14 Chilly GoodGymers ran 8k to Victoria to help a small local homeless charity sort out a shed full of clothing donations to be handed out as clothing packs at the evenings Soup kitchen.

On a bright, clear and very cold evening we gathered at the New Balance flagship store we welcomed first timers Sarah, Charlie and Nina!! Graham grabbed the chance to trial the new New Balance IQ running watch for the evening before we set out on the busy central London streets.

Needing to get up to pace quickly to keep warm we weaved a slick route South. Taking in a few slights and plenty of sounds we swiftly covered the 4k route to Ebury Estate to meet Mike who runs the project.

After some quick instructions we headed to the shed to find clothing donations piled high and squeezed in. We devised a plan to get each type of clothing into separate boxes also sorting for gender.

We got to work and with some slick team work we were sorting the clothes as a speedy rate. We have a couple of pauses to admire some of the designs and with the cold setting in we even borrowed a coat or 2 to keep warm!

After 30 minutes of sorting we were left with the most difficult job of all, closing the shed back up with all the nicely sorted clothing perfectly stacked. A bit of a nudge and a slam of the doors and we were away! Thanking Mike and looking forward to seeing him in March we headed back towards the bright lights of Oxford Street with a mini detour through Green Park and the never ending hill!!

Done ninja road crossing and we were back with 90 minutes of epic Good doing action under our belt!

Look forward to seeing you all again next week for some more Fitness fun! Sign up here

Silky smooth sorting

Joel

7 runners went 4km and gave hope to a local charity's garden

Oh the rain!!!! We thought it was going to be a soggy one but good karma came our way and we had the only dry evening of the week, phew!

This week we had a shorter run, dashing over to the bright lights of Lansdowne to St Swithuns road where there is a fantastic housing charity, Hope Housing. An unassuming row of houses that offer homes to the homeless as well as support to get back into work/community life. Such an amazing service and we were so happy to be asked to help!

Our task was making their HUGE garden pretty again after the winter. The gang worked so hard, clearing veggie patches and turning over the soil for more planting in the spring.

Added bonus was finding food for dinner....potatoes, carrots and a few onions popped out of the ground as we worked. Stew anyone?!

Really hoping Hope Housing like our work when they see it in the day light today - felt like a big transformation: before and after Goodgymers. Always satisfying!

Once we'd packed up at the task we had a short run back downhill all the way. Warming down, we did pun brainstrorming - a lot of talk about carrots, winkie face!

Thanks all of you. See you next week!!

Meanwhile in BestMinster...

12 GoodGym runners ran 6k to help at St Andrews Gym.

On a mild Wednesday night 12 GoodGym runners hit to the streets of Westminster for a 6k run to help out at St Andrews Gym and also bid farewell to our trainer Cory.

We welcomed 4 runners on their second run: Hermoine, Hannah, Felicity and Catherine. Hope to see you again next week?

We headed out down a busy Oxford street, with some dynamic sidestepping we beat the sale shoppers and sprinted down the hill to say “Hi” to the royals at Buckingham Palace. Nina was hoping for a secret spot of Prince Harry - no luck.

Swooning over the Prince complete, we then split into two groups - with the super keen runners opting for a leg round St James park, and a quick wave a the park keeper house. Whilst the sensible folk opted for the run through the park.

All back together, and it was time for some fun, or at least that is what Cory told us. We hit the curb for some step ups, and star jumps, finished off by a quick sprint to our location, St Andrews Gym.

Inside St Andrew’s Gym, we had time for a quick hydration stop, and it was straight back to work. 12 minutes on the clock, it was time to get this place cleaned up. Spray at the ready and we were off, treadmills (our least favourite thing), benches, weights - all spic and spam. With time still left on the clock it was time for a mini HIIT workout. 5 minutes Cory said, it will be easy he said.. Into the Yoga room we went, and along came the exercise ball - all on the floor and the mission was to pass the exercise ball round the circle whilst lying on the floor. A very secret AB workout complete and it was back the running.

A couple of straight kilometers back to our location, and we had some very happy runners who were glad it was on to the stretching.

One final thing - the farewell speech from Cory. We are sad to say goodbye to our lovely trainer Cory who has been helping us do good in Westminster for the last 2 years. Cory has helped lots of runner beat the fitness blues and do some great things every Wednesday, whether it is helping handout food to rough sleepers, clearing local church gardens, or helping out down at St Andrews. Good Luck Cory, we hope to see you running with us again sometime in the future.

Meanwhile in BestMinster we are back in full effect for ours and your first run of 2017.

What better way to get than Good going this than running and delivering food to rough sleepers in Central London on behalf of Rhythms of Life? A great charity set up by Andrew who has spent some of his life sleeping rough himself.

Now as it was our first session of the year we brought together lots of newbies and lots of regulars who pulled together to make the lil goody bags for our delivery containing fruit, sandwiches, crisps and chocolate.

Obviously before any of this happened we discussed the wonderfulness of GoodGym and why we do what we do, some health and safety and few sips of water and we were off.

Once again we'd been told where the best place was to head for the drop offs so all in all the plan was for a steady few KM followed by some intervals then steady back.

We left GG HQ and headed down into the strand via the back streets where we distributed the food to those in need and I swear we heard the the best thing I've ever heard on a GG run.

Would you like some food?

No thanks, BUT have you got a tenna as there's a hat that I saw on sale I'd like to buy abc replica gun in a library that I like the look of lol.

When we told up we had no money and no replicas he accepted the food and we were on our way.

We headed towards Trafalgar square for some relay reps then to the Christmas bazar for some selfies and as if by magic we were back at base having done our bit, just because.

Thanks for joining us, hopefully we'll see you next for yet more goodness. Now remember, continue to do small things with great love.