THREE TASKS NO LESS!

What a busy night: three tasks, three beautifully organised task owners.

We met in our lovely hotel room where Torie headed up the lighting operation: attaching straps to our new head torches, and together with Emma, Isabelle & Kat, helped figure out the hows and whys of transporting our new spangly lights.

We headed out for some quick warm up exercises, welcoming late arrivals before forming three highly competent crews…

Task Force save the day again

• Kat and Isabelle led one team to Meath Gardens, where task owners, Friends of Meath Gardens, including Joanna, Julia and Jane, were ready and waiting with carts, spades & litter-picking kit for mulch moving, digging aaaand litter-picking.

• Lieke led the St Margaret’s House posse – a team of 5 taking to the streets of Bethnal Green to distribute newsletters and flyers about some exciting events this fab arts centre has coming up.

• And I led a third team to the Parkview Estate, where Catherine and little Liam greeted us with bundles of the estate’s newsletters, and the best instructions and organisation in town. The team was dispatched to all four corners of the estate, leaving no stone unturned as we distributed the newsletter to all residents, letting them know of a forthcoming litter-pick, and the new basketball hoops.

Busy bees or what.

The team at Meath were shovelling mulch, and collecting every last bit of litter, while Lieke’s leafleting posse distributed every flier given, and my team at Parkview covered the development like pros.

And then we met at our favourite fitness tree (although, according to Emma, as it’s fallen, it’s the Fitness Log. Hmmm.) The runners were led through some lovely moves, such as our boxer crunch, scorpion push up and our favourite Bulgarian Split Squat, all to Apple Music’s Summer Vibes playlist. And Chi’s encouraging words…

Shout-outs and thanks

• Welcome to our first time runners, Liz, Charlie, Adam and George (by no means new to GG, just to TH) - thanks for a wonderful session; for being so calm and productive on a very busy evening. We hope to see you really soon!

• And thanks to our wonderful task force, Kat and Isabelle for leading to the Meath task; to Lieke for helping to plan in advance, and for enabling the St Margaret’s task to happen.

• Thanks to Torie for brilliant help with logistics: with planning and light assembly, and for being a much appreciated early arrival this evening.

• And thanks to Chi & Leo for some great pics this evening!

• Lastly, thank you to the legend that is Ed Field who fast-tracked our new head torches (when yours truly had been a bit slow on the requesting front), meaning we were able to commit to the Meath Gardens task.

What's coming up...

Now, there is just one thing you need to know about coming up this week…

On Thursday evening from 7-9 we’re heading to Powerleague in Shoreditch (location here) to support our first 5-aside match as GG regulars Kat, David, Chris, Bryon & Steve take on The Young Foundation!

Come and spend some time with us: they’ll be playing, I’ll be cheering and you’ll be eating the beautiful food that’s being laid on for us all.

A lovely night out, and you can come for as little or as much as you fancy. The event details can be found here.

Until then, have a wonderful week everyone, and we hope to see you very soon!

Amazing Meath

27 runners headed to one of our favourite tasks at Meath Gardens, this evening, just a short run from our meeting point at the lovely Town Hall Hotel.

We were met by brilliantly organised task owners Joanna and Jane, who had everything prepped for our two main tasks: a litter-pick of the park, and a big watering operation! New young trees have been left a little parched due to a decent British summer, and without any watering points in the park currently, getting the trees watered is a labour-intensive operation, managed solely by the small team of Friends of Meath Gardens.

A canalside operation

And so the biggest crew headed to the canal to load up trolleys with buckets of water, while a team of 3 used the tap by the small Community Centre. And a further team headed to all four corners of the park to gather every last bit of litter.

As always the team worked tirelessly until gone 8, when every last thirsty young tree had been tended to.

Over to The Mystical Fitness Tree

And so we met for our cheerio and pics, before making our way to The Fitness Tree, a favourite fallen tree that acts as a wonderful base for some Bulgarian split squats, to kick our fitness session off with. Then we whizzed through the scorpion push up, some seated core exercises before moving on to some standing balance and strength exercises. The team are strong and focused at the moment. You could have heard a pin drop in the park as they balanced on one leg, putting their bodies through its resistance training paces without so much as a squeak of protest.

We completed our session with a couple of stretches before heading back to the hotel, and onto the pub for a quick drink to say cheerio to our beloved Becky J , whose last run it was with us for a while, as she pursues exciting career opportunities in another part of the world!

So long, Becky J!

Which leads me nicely on to offer a very big thank you to Becky all she has contributed over the last two-and-a-half years to Tower Hamlets. Becky is an active, regular Task Force runner, who shows up early at nearly every Group Run, welcoming new runners with a big smile; helping to plan tricky runs and Community Missions behind the scenes, and just generally offering smiles and support at every opportunity. You will be much missed.

Other Monday shout-out's

Thanks to Liz and Kat, and Jo, for back marking this evening.

And thanks to Dave for tonight's wicked pun - it's a cracker.

What's coming up...

• Next Monday we celebrate GoodGym's 10th birthday with TWO of our task owners, the wonderful Barts Volunteers and Tower Hamlets' Council's Big Clean Up as we head to the Royal London for a clean up in and around the beloved John Harrison Garden.

• And also next week, on Sat 21st, it's SuperSaturday, the biggest day of GoodGym activity, when our very own Kat has organised a variety of activities with the Mile End parkrun team, so you really should check that out here.

Right, that's me for another week. Well done all involved tonight - what a thoroughly splendid night. Thirsty trees are hydrated; the park area is pristine, and your hip flexors are that little bit stronger. I mean, it's official now - you really do rock.

