18 runners ran 3.5km to dig holes at Lettsom Gardens

News

• The next GoodGym Social will not be happening in Brent (my bad!) but somewhere TBC in Central London. It's happening next week on Thursday April 5th. There will be International Pun of The Month and much merry making. It's always a blast! Sign up here.

• Last night the unstoppable Helena ran her ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH good deed. Give her a big old cheer for that!

• SAVE THE DATE for GoodGym Olympics. It's happening on 30th June at Parliament Hill Athletics track. We have an egg and spoon race title to defend. We'll be having a flag party well in advance so get your thinking hats on. It's a wonderful day - there will be silly races and not so silly races and guaranteed hilarity. Sign up here.

• A big hello and welcome to Celia and Tom who joined us for the first time tonight!

And onto the good stuff... Last night 18 runners gathered whilst it was still light (thanks Deepak for the precision timing input) to run to Grove Park Allotments and Lettsom Gardens for a two-pronged task. We set off on the more scenic route and arrived 2km later happy as Larry.

Half of the group stayed at Grove Park Allotments and got busy weeding plots and scraping moss from the walkways whilst the other half went round the corner to Lettsom Gardens to start digging 70cmx70cm holes for sapplings that will be planted next week. Digging holes is no mean feat! Two groups worked on their holes with ground-looseners working up the turf and diggers making headway on the holes themselves. Those at Grove Park also had the chance to admire the new Bee Area that the group worked so hard at clearing. It's unrecognisable! Great work team!

After fifteen minutes the groups swapped around and after 35 minutes time was called and Liz came round to inspect the quality of our hole digging.

Holy Moly! 3 beautiful holes in 35 minutes!

A sterling effort made by everyone. Liz was delighted. She's very excited to have us back next week for a big task moving manure orders onto plots. It really will be a military precision exercise and we need as many hands on deck as possible. Sign up here.

We bid Liz farewell and headed back to base. Excellent work team and a great last task for Hanna who's come full circle - Grove Park was her first ever task!

See you next week! Lucy

14 runners ran 6km to do their bodies a good deed in Southwark

This week's news:

• The monthly GoodGym social is in Greenwich this week - from 18.30 at the Greenwich Tavern - sign up here. We're celebrating International Women's Day and there will of course be the highly anticipated International Pun of the Month.

• Next week we're laying fresh beds at Bee Urban - sign up now.

• Sign up for the Sunday mission to help out with lunch for the homeless at KCL - for more info look here.

• Next week we're going to the White Horse after the group run - sign up here

A huge cheer and woop for the Southwark runners who took part in the Big Half last weekend!

Unfortunately Camden Society could no longer have us last night (don't worry, we'll be back!) but taskless doesn't mean heartless so we set off into the night for our scheduled run (plus a bit) and a fitness session. Arriving at our urban gym the groups split into two - one half went indian file running around the court whilst the other half did some conditioning - squats, plank and lunges. The two groups joined forces at the end to form one huge indian file and whizz round the courts three times. It was quite a sight!

Then it was onto the Sally Squat Challenge (we love you Sally!). Google it, you'll see what I mean. The group did an amazing job of the challenge and had an audience of an entire train that stopped above us just to marvel at our squatting skills.

A big welcome to Theo and Vinayak who joined us for the first time!

A fantastic evening in spite of no task! Can't wait to see you next week.

Lucy J

22 awesome runners ran 3km to clear leaves at Ballast Quay Garden!

After a few weeks of 7k+ runs, it was nice to stay local for a change! And you can't get more local than Ballast Quay!

We welcomed back Glenn who ran with us a few times earlier in the year but had a break to climb Mont Blanc... NICE!! We were also joined by the lovely Winnie who usually runs with GG Southwark :) And lastly, Helen who turned up with a little baby bump... amazing news!!! SO happy for you Helen!!!! Maybe if it's a boy you can call him Jim and if he's well behaved you can say Good Jim :)

After a little warm up we got on our way, starting off with a lap of the uni that much resembled the time trial route that was to come later on in the session! We arrived in no time and were greeted by the amazing Diane who has been looking after Ballast Quay Garden since the early 60s. Such a legend! And of course Tom the dog was there too! WOOF!

