Well on June 30th 2018 many things were happening it was National Paddy Day of Nepal, Edmonton Royals beat Toronto Nationals by 8 wickets in the 20Twenty and the Nation sat down to watch Nick Knowles hosts the quiz for people who can't resist a list in another cracking episode of Who Dares Wins. Meanwhile in leafy Hampstead Heath Park dog walkers, parents and local residents were making reports of strange behaviour, incidents included lots of cheering, signs of red thunder, folks running with eggs on spoons and a sea of flags. Not only was the behaviour incredibly positive they were also plying spectators with these delicious homemade cakes, what these folks were witnessing was Olympic fever GoodGym style. So as reported, June 30th 2018 was the 2nd ever GoodGym Olympics. The day brought together 24 different GoodGym area, ranging from Lambeth, the South West to Colchester. The events on offer were a range of events varied from the egg and spoon, 400m to the elimination race. The events were varied but the competition was not and every race brought a bigger and bigger sea of cheers, particular highlights for me was the epic finish of the elimination mile between George Bright and Richard Dowling, Folks flipping pancakes, listening to our two wonderful commentators, the GoodGym relay madness, and human tunnel finish that welcomed the final 5,000m runners brought a tear to my eye that did. Not only were the runners being judged but we also had a torch parade before to show off each boroughs creative sides and although it was a fierce competition. All in all there were 18 different events which each borough their own brilliant moments. This year to even the field I placed the areas in two different leagues due to levels of runners from each area. So up for grabs was the Hunter-Sidhu Shield and the Kerry-Barnard Cup named after our two fantastic commentators, John Hunter and James Kerry-Barnard.

I could write about this for hours however I think picture would do a far better so I will leave some of Tom Hunters and Sarah Rajabalee fanatic shots up and will post a link to more when they come available.

These events don’t work without a band of helpers and I have to say a massive thanks to all the all members of taskforce and GoodGym who have gave up their time to volunteer, help time and marshal on the day and general mean that I didn’t have to do too much, it was amazing there are just too many of you to write down but again thank you it was really a truly lovely and special day, thank you all and here’s to next year. If you have any feedback please let me know on tomb@goodgym.org. I will be putting together a committee of people to help out and organise next years, if you would like to be considered please drop me a email too.

Nice one, Tom

Race Results please click here on the link below. Please note we did not record heat times and some events do not have times or positions as these got put away during the tidy up. Please accept my apologies if this affects you.

Here are the rest of the results we https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WR3tnGIEXq6ylA-JhZEduRuGKiW5SgD4alhfHJqJFWY/edit#gid=0

Here were the final results

Kerry-Barnard Cup

AREA	PLACE
Lambeth	1st
Wandsworth	2nd
Camden	3rd
Hackney	4th
Lewisham	5th
Islington	6th

Hunter-Sidhu Shield

AREA	PLACE
Greenwich	1st
Brighton	2nd
Hammersmith and Fulham	3rd
Colchester	4th
Southwark	5th
Barnet	6th
Hounslow	7th
Tower Hamlets	8th
Haringey	9th
Croydon	10th
Bristol	11th
Brent	12th
Newham	13th
King's College London	14th
Redbridge	15th
Westminster	16th
Waltham Forest	17th
Ealing	18th

Torch winners: Big shout out to team Islington for their Stella effort combining biscuits with a fantastic touch. Highly commended goes to Tower Hamlets, Bath and Brent. Well done everyone.

London town was looking vivacious, radiant and under dressed yesterday evening, the hoards took to the park and the fair weather runners danced with aerobic hustle down the canal. Simultaneously GoodGym Newham was assembling a mighty hit squad of nineteen, driven by altruistic intentions and a catch up with their team-mates.

We welcomed Christiaan to his second session, hope you enjoyed it mate. Also gave a respectful applause to young Scott, who smashed a sub 4hr marathon, paced like a pro in Paris, well in dude. Our weekly random question this "what's your favourite city?" a bit of stale question, sorry, one you might ask on a first date to fill that awkward silence. Fortunately the answers were better than the question, Marakech, Tokyo, Lisbon, Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Granada Amsterdam, Istanbul, Vigo, Manchester and Seville to name a few. Somewhat of a European preference to our clan.

A plethora of tasks met us at the school. Shifting boxes up and down stairs, moving a massive unwieldy table across the school, jet washing and scrubbing the outdoor patio, de-constructing raised beds, shifting soil and clearing out the nursery pre-demolition. Lucky we came in numbers yesterday, there's no way we would've got through that otherwise.

To finish off our slot, we simply glided on back down a sunset canal - I mean, what's not to like about that? Thanks again for your graft, Headteacher Paul loves it and is always full of praise.

ps. Good luck to our aerobic monster and fundraising powerhouse, Brad. London Marathon awaits him this Sunday, he's done the hard miles, now the main event awaits. I'm equally impressed and proud at how he's approached this, from the training to the quiz night and video promos. You've really owned the process. Let's have it!

See you beauts next week, sign up here for our task. I'm just finalising it at the moment, so details to come.

Make those weekend runs count guys, summer may finally be here, as good a time as ever to be fit.

Cheers

B

What a year it's been. We've seen the group go from strength to strength, have helped countless charities and community organisations, covered many, many miles and had a pretty great time while we did it. We've seen the first ever 50 milestones reached in Hounslow, cheered our members through races and PBs and celebrated our first birthday. 2018 is shaping up to be a truly brilliant year.

Our last run of 2017 was a very festive one - not only were we feeling very Christmassy, but we also had Hanukkah to celebrate. Double the fun! So we jingled all the way outside to warm up, and to hear about each other's favourite points of 2017. Reaching 50 good deeds, joining GoodGym, traveling to exotic places and simply that it's almost over were our highlights.