Have a wonderful week, enjoy the start of Autumn, and we'll hopefully see you very soon.

A big old to-do list

26 runners gathered tonight to head back to Oxford House, to our first visit after the summer break, as the weather on our first September run didn't disappoint.

We were looking forward to an evening of varied tasks, as Deborah, our task owner for tonight, had warned us there was plenty for us to get stuck into...

On arrival at this beautiful community arts centre, we were split into four teams:

• One team headed onto furniture clearing
• ...another to window shining
• ...and another to stairwell cleaning,
• ...while another crew went to clean and clear the dance studio
• ...and two groups headed outside for weeding and litter-picking

There was plenty for us to do, but as usual, highly productive and industrious GoodGymers finished most tasks early, and so it was a big crew who headed outside to finish up with an almighty litter-pick.

Lots was accomplished and by the end of the task, a very grateful Deborah was saying her cheerio, expressing heartfelt thanks at all the runners had achieved, explaining that the furniture that needed moving from one storey of the building to another was a job that had needed doing for ages.

Indeed we were pleased with what we accomplished, not least because as we waited in the cafe for the final furniture-removal runners to finish, we focused on some balance moves. Nothing like a bit of active recovery.

And so to Weavers Fields, for our fitness session of the week. I had promised the runners that The Weavers Workout would be a total body workout, and so it was. Scorpion push-ups were blitzed along with MMA sprawls; prisoner lunges beautifully performed, as were the cycling crunches. The runners were on fire. And before we knew it it was 8.25pm and time for us to head back to base.

Another glorious GoodGym evening. Well done everyone and thank you.

Big Monday shout-outs

• Thanks to Liz and Dave for backmarking.
• Thanks to Dave for topping up our pics.
• Thank you to Dharmesh for amazing tech know-how and helping the report picture process (you offered game-changing advice - thank you)
• Welcome to Rohan and Emma, our first time runners. We loved having you join us - thank you for tonight's vast contributions, and please come again soon.

What's coming up...

• This Thursday there's only one place to be - yep, it's the GoodGym social in town, so take the night off, come and join us here
• Next week, we're back for another glorious gardening task at beautiful Meath Gardens, so do come and join in next week's fun with us here.

Until then, have a wonderful week, everyone, and hope to see you reeeeally soon.

A good sized group gathered on the steps of our hotel base tonight to run through a couple of dynamic stretches (we’re taking it easy on the warm-up front this summer), before heading the short run around the corner to Weavers Adventure Playground, for our first visit of the summer.

A LOT of work to be done…

On arrival, task owner Alex had a whole variety of very different projects for us to get stuck into: our largest team focused on clearing a huge area around the go-kart track, lifting branches (looked more like small trees, TBH), carting fridges and tables across the playground, and many large objects I couldn’t actually identify.

A second team headed to the skip, the soon-to-be-converted skip, to give it a thoroughly good lick of surprisingly flattering spearmint paint. A third team headed behind the slide to paint benches and tables a delightful combination of Oxford United blue-and-yellow, while a fourth team headed out to the park to weed the borders of the playground.

Industrious or what.

The time flew by. Task owner Alex was rushed off his feet, hurtling from one side of the playground to the other project-managing all the different tasks. Runners got stuck in as usual, with the heavy lifting, speedy painting, proficient weeding, and superb post-task clean up. I am always so proud, you know that? And then it was 8. Well, a little after, and the clean-up continued as David blitzed the last of the paint from the patio, with a big brush and lots and lots of water. We gathered for our cheerio pics, where Alex explained what you’d achieved tonight would have taken him days on his own. It’s that bit that really brings the evening to life even more. A little bit of context to all that you’ve achieved.

A balancing act

And so we headed out of the playground, and onto a spare bit of grass in the park, where we whizzed through our balance and flexibility moves, all taken in very good spirit, particularly as the balance-and-core/flexibility ratio was slightly out (in favour of the former). More sturdy work, team. We then made our way back to the hotel, nearly to time, to continue our Monday evening, safe in the knowledge we’d lugged, glossed, uprooted, discarded to the absolute max, and made a dent in the work for this beloved children’s play area.

Monday shout out’s…

First up has to be a massive, GG warm welcome to Sarah who joined us for her first GG run tonight. Thank you for doing so much on your first run! And thanks for the fun, and for being such a key part of tonight’s wonderful evening and we hope to see you again super-soon.

Thanks to tonight’s contributing photographers, Danny, Charlotte and Steve. Wicked pics everyone.

And a big shout-out to Becky and Danny for beautiful backmarking.

And a great big gracias to Joel who came up with tonight’s perfect, perfect pun (which had me laughing all the way home).

An exciting array of events coming up…

• Now, first up: the GoodGym Olympics is taking place on Saturday! Yes, it’s here, and all the details are here. You don’t need to be booked into any event to come along and enjoy this ultimate GoodGym feelgood fitness day. Just fancy a day of GoodGym socialising, cheering and cake-eating? This should be on your Saturday radar.

• Then, moving into next week, we have a wonderful Community Mission coming up, from 5:30pm next Thurs Aug 8th, helping set up the garden at fabulous St. Margaret’s House for this exciting summer storytelling event! Come and wind down for the week helping Lieke and the team set up furniture, distribute candles and blankets and generally muck in and enjoy this unique event.

• …And then next Monday, the 5th, for our glorious Group Run, we’re back to the Royal London where task owner Nancy is planning our activities as we speak, so do come on board for that.

Right, that’s me for another week. Make the most of the sun, don’t forget to run, and most importantly, look after yourselves. Have a great week!