A few tasks were on the cards. The first one being a hedge/plant/thing that needed trimming back which Alex and Steve attacked straight away. Some heavy compost bags needed shifting from one side of the garden to the other. And finally, all the leaves needed clearing. There were two brooms and a dustpan and everyone else got stuck in with their hands, filling up the bins! After about 5 minutes, the first bin was full... but amazingly Diane said it was absolutely fine to just chuck all the compost and leaves over the edge of the wall into the Thames.... she even checked with the council! So that was fun.

20 minutes later and the place had never looked so tidy! AMAZING!

We took a group photo and even Tom decided to join us! Diane had kindly left out some juice and biscuits so a few people tucked in... gotta fuel that time trial!!!

Everyone's favourite fitness session

The first Wednesday of every month means only one thing, our 1km time trial around the uni! We have done this for a few months now, hopefully some of you are seeing some improvements???? Here is the official Strava leaderboard and you should be able to see all of your attempts on there too, provided it picked it up alright on your GPS.

After the TT, we had a nice little stretch and finished up a bit earlier than usual... the pub was calling after all!!! We headed to the Old Brewery for some food and drinks and were reunited with Mridula, Vickie and Pulin who went to do the mission in Shooter's Hill.

WHAT A LOVELY EVENING :)

Thanks so much for coming last night! I know there wasn't a huge amount of work for you all to do but you have saved Diane A LOT of time and effort and she really appreciates the work that you do so well done! See you next week for a NEW TASK!

GoodGym Greenwich smashed all previous records AGAIN last night with a whopping 33 of you running 8km to help the Scouts!

Last night was AAAAAAMAZING. The weather was slightly nicer than the complete washout we had last week, plus we had our biggest turnout EVER in Greenwich. It doesn't seem long ago that I had Taylor Swift in my head after 22 of you came... never did I think it would continue to grow this much... you guys are AWESOME!!!

We welcomed quite a few new faces to the group last night which is GREAT! Big thanks to recruiters Helen and Mridula for bringing their colleagues Maria & Irina. We were joined by two lovely gents Pulin & Nick. We also welcomed back Amy G after a little break and the wonderful Jack from Wandsworth who travelled quite a distance to get to Greenwich, but we're worth it aren't we Jack :) GIVE THEM ALL A CHEER!

HOLIYAY

The headcount used to take about 4 seconds, now it has become part of the ritual and takes a good 5 minutes to go around everyone! Favourite thing pivoted slightly last night to next holiday destination (inspired by the sunshine obviously) and it was great to hear where you're all off to. There were some pretty exotic ones, Swindon in particular, Alex and Steve please could you take me in your suitcase????

We dropped off our stuff, did a quick little warm up and split into 2 groups. Ben with the hat and Ben with the hat led a fast group who we lost sight of in about 40 seconds. The rest of us went at a slightly more leisurely pace :) We went through the park, everyone smashed it up the hill, had a 60 second breather and then pushed on!

20 minutes later we arrived at the scouts. Group 1 had already got themselves stuck in which was great to see! Scout Leader Alan explained the tasks that needed to be done. Arguably the most exciting of which was putting up the flagpole! This is something that has been on our list of things to do the last couple of times we've been here but we've never actually got round to doing it. But last night it was ON! George got started and he dug deep... literally.

"Tonight Matthew, I'm gonna be..."

With a little help from Christian, Elliot & Steve the cement was ready to go in, which created a lovely Stars In Their Eyes puff of smoke. Steve filled a bucket with "water" and chucked it down the hole and 5 minutes later it had set... JOB DONE.

In the meantime, other people were painting shutters, weeding in the jungle, filling fox holes (don't worry Nina there were no baby foxes in there), axing trees... literally everything was going down. 8pm approached and it was time to get going. We had a group photo by the wonderful flagpole which kind of looked a bit naked without a flag on it, just a white stick in the ground basically.... but it had to be done. We headed back the way we came, by this point the sun was a little less fierce which made for a lovely chilled run back. Since we were a bit later than planned and everyone had already run 8km, we skipped the fitness session and went straight into some nice stretching... you're welcome :) Trying to up my game after hearing other GG groups do yoga in their sessions haha!

Brownie points!

We went to stuff our faces with some amazing brownies baked by the equally amazing Mridula! Then we parted ways.... until next time gang!!!

