A last minute change of plan won't stop us!

Last night's task was a very last minute call around to all the previous places we'd had the pleasure of helping in hope there was something we could do! Unfortunately our task for Cultivate London that was scheduled for last night was curtailed by our contact being very unwell, get well soon Rosie! Luckily we have a few more dates booked in to help her at the DIG site in April ( sign up nice and early here! ) so we'll still get to go and help later on!

With a welcome shift in weather from last weeks Narnia like run we had a HUGE 21 runners out last night with two new members joining us for the first time. A Big welcome to Harriet and Victoria

This week we were back to two tasks as we sent a small sub team off again to help at The Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter. This week taskforce member Jenni led Michelle, Tony and Clare down, so thank you guys for volunteering to be on the smaller run!

We started off with a quick group huddle to discuss to route and to come clean about the fact I wouldn't in fact be running this evening... I felt incredibly guilty but a few niggles meant I didn't want to risk a run last night so instead I was lead bike for proceedings! A few warm up drills saw us nicely warmed up and we were off!

With Michael C backmarking for us we all arrived safely to Hanwell Community Centre with Shan & Michael K ready in waiting for us to get started. The team at the centre were sure they had some bits we would help with when we were left without a task at the last minute, so thanks to them for accommodating us with short notice last night!

We were working across the site doing a bit of cleaning, sweeping and tidying. There was a good mix of things to do, window cleaning and prop sorting were the key tasks, everyone was particularly excited about the group picture that would come of all the great props in the basement we were helping to organise.

What a PROPosition!

With it being the first Tuesday of the month (our dedicated social night!) minds soon turned to the pub so we wrapped things up and headed back to base and complete the run/cycle back to meet the other team. Finishing up nicely with a little leg busting round of exercises we were finished for the evening. Lovely to see so many in the pub afterwards and Jenni and I were happy to be able to share some biscuits we were gifted from a mission a few weeks ago!

Next week the lovely Ana of GoodGym Hounslow and Wandsworth will be covering while I am taking care of some business in Barcelona... it's a lovely spring cleaning task at a local church and it's a new venue we've not visited before so let's show them what we're made of and get stuck in, sign up here!

See you in a couple of weeks!

It was around 6pm when the message came through...

'How many layers are too many, asking for a friend...'

You know it's cold when our favourite northerner Jenni has 4 layers on! But last night 9 runners didn't let the beast from the east put them off and came out to run and help at the Hestia refuge in Ealing! Special kudos to new runner Tash who despite the weather got started on her GoodGym journey with us last night!

We started the run off with a team huddle INSIDE and decided to just get going and all stick together on the short run to the task as quite frankly we didn't think anyone would have been ice skating, sorry 'running' off too fast!

Running on thin ice!

The shorter of us in the group were for once grateful of our low center of gravity while Michael was particularly concerned that he had a long way to fall, but thankfully we all arrived in tact with no falls or slips to report!

The nature of the task last night was cleaning and we were focusing on making all the bathrooms in