31 Buoyant GoodGymers feed of the Hackney Half Energy to dominate 90 minutes of GoodGym excellence!

Flying high after our 21.1km of Running fun on Sunday we had a bumper group this evening!! Great to have Goodgym first timers along for their maiden voyage as well as everyone else who came out for a top session!!

After a bit of a longer chat than normal we headed off negotiating the Hackney backstreets to take us to Clapton Square to meet Hackney Park Ranger Bruce who had the tools ready for us us to dive straight in!

Dividing up into two groups we gloved up grabbed a hoe and got weeding! Making great progress in the almost Jungle on the Southside of the park we have the flower beds a though weeding with expert hoeing, take out every weed in side before bagging the weeds into 1 of the 20 crammed oversized bin bags we filled.

With 40 minutes of solid weeding literally in the bag we had a treat as Chima had scouted out 2 Strava segments for us to hunt the records for! As a warm up for our bursts of speed Chima hit us to the core and got us fully engaged in some tough core exercises with 3 back to back moves in 3 toning minutes!

We then zoomed back to base registering very well on the Strava Leaderboards with turn of Foot!

Next week is a very special celebration as Eva hits her 100th GoodDeed and Clair her 50th needless to say we will head out after the Group Run!! A triumphant return to Spoons on Mare Street awaits which will double up as a craft workshop to make the Hackney Team flag for the GoodGym Olympics!!

Struggling with GG website at moment so might take a day or so to get Group Run up but as always it will be going ahead so see you there!!

Smooth Running

Joel

5, 6, 7, …14 steps (That's what it took to build a table tennis table).

Wake me up*

After a warm-up we set off on a riverside route to Transforming Lives for Good (TLG for short). Our run to the river was almost as long as the queue to see Evanescence* at Hammersmith Apollo.

Deborah and James greeted us once we arrived and gave us a rundown of what TLG do. They provide support, care and education to children in need. The TLG school we had come to help out at offers holistic 12 week programmes to help excluded teenagers aged 11-16. These centres are a lifeline, giving them the chance to catch up on missed qualifications, raise their aspirations and provide building blocks for a better life.

Divide and conquer

Our tasks for the night were to put together a new ping pong table and clear a store room of old furniture. A team of four took on the table and the rest quickly demolished the other.

Keeping out of mischief

Both Deborah and James were blown away by the speed the store room was sorted in. James then set about finding other things for the team to help with. This included fixing a shelf to a coffee table and starting to organise another cupboard.

I had planned to take this group off for a fitness session, but suddenly the table tennis team needed extra eyes and hands to find stray screws, washers and attach the table top securely.

Finishing later that usual, but with a brand new ping pong table finally complete we dashed back the short way to home and had a warm down.

Thanks to Debs and Jo for your GG touristing, it was lovely to have you along!

Happy running,
PSB out.