Another scorcher of an evening and the start of a new series of Bake Off didn't stop 26 runners at GoodGym H&F from turning out to run, sweat (lots!) and do good for their community tonight!

It was wonderful to welcome along Sophie and Ella for their first GoodGym H&F run - thank you for coming along, it was lovely to have you both involved tonight, hope you enjoyed it!

Sweat it be!

We slightly reluctantly left the nicely air conditioned Better Gym reception area and immediately were hit by the oven-esk 30 degree heat outside, this was going to be a warm and sweaty run! With sweat droplets already beginning to form we gathered outside for some special announcements and the weekly news round-up.

Today was extra special for two reasons:

1. Today was Eloise and Matt's last group run before their wedding (not weeding as autocorrect seems to think!) 👰🤵
2. It was Sarah's birthday! 🥳

Obviously both had to be celebrated in true H&F style; Eloise was presented with a veil, rosette and runners numbers 310819 (the date of the big day) for both herself and Matt #dogoodgetwed and Sarah a birthday rosette!

A reminder of this week's news:

• Next Tuesday it's our 3rd birthday! There will be cake and lots of post-run celebrations, please come along.
• Thursday 5th September is the next GoodGym social in Central London, all details are here.
• GoodGym is turning 10! There's a big party at City Hall on Thursday 12th September, please register here if you'd like to come along! There will also be a BIG day of missions on Saturday 21st September - more details coming soon.

Tonight's task was flyering for the wonderful charity Family Friends that offers parent befriending and child mentoring services in the three London Boroughs of H&F, Kensington and Brent. Next month they have some volunteer training planned so our aim tonight was to spread the word about Family Friends before next month's training all around Hammersmith tonight.

With everyone already feeling rather warm we completed a short warm-up and stretch before we split off into two groups and headed in opposite directions so we could cover as many shops, newsagents and supermarkets as possible in 45 minutes.

Catriona kindly led half the group along King Street and up Goldhawk Road while I led the other half of the group up Shepherd's Bush Road and along Goldhawk Road, with both groups splitting in two up the roads so as to cover the entire street!

In the pair tonight

Amazingly we all reconvened as planned at Ravenscourt Park bang on 8pm with all runners accounted for! With the weather not being sprint friendly the group were treated to some fun partner games and exercises. We started off with rock, paper, scissors in the press-up/plank position, after five rounds we tallied up the totals...no one won all five rounds but Mo did manage four! Next up were some high tens sit-ups, followed by some lean out squats back-to-back and some controlled holding squats.

A new back and field event!

The best was saved for last, BACKWARDS JUMPING!! An event we're sure will be included in next year's GoodGym Olympics after it's debut at Bristol last week, so we thought we'd get some secret practice in (hence why the video below is dark and blurred...)

With time ticking and the light quickly fading we called it a night and headed back to base where we had our cool down and stretch off. We also had our sweet-based treats handed over to us by Graham as a big thank you, and an array of cake and biscuit-based goodies to continue the celebrations and ensure we replenished our energy before we headed home.

Thank you for a fab evening all, great work getting so many leaflets distributed despite the heat. Next week we'll be celebrating our 3rd birthday and lending a hand at Springvale Tenants Residents Hall, please sign up here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend!