22 GoodGym'ers did some school runnings, watching their (Flora) Garden footprint as they ran 3km back to school

Despite tonight’s run following a bank holiday Monday, and the continued thoughts of another ‘so what day of the week is it today?!’, and a certain Liverpool match you may have heard about, it seemed that loads of runners were eager to run and do good in H&F on our first May run of the year.

There were lots of new faces amongst my regulars tonight - a big welcome along to Connor, Elder, Finnegan and Quilan, hope you all enjoyed your first (hopefully of many!) GoodGym group runs. Lovely to have you all along tonight!

Weekly news not for the weak...

Well done to Matt who got a parkrun PB at the weekend, the highlight being his surprise that I knew...🕵🏽‍, to Tom for his Tough Mudder and to Mo and Jonny for completing the tough burpee-filled Spartan race.

1. GoodGym 'UK-wide' monthly social - this Thursday at Batch Bar in Peckham - join Pritesh & other GG'mers to celebrate heroes of the months, April's IPOTM (International Pun of the Month) and lots of other fun. For all the details, click here.
2. May London Long Run - on Saturday 18th May, led by GoodGym Lamber Trainer, Mark around a number of South London parks (10km & 19km run options available), for all the details, click here.
3. Fulham Palace parkrun GoodGym takeover - Saturday 29th June! - Our friends at Fulham Palace parkrun will celebrate their 300th parkrun event...and the best news is that GoodGym will be helping out with a BIG takeover event! - Sign up here & please fill out the spreadsheet on the sign up page with your preferred volunteer role or pacing time.
4. GoodGym Olympics 2019 - represent H&F on Saturday 3rd August in events from the Egg & Spoon to 5000m! Sign up here.

And good luck to those that are racing on the weekend in Sofia 🇧🇬 and Ealing 🦅 - we look forward to hearing all about them next week!

Gate minds think alike...

Following a quick warm-up which included an amusing/awkward (delete as appropriate!) 'opening the gate' standoff between Catriona and Katie, we headed off on our short 1km run down to Flora Gardens Primary to see one of our favourite honorary GoodGym members, Jeanette. Pausing only briefly for the weekly wall sit it wasn't long before we arrived at the school gates and were buzzed in by Jeanette.

With us all passing the big Flora Gardens sign before we reached the entrance of 'The White House' and with it being wonderfully light, I decided to mix things up and go 'backwards' as I asked the group to gather for the team photo before we got started on the painting 🎨 tonight.

Brush hour...not for the paint-hearted!

Since there wasn’t much appetite to test the "can 22 GoodGym’ers fit in one small room and paint?!" question, so half the group headed inside with Jeanette to paint while the other half stayed outside for some 'fitness fun' which tonight comprised of circuits and the mysterious ‘destiny cards’ game. Everything was ready to go with the painting side of things so the team quickly got kitted up in their oversized L'Oreal t-shirts, armed themselves with paint brushes, and began transforming the white walls to a bright 'gilbert green' and 'heavenly horizon' colour.

No short circuits

While half the group were painting the other half got stuck into a tough circuit session which included: leg raises, frog jumps, jumping jacks, plank tap shoulders and burpees. These were all smashed out by everyone, with extra enthusiasm for the burpees from Jonny and Mo after their Spartan escapades at the weekend, and rumour was that Tom even willingly chose an upper body exercise!

Having met 'scouser Jonny's' (so many Jonny's in H&F!!) lovely friend from Uni, Helen at GoodGym Sheffield on Sunday, I passed on 20 bonus burpees to him which he duly completed, and in true team spirit, everyone joined him for his final 5 burpees. Great work all! 💪

The race of spades ♠️...it was good in hearts ♥️

Now I’m not sure if it was because the group were in a playground but the ‘destiny cards’ game led to a few friendly ‘scuffles’, and one card that magically became two smaller ones not due to being ripped in the midst of battle.... The simple aim of the game was to run out to the middle circle and collect all the cards from the teams chosen suit, obviously there was a catch, the pack of cards were face down! I’m going to declare an honourable draw for both games.

With the painting completed in double-quick time and the fitness session completed, we said our goodbyes and thankyous to Jeanette, and Sarah led the group back to base via the scenic route along the river. Following a quick stretch-off the class were dismissed for another week.

Next week's task is TBC, so please keep an eye on the WhatsApp group and weekly email for all the details. Please sign up here. Most importantly it's the monthly H&F social after the run, there will be drinks, food and friendly chat as always! See you then, have a great week!