On a bright and sunny Easter Bank Holiday (between the scattered rain showers), Area Activator Simon was joined by Goodgym regulars John and Louise for a unique group run across the Islington borough.

Simon had created an 8km/5 mile run starting from the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road, combining 5 different locations featuring free and openly accessible work-out equipment in Islington and Haringey. Our objective was to verify these locations existed and were functional for anyone to use for the charity "Moving The Masses", an initiative developed to keep fitness as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. The website (https://www.movethemasses.org.uk/move-map/) has an interactive and user verified map of free workout locations across the UK!

Our trio of Goodgym runners visited the outdoor gyms in:

Paradise Park

Laycock Street

Highbury Fields

Finsbury Park (x 2)

while combining some lovely spring-time evening running along Whistler Street and the Gillespie Park Nature Trail and the Capital Ring.

Great job everyone! Thank you for coming out!

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NEWS

Crouch End Open Space- Forest Path Building

Sunday 16th April- 11am to 1pm- Crouch End

On Sunday, we will be returning to one of our favourite local community missions- CREOS aka Crouch End Open Space- a forest path building and maintenance session with the Friends of CREOS and The Conservation Volunteers. We will be looking after the beautiful woodland walk way between Highgate and Muswell Hill. Often combined with a picnic provided by Crouch End residents!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/crouch-end-open-space-creos-volunteering-day-april-2023

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Group Run- Penn Road Gardens Plogging and Emirates Stadium Time Trial

Monday 17th April - 6.45pm- Arsenal Community Hub, Islington

On Monday, we will helping our lovely resident volunteering group with some "plogging"- Swedish for "pick up" and "jogging"! Our plan is to give their wonderful green garden space a good clear out of rubbish and litter, collated from the busy roads connecting to the site itself.

This will be followed by the Emirates Stadium Time Trial- an optional timed lap of the Arsenal Stadium concourse- 700m in total!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/group-run-penn-road-gardens-plogging

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April Group Run Social! Zia Lucia, Holloway Road!

Monday 17th April - 8.45pm, Zia Lucia, Holloway Road, Islington

After our group run to Penn Road Gardens, we are going to take the opportunity to enjoy a catch up and some delicious pizza at the ever popular Zia Lucia Italian Restaurant on Holloway Road.

Sign up here to get involved!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/april-social-post-group-run-pizza-at-zia-lucia

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Pre- London Marathon Finsbury parkrun Takeover!

Saturday 22nd April - 8.45am, Finsbury Park

On the final Saturday before London Marathon, Goodgym Islington have agreed to help the wonderful team at Finsbury parkrun (a free weekly timed 5km running event, that is radically inclusive!) with volunteering at their event. They are looking for marshals, barcode scanners, funnel managers, token sorters, time keepers and many more roles.

And we plan to visit the excellent Blighty cafe on Blackstock Road for some post-parkrun breakfast!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/finsbury-park-parkrun-volunteering-pre-london-marathon-party