The weekly news roundup

It was less a news roundup than a celebration of all the brilliant running and volunteering team Hounslow had been doing this week, which is pretty marvellous. So, ladies and gents, please put your hands together for Luis, who before joining GoodGym hadn't run 5k, and last weekend raced his very first half marathon! That is some amazing progress Luis, well done!

Running with Luis in the Hertfordshire half marathon were fellow Hounslow GoodGymers, the unstoppable Michelle, Andy and Remy. Absolutely cracking work gang.

Well done also to Amanda who came along bright and early to volunteer at the Tooting parkrun takeover on Saturday when we turned the common GoodGym red!

But we were so sad to say goodbye to Andreea and Ross - you've been an amazing part of the team guys! There's no escaping us really - not only is there a wonderful GG in Bath and Bristol, but if you're back in London on Wednesday make sure you come and see us!

Frosty welcomes

Tonight's task was for a brand new charity called That's A Wrap, based in Hounslow. They plan to bring residents together in support of local causes through community collections and events. In mid November, they launched their first project - a 2000 toy appeal for a number of local charities that support disadvantaged children in the area and have already been inundated with requests from local charities. They approached us asking for help raising toys through spreading the word about their appeal by leafleting in the local area.

We were met at the Town Hall by the lovely Saba and Ibrahim, who told us all about the project, and let us know how we could help with the wrapping later on this month. Now, doing the leaflet thing isn't everybody's fav GoodGym task, but it's a job that can really save the charity time and money. So after a much needed warm up, we had our weekly question - which this evening was; 'what job would you be terrible at?' Turns out we would be lousy at being a sports coach, writing, being a doctor and, the most surprising answer from lovely Andy- anything to do with people! We don't believe you.

With our Strava set, we were ready for the off and headed in the direction of Brentford to start shifting some leaflets. We have now, it's safe to say, perfected the single file method of hitting up letterboxes, and before too long were moving like a well-oiled machine. After half an hour of nippy fingers and fast moving feet we had got to the end of our pile. Between the 13 of us we got a mammoth 400+ leaflets distributed. As well as really helping out the charity, we have helped spread the word to local people and will raise who knows how many toys! A job well done.

Sprint Finish

Even after all that hard work we weren't yet finished, and headed back to Turnham Green to do our fitness session, which kicked off with a few ABC exercises. Then we had time to fit in some lovely, lovely pyramid sprints before ending the night on our weekly minute plank. Excellent work all round, Hounslow!

Next week we're back to the brilliant Maryville Care Home to visit Sister Clare and to paint some rooms and wash some wheelchairs. Don't miss out, sign up here!