21 GoodGym'ers did some fanta-stic(k) weeding work at a local Community Gardens

Today was another of our brilliant summer days...yes, more wind and rain! However, the threat of heavy downpours and thunderstorms didn't put off my wonderful group tonight. 20 other GoodGym'mers joined me tonight with beaming smiles, all ready and eager to run and do good.

Luckily there appeared to be an aptly timed break in the rain for our run tonight, and I think everyone had their fingers crossed that it remained this way, for a few hours at least!

A big welcome to our 6 newbies tonight, Ellie, Karla, Maddy, Rob M, Dan and Rob G - thank you all for coming along, hope you enjoyed it! It was also lovely to have Jason back after many months of school and studying!

Just news it!

Firstly, well done to all those who have been getting involved with missions these past few weeks! You can have a read about them all here: Bringing London Fashion Week to Wandsworth 🌿👚, Lot's of child's play 🎨, Always in the kitchen at parties 🥄.

1. GoodGym Monthly Long Run - This Saturday! - Led by Andy and I along the Wandle Trail, 16/10km run options, for all the details click here.
2. Fulham Palace parkrun GoodGym takeover - Saturday 29th June! - We're still in need of some funnel managers, marshals and paces! - Please sign up here & please fill out the spreadsheet on the sign up page with your preferred volunteer role or pacing time.
3. Asics London 10K Aid Station Volunteering - Sunday 21st July - Come and volunteer at the race, you'll get FREE entry into another Virgin Sport race and get to cheer on loads of other GoodGym'ers. For all the details on how to sign up click here.

This week GoodGym is partnered with The Great Get Together, a scheme which was started by Jo Cox's family and friends to bring us more together as communities and celebrate the fact that we all have more in common than we do apart. There's some special Community Missions happening on Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd June - check them all out here.

Through stick and thin

We had a quick pulse raising warm-up, stretch and number game before we headed off on our short 1km run up to our task tonight at Loris Community Garden, pausing only briefly for traffic lights and the much loved weekly wall sit.

Weeding between the lines

The task tonight was simple...weed the garden path and in the flower beds. Unfortunately due to the late rearrangement of tonight's task, the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association were unable to leave us any tools to assist us so it was very much a case of 'manual gardening'. However, we had the padlock combination to their side store and after a good forage we found: a fork, a spade, a garden waste bag and what surprisingly turned out to be the most useful tool of the evening, sticks!!

Stickin' it to the weeds

Armed with sticks, everyone set to work on the garden path and in the flower beds in an attempt to get to the 'root of the problem'. It wasn't long before there were piles of weeds built up around the path which in time were all neatly placed into the garden waste bag.

A litter pick of this, and a litter pick of that

While many tackled the weeds in the garden, Maddy and Xiaolei did a wonderful job collecting all the litter in the area and emptying the full litter bin near the entrance.

As always half an hour flew by and it was time to pack away all the tools, well 'up sticks' and pose for a lovely group photo around the freshly weeded paths and the now full garden waste bag.

A GoodGym sprint screen

With everyone congregated outside the garden we headed off on our short run down to Brook Green for the 1km time trial around the outer perimeter of the Green. We headed to the start of the Strava segment so that everyone's times could be logged and progress tracked. Rob M and Jonny led the way with everyone nicely spaced apart behind. Everyone displayed some excellent 'pockets to sockets' technique and good postures throughout, with Mo capturing some fanastic finish line photos. Post-lap there were significantly raised pulse rates, heavier breaths, and noticeably redder and sweatier faces. There were course segment records broken, as well as 1km PBs! Brilliant effort all!

Pair Conditioning

Before we headed back to base everyone got into pairs and completed some challenging partner exercises, these included the squat to sit, wonderfully demonstrated by Mo and Lucy, the pistol squat and seated glute stretch. We then headed back on our short run back to base for a cool down and stretch off, led by the wonderful double-act of Jonny and Mo. Thanks for a great evening, top effort all round!

Next week's we're heading up to Phoenix Farm to lend a hand with some weeding, watering, and chopping of plants for the compost heaps. Please sign up here. Hopefully see you then, have a fab week!

Having successfully navigated their way into the Better Gym despite the entrance being closed, 19 GoodGymmers gathered to experience Catriona's leadership for the first time, here's what happened...

A HUGE welcome to Cristian, Jenny, Elizabeth and Charlotte who joined us for their first group runs, and Helen visiting from GoodGym Wandsworth - go on, give 'em all a cheer.

Important things upcoming:

• Sat 29th June - GoodGym takeover of Fulham Palace Parkrun. Come marshall, scan, pace, setup or however you'd like to volunteer. Sign up on the link AND the spreadsheet pretty please.
• Sat 3rd August - GoodGym Olympics at Parliament Hill athletics track. A big ol' fun sports day with lots of GoodGymmers from all over. Join Team H&F!
• Fri 16th-Sun 18th August - Bath Two Tunnels races weekend. We've got an incredible TWENTY ONE H&F GoodGymmers going along to this fun-packed weekend, come join us.

With the announcements out the way and double Helens volunteering to backmark, we headed off to Askham Court sheltered housing to help the residents there with some gardening. Instructions including 'take out the weeds but try to avoid the strawberry plants' made our runners slightly nervous, but we dove in nonetheless.

Main tasks were weeding flowerbeds, bagging and composting piles of debris from around the garden and chopping up some branches for disposal. Our runners made light work of this, all excellently captured by the Jonny and Mo photography team. Sarah can verify, not a single strawberry was harmed in the course of the evening.

After the garden was looking neat and tidy, it was time for a quick pit stop in the residents' hall where Kumaran had kindly provided some sandwiches, water and particularly delicious apple juice. Bex led us all home for a stretch and some delicious homebaked goods brought along by Lucy and Andrew. Yum.

Next week Beth will be back to lead us to AgeUK, see you then!