quick break to take in the view, the obligatory group picture and off we went.

Upon our arrival at Abbey Community Centre we were greeted by the wonderful Laura who had water ready for us and the task set out to go! Abbey is a centre for local elderly community and we were there to stuff envelopes to be sent to let everyone in the community know what was going on at the centre! This was a really important task as it is a bit of a highlight for everyone to receive their mailings.

Twenty minutes to get done what usually takes a day – that is what GoodGym Camden is all about! Fourteen runners went to task and with a goal of two envelopes stuffed per minute the pairs worked hard and made sure we got it all done – 450 envelopes done! With the remaining four of us doing bar service (water martini anyone?) for those on envelope duty and then doing some weeding in the garden we were all busy and the 20 minutes flew by!

A few more group pictures for Laura, and then we quickly made our way out of the centre and back for the long run home! We were greeted by a Blade Runner-esque view of London from the top of Primrose Hill, pretty special, but we didn’t stop for long and before we knew it we were back at base! We had a good old stretch, led by Paul before we headed to the birthday party and some thoroughly deserved cake!

A fantastic run and task and for some of the group the longest runs they had ever done - a great achievement!

Castlehaven Run Report written by PB:

The second group of 18 warmed up and then headed with a steady pace to Castlehaven where we were met by the lovely Fred, he explained there were 4 tasks that needed doing: litter picking, collecting rubbish for the skip in two places and bagging up books to be donated.

We split into teams with Meredith leading the skip collectors and Lucia 'bag lady' Gobbi leading the packing of books. In 20 minutes we had filled the skip, packed 10 bags full of books and litter picked both of the parks Castlehaven look after.

Gobbi = Bag Lady!

Castlehaven is a thriving community association which is a dynamic agency for social change constantly searching for new more effective ways of alleviating social problems old and new.

Once we'd taken a team photo we headed along the canal book bags in hand towards Granary Square. Once there the group did some progressive running around the square; on each corner they turned they picked up the pace until they were at race pace. Once rested six of the group members decided to do one more lap - good work guys.

We headed back to base talked about monthly drinks and prepared ourselves for the Camden party - woop woop! There was cakes, chips, beer, laughs, speeches, a quiz and even a game - 'put the spade on the GoodGymer'.

Wow what an amazing evening, join us next week for more!.