An awesome 13 ran 4km to Baxter's Field to continue painting the railings and clear some space around the saplings to allow them to thrive.

A big warm GoodGym welcome to Olga, Rebecca and Beth who joined us their first run, and a big welcome back to Bea who returned after a break.

It was a gorgeous sunny evening to head to the park for an introduction and a quick game of head, shoulders, knees and cone, before heading off up the hill to tonight's mission. Baxter's Field is a hidden gem, tucked behind houses and used by local schools and dog walkers alike. A group of Brownies were enjoying the playground, which excitingly is about to be upgraded thanks to a £30,000 grant that the Friends of Baxter's Field have recently been awarded by Lewisham Council.

Ruth welcomed us and told us a little about the space and the task at hand. As there were so many of us, we split into 2 groups, the largest of which donned protective gloves and set to work painting the railings black, continuing from where we had left off on an earlier visit. Bradley, Emma, Hannah and Reeceheaded over to clear the ground around some saplings which were being swamped by grass.

Vic joined us on her bike, having encountered a fellow cyclist en-route who had been to the original GoodGym pitch meeting many years ago. He had thought at the time that it sounded great but didn't think that it would work, he was happy to hear just how wrong he'd been!

Georgina attempted to climb over the rather high railings before we found out that there was a gate a little further up the park, phew. She and Tim headed round the back to paint the bits that nobody else could see. It was a lovely evening to paint and chat, and time flew by. We cleared up a little early as we were treated to drinks and treats, thanks Ruth and team!

Vic headed off and we set off back down to the park, with a little stop on the way to patch up Olga who had tripped on a rather wonky kerb. I will pick better places to cross the road in future, I'm sorry Olga :-(

Once back in the lovely Crystal Palace Park, we were a little pushed for time so I decided to to reduce the planned circuits from 5 stations to 4, with mountain climbers unanimously voted out. That left a rather arm-intensive session, with one minute each of press-ups, tricep dips, planks and star jumps. Everyone jumped, dipped, pushed and planked hard, with lots of groaning to prove it. We ran out of time for the planned squat-athon to everyone's favourite Moby song, but nobody looked too upset!

Next week's task is a run to Cator Park, around a 5k return run, to help with some pruning and clearing. Sign up here

Penge's Alexandra Rec is holding a Physicality in the Park session on Sunday 28th July, where we will be helping to clear the rose bed whilst spreading the word about GoodGym.

Last but most definitely not least, a huge GET WELL SOON to our wonderful regular leader Adele, who has finally had surgery on her troublesome knee. You can't keep a good woman down and I'm sure she'll be the physio's star pupil to make sure she's back on her feet as soon as possible. Rest-up and enjoy being waited on Adele! x

200 flyers, 7 keeno runners, 6k and a whole load of guilty pleasures made up another cracking night in Hounslow!

We kicked off the evening with a few bits of news, including plans for our long run on the 3rd December and cheering Remy to half marathon glory on the 2nd December. Not forgetting of course that next week is our very FIRST birthday and we shall be celebrating with a great task (putting up flatpack furniture), a birthday-themed fitness game, and a pub quiz that we are going to smash. There will almost certainly be cake.

We then took ourselves outside for a warm up and to find out everybody's guilty pleasures. Although we should never feel guilty about pleasure, of course. TV shows (trashy and decidedly not trashy) featured quite highly in between high knees and heel kicks, including Outlander, Gilmore Girls, Made in Chelsea and Love Island. To which the latter particularly Ella had showed an impressive commitment. Sunflower seeds and bad action films we agreed were more noble pursuits.

We had a speedy run down to Waterman's Art Centre - a great independent charity that aims to inspire people of all backgrounds through creativity and provide art for all. Almost 2.5 k later and we arrived at the reception desk to find a pile of 200 flyers for an upcoming Digital Weekender waiting for us to distribute. This event in a couple of weeks is crammed full of fun and fascinating free sessions, so do check it out.

Now, we had done this before for Waterman's with mixed success, but this time we were going to do it better. We had already mapped out an area that we were going to hit up, so quickly made our way there. Splitting up into two groups to cover both sides of the street, we got ourselves into formation to put a flyer through every letterbox. Soon we were operating like (a bit rusty) clockwork. We covered about 2k in this way, encountering some menacing barking and some beautiful houses, and soon found ourselves empty handed and back at Turnham Green for our fitness session.

This week were CODE CRACKING. Yes, it was complicated, and no, it probably wasn't explained very well. The idea was that two teams had to each crack a 6 number code. Each number related to a certain exercise and could appear more than once. Each team had to guess the correct sequence but to find out whether they had, they had to do each exercise. A square bracket meant it was the right number in the right position. Phew. I said it was complicated. Still, it was no match for Ella, Andreea and Natasha, who just in the nick of time managed to crack that code and were declared the winners. I mean, there wasn't an actual prize. But they won an overall sense of satisfaction, and that is priceless.

After a few stretches and a cool down we revelled in our post-run, post-goodness endorphin high and called it a night. Great work team. Bring on next week!

Wednesday are pretty good. You've got half way through the week and the weekend is just about in sight. What could make it better? A run. What about a run with a group of mates? And throw in a community task that makes you feel good about yourself. A fitness session? Go on then! Lovely stuff.

Firstly, a huge well done to Remy and to Will who both smashed the Royal Parks Half on Sunday. If you've got the need for speed, don't forget that GoodGym are organising a trip to the Bucharest Festival of Running next May - sign up for details. It promises to be a fun weekend of running, eating and exploring and everybody is welcome!

Tonight we were heading back to a local school - Strand on the Green - to help out with a list of jobs that needed doing. But first - the warm up and the weekly Hounslow headscratcher. If you were invisible, where would be the first place you'd go? The Whitehouse, the Pentagon, North Korea, Downing street - looks like we've all got a bit of the secret agent in us.

Sand-on-the-Green

It was only a short run to the school, so we set off, licketysplit , at a nice fast pace. One mile later we were there, finding Claire the caretaker waiting for us with a trailer of tools. Michelle got the work sweeping the bike shed and paths, Claudia took the scooter park, Remy, Will and Andy tackled the fenced play area while Ross, Adam and Jo dived into the huge pile of blocks that needed sanding.

Half an hour of elbow grease later, the jobs were done and dusted and we kicked off with our fitness session. It was a bit of a bumpy start with the flip a coin game, but eventually we got there, splitting into two groups with each side doing an exercise depending on the result of the flip. Next up was a timed obstacle course, which wasn't exactly plain sailing either and was eventually called off thanks to an apocalyptic shower of rain that came out of nowhere. Like a bunch of naughty school children we sheltered in the bike sheds under it had passed. Next week normal service will be resumed, promise!

We were just about to hit the road when disaster struck. It really wasn't our night. The code to the electric gates had mysteriously stopped working, and after several attempts at opening it from the outside and scaling the fence, it was hero Andy with super long legs who managed to hop the gate and release us. Well done Andy!

All that was left was a speedy run back to base, a few stretches and a bit of thawing out. Don't forget, Team Hounslow, that whatever the world throws at us, we all sand together.

Next week, we're back to school - a different one this time, for a spot of painting.