For those of you who are new, here is the link to our ever growing Facebook group where people post about races and missions and well, anything really! Please join :)

Amazing job last night everyone! Thanks for getting stuck in as always, that would have taken Alan a whole day (if not more) to get everything done that you did in half an hour so really well done!!! And congratulations on, once again, being a part of our biggest ever run! YOU GUYS ROCK!! XXX

24 amazing Greenwich runners ran 3km to clean toys at The Bridge community centre!

A sunny, yet deceptively cold evening last night, but it didn't stop TWENTY FOUR of you lovely lot showing up! We had two people celebrating their first good deed with us, the lovely Yaz, who believe it or not was the person who inspired me to start running a few years ago back in my sedentary office days! So if it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't be here. Not that I would be dead, I just mean I probably wouldn't be your GoodGym trainer! So I think she deserves a big cheer!!! As does Alex who also made his debut last night!

We welcomed two more new faces to Greenwich, Matthew who came along after doing a few runs with GG Lewisham and aspiring junior Parkrun director and hill lover, Kani who also went to Lewisham on Monday! WELCOME EVERYONE!

PANIC MODE ENGAGED

So as you know by now, every week I do a favourite thing, and I had a REALLY good one for yesterday, and I was so pleased that I actually had one planned for once... and then I forgot it. GOOD ONE. So favourite running shoe it was! New Balance just pipped to the post for everyone's fave, because let's face it, they're the best. We realised no one really knew how to pronounce Saucony... is it Sock-A-Knee, or Sork-Oh-Knee.. who knows. But what we do know is Brin absolutely nailed the pronunciation of Hoka One One! Nice one! Or should I say... nice onay!

We dropped off our stuff and did a warm up comprising of a little jog and some dynamic stretching with a bit of holding hands thrown in, because why not. We set off down the main road heading out of Greenwich and within 10 minutes or so, we had arrived at the East Greenwich Pleasaunce (no Mridula I don't know what a pleasaunce is, nor do I know how to say it!). The Bridge centre is nestled in through a gate and up a little hill in a lovely green area. We were greeted by Ruth & Raeleen and also Raeleen's daughter, Henrietta! Raeleen explained what needed doing which basically involved removing the toys from the container, cleaning them, drying them and putting them back. Plus there was a spot of weeding to be done too so lots to be getting on with!

Feeling the pressure!

"Does anyone have any experience with a pressure washer?". Obviously Nina's hand shot right up! Awesome! So Nina, Ben and Andy went to sort that out, which took a bit of doing and was a lot more complicated than expected. It took a while but they got there in the end and it was up to Nina to live up to the hype. Which she most certainly did!

James and Alex grabbed some brooms and began sweeping in the container. While everyone else grabbed a cloth to clean the toys or headed for the flower beds for some weeding!

Little Henrietta was being extremely helpful and squeezing washing up liquid on people's cloths just to make sure that her toys were getting extra clean! What a cutie pie!

After half an hour, we were pretty much done! The playground was squeaky clean, toys were sparkling and put back into the container, flower beds were weed free. Isabella even went around all the plants and watered them! Great job!

We had some biscuits and squash, took a group photo (sadly minus Ben & Andy who were having an altercation with the hose out back!) and then we set off back to the uni. Except we didn't get very far since the gates had been locked. NOOOO. Vickie kindly went to go and investigate and since we were temporarily trapped I thought we could do some nice hill sprints to keep us warm. But of course, Vickie, being the speedy runner that she is, arrived back in the nick of time with the key thus saving everyone from a sprint! Next time you might not be so lucky!

OK.... GO!

We ran back the way we came and through the uni to the grassy patch for a little ab session to help get that core nice and strong. We did 3 exercises (Russian twists, bicycle crunches & heel taps). 30 seconds each, 2 rounds and those abs were feeling it! Time for a relaxing stretch with arguably the most beautiful GoodGym backdrop and then we called it a night!

London Marathon!

Massive good luck to our favourite set of twins Alex and Steve (yes we all know loads of twins for you to definitely be our favourite!) running the London Marathon on Sunday! And Ben Parkes too if you're reading this, which of course you are. Also best of luck to Helen's other half Paul (if he does still run) who has sadly somehow managed to contract shingles over the last couple of days :( Get well soon Paul!

There will be a group of us cheering on Sunday and I'll post the details about it on our Facebook group later today! GO GET 'EM TEAM GGG!!!

Massive well done last night everyone! You got loads done and I know it was a bit cold but you all did amazing! Hope those abs aren't too sore today! Hopefully see you next week!