Six Brent GoodGymers ran 8k to Sufra Community Food Bank and Kitchen to weed an area of community garden.

On a bright and airy bank holiday Monday we had a evening of GoodGym firsts! With Elle away on holiday I had the privilege of leading the fine Brent GoodGym crew for the First time, on day release from Team Hackney we set about navigating our way to the Stonebridge Estate. For the First time for any of us on a GoodGym run there were more males than females and it was also the first time I had broken the 8k barrier on a GoodGym run! Top running guys!! 🏃🏽🏃🏃🏻🏃🏿

Following the 4K run to Sufra Community Food Bank and Kitchen we got to work collecting the tooling from the quickly developing community garden and were super impressed with the progressed made. We gloved up and speedily removed all the weeds from a soon to be herb garden digging out and pulling out every weed in sight. In 30 solid minutes of work we dominated the task and cleared the flower bed of 2 full bin bags of weeds.

After a huge thanks from Dina from Sufra we headed back to base with improved pace and navigation making up time as we powered our way home.

A top evening of GoodGym action was rounded off with a series of static stretches before we headed off into the night with a job well done.

Thank you for looking after me and working so hard on the task!

Hope to see you at another Brent Group run soon or if you fancy coming out East Team Hackney would love to welcome you to H-Town on a Tuesday evening.

Elle will be back next week for some more fun on the fun.

Enjoy your week, and good luck to those racing the Hackney half! See you on the start line!!

Smooth Running

Joel

RAIN

Rain doesn't stop play at GoodGym, and 21 of us were brave enough to face the elements this evening, including first timers, Adam, Matt, Rebecca, Edith, Ellie, Pam and Parveen.

LOST

For our journey up to Barnsbury Square Gardens Simon led a group on a direct route, while Graham took a bunch on a very very very scenic route. BUT, we all got there in the end and Lucy, Carmela and our canine chum Wesley were top hosts.

WORK

As usual, there was plenty to get involved with. As it drizzled and our hands got colder and colder we turned soil underneath trees to allow rain to reach the roots more easily, removed some horrible weeds and engaged in some "edging" (using spades to cut a nice straight line along edges around the garden).

FUEL

Following last week's bourbon adventures, we decided another hydrogenated fat filled biscuit would be the ticket and munched on custard creams to keep ourselves going.

SPEED

Post-task it was back into two groups. Graham promised his run back would be no more than 4k, while Simon took a group for a few sprinty sections and finished off with running relay and finally a skipping relay (which was more fun than the running relay, as promised!)

DEBATE

Following a bit of twitter banter between GG Islington and GG Camden, we decided to debate "What's the best way to get fit in North London?"

Answers:

• Cycling to work
• Skipping (this lot had just done a load of skipping)
• GoodGym! (no particular area specified)

So, there you have it. We're all one big happy family.

THE END

Have a wonderful week all and see you next Monday,
Simon

On Monday evening 20 brave Islington Good Gym-ers gathered in the cold to jog and do good. Oh, and because it's Islington, eat biscuits. In fact that was the subject of the days run debate. What biscuits should we have? Results later.

Paul warmed everyone up with some high knees, lunges and other associated exercises, and we were off! A faster group led by Patrick and Graham shot off sprinting around the park, before heading to our destination. Whilst Paul, Caroline and myself took a slower group, I say slower........in fact, it was like a herd of wildebeest charging across a busy Upper St, past the tube stop and to the relative quiet of the streets behind. I'm pleased to report that no pedestrians were trampled.

Wildebeest

Disappointed by the lack of trampling, as we neared our destination of Barnsbury Community Centre, Caroline dramatically threw herself on the floor mid-jog, in the hope she would get trampled. What a team player.

With both teams having arrived, we set about our task. Well, first we had to interrupt some sort of religious ceremony by all quietly charging through the middle of a room, like tip-toeing wildebeest, so as not to ruin the nice gospel singing going on around us.

'Dunk'

Like the previous week, half the group were banging stakes into the floor, and half shifting mud. Graham took the brave task of holding the stakes as people whacked them with hammers. You could see him physically vibrate every time a hammer went 'Dunk' on top of a stake.

The mud shifters stood around for a bit pondering where to put the mud, as all the bags were full. Then someone had a brainwave of clambering on top of the mud bags and stomping like they were making wine. it worked a treat and the mud shifting could commence.

Caroline nipped off to get biscuits, and despite the debate results being chocolate hobnobs or tim tams, came back with double chocolate. To be fair, who can resist double chocolate? One Good Gym-er had 5 biscuits!!

Double chocolate!

After the task we gathered for a nice group photo, and then set off back in to Highbury & Islington. On the run back Anna displayed her evasive skills, in panic jumping over a big black dog, only to find it was a bin liner (easily confused).

With everyone back Paul led the group through a few stretches, and then we departed, content with a good evenings work.

(Run Report by John Chyriwsky)

Caroline Townsend (Taskforce Member) wrote the lovely run report below:

This week we returned for another sequel to Barnsbury Community Centre. We got up to a range of awesome tasks there. Sadly Simon couldn’t make it but Paul flew in (Camden Trainer and ex Islington taskforce) like Batman to save the day. Caroline was Robin for providing biscuits (oreos) at last minute.

On the way we split into two groups; a mega fast group who did an extra lap of Highbury fields and the philosopher’s group who talked about cake. We all arrived at the same time.

At the centre we had a party due to Patrick’s awesome tunes again. We split into 3 teams… team paint, team heave soil and team stick poles.

Team Paint

Team paint struggled to open a paint can and nearly bent a few keys in the process. However, Patrick had a tool kit (his backpack is a TARDIS) so it was opened in the end. The team then painted flower pots.

Team Soil

Team heave soil continued to remove soil from the circle of dirt. We have been working hard on this area for a few months now and it’s nice to see that it’s nearly done. It helps with team stick poles with their work as well.

Team Stakes

Team stake poles, led by Steve, stuck poles into the circle of dirt at specific heights in the shape of an ‘S’. This sounds complicated and it was. They made a lot of noise and sounded a bit like a tribe due to one of the tools sounding like a bell when it pushed poles into the ground. An installation in being put in this space in the near future.

On the way home we split into 3 groups and continued to talk about cake. A few things we heard was cupcake mix served in a jam jar and what would an iced carrot taste like instead of having carrot cake.

Thank you very much again guys for coming. We hope that you had a groovy time.

Yesterday was Frances 50th task. Congratulations Frances!