'Borrowing' the lovely Ealing group's idea, our run to the task tonight was accompanied by a festive quiz, which included questions like how many good deeds have been done across the whole of GoodGym (73 112!) and who is top of the Hounslow leader board for good deeds (Remy and Andy). Each incorrect answer resulted in a fitness-based forfeit for the team, and there was one unfortunate moment when the roles were reversed and the questionmaster was punished with a mean old set of tricep dips. That wasn't supposed to happen!

We soon arrived at our task, which was to pick up and deliver a pile of leaflets for a community Christmas concert happening in Brentford. We're well practised at this particular job now, and so as soon as we got the leaflets in our chilly little hands, we set off into the local streets, stopping only for a quick snap in front of Brentford FC's home ground.

We still had a two mile run back ahead of us, so after we had had got rid of all the leaflets we set off in the direction of home. The drizzle started not long after, putting the future of our fitness session (the 12 days of Fitmas) in peril. By the time we got back to Turnham Green it was coming down pretty badly so we decided to do the festive thing, and head inside. A good job we did for two reasons. The first was that shortly after the heavens opened and the rain became apocalyptic, and the second was much much nicer. Thank you so much team for all the amazing words and treats - you are a brilliant bunch. We saw off the night drinking prosecco and toasting the year we've had, before retiring to the pub to spin the dreidel and eat the incredible spread of delicious things that Remy kindly brought us. It's been a wonderful year, and it's all down to the people that every week dedicate their time to make other people's lives better. That's you! Here's to 2018 xxx

There was so much good news last night, we barely knew where to start.

First all hail team (Tom) Cruisin' About, Doing Good for they reign supreme as winners of the inaugural Mission Possible. That's right, Remy, Andy and Michelle saw off all the competition to complete two great deeds and a whole scavenger hunt on Sunday. Way to do good! You should have seen their human pyramid.

We had some fabulous running as well as good doing this weekend, with Remy smashing her 24th and last half marathon of the year. Some of the Hounslow team were lucky enough to be there to watch her do it, and can confirm that she powered across the line in fine form. Well done Remy, a fantastic challenge completed. Will 'PB' Yates also showed us how it's done this weekend, with not one but two personal bests over 5k and 10k at the weekend. Fantastic stuff, keep it up!

Yes, we were unprepared for some of the biggest news of the night, but that did not stop us being massively impressed by none other than the gorgeous Vix who casually rocked up for her 100th milestone. You total superstar! 100 good deeds is an incredible achievement and shows huge dedication to making other people's lives better. Give that lady a cheer, she deserves it!

Our task last night was a slightly different one, but we did our warm up as usual, finding out at the same time what the best winter drinks were. Peppermint mochas, black forest gateaux lattes, Baileys, mulled cider, mulled gin, mulled wine (anything mulled) and Harvey Wallbangers were all top of the winter pops.

We then ran around the corner to the library to pick up two huge sheets of aluminium which are going to make up the beautiful new mural under Turnham Green Bridge - the very bridge we had scrubbed free of graffiti a few weeks ago. We divided up into two teams, and after a very thorough health and safety briefing plus demonstration (ahem), we set off down the road to deliver the new artwork ready to be displayed in local schools.

Past the beautiful Christmas lights we went, under the underpass and along the A4, attracting a few odd looks as we went on our merry way. Precious cargo deposited, it was only a short run back to Turnham Green, doing some extra and unexpected good on the roads along the way. It took until this point in the run to discover that Andy had spent the day hobnobbing with royalty, having a very interesting discussion about chip fat with Prince Charles. WHAT! Two crowns in a matter of days, Andy, you are so regal.

After a short run we had plenty of time to do a lovely fitness session, which started with a game of Chase the Hare. Remy was our sprinting hare, just pipped to the post by Andy and Will. After that warm up we launched into everybody's favourite test of speed, the bleeping Bleep Test. This is a really hard but effective exercise, and great for speed and endurance building. If that wasn't enough, we finished off the evening with some conditioning exercises to build up strength to support all that lovely running we're doing. After that, it truly was job done, and we finished with some stretches and a chat about next week's task. Well done everybody, a task well done and a tough session to boot. Same again next week?!.

Knock, knock. Who's there? Hydrate. Hydrate who? Hydrate you 10 out of 10, Hounslow!

Ahem. Last night's sterling effort from Hounslow saw 12 runners tackle a local resident association's rubbish problem, run just over 5k, and smash out some conditioning exercises along the way.

First we cheered our lovely new member Hardip who joined her for her first run last night. Great to have you with us Hardip!

We also said a big well done to Remy who nears her epic goal of 24 half marathons in one year by smashing a cobbly Lancaster course at the weekend (way to go!) and reminded everyone to sign up for the GoodGym Christmas party on the 8th December.

During our dynamic warm up we found out what everybody eats on Christmas day, or the celebration day of their choice. Yes, there were a few turkeys, but there was also duck, goose, a veggie alternative, pigs in blankets, pasta and a chinese takeaway. Delicious.

Then it was time for the run. Our first stop was 2.5k away where there was a pile of litter pickers, bags and gloves waiting for us. The local residents were fed up with their roads being covered in rubbish, and we had been given three areas to tackle. We split the group into two, and got stuck in.

Working hard in our red and black tshirts it seems like we were a pretty good advert for GoodGym, as several people stopped to find out what we were doing and say thanks, including one women with three amazing dogs that we all decided was a very good reward for our work. Five full bin bags and a whole load of cleaner streets later, we returned our litter pickers and set off back for home. There was some nice sprinting along the way, and only that pesky train could stop us in our tracks.

5k later we were back at our starting point and stretching out all our hard work. Next week we're beating the cold at an indoor task with a nice 6k run in total. Sign up here to spend your Wednesday the GoodGym way!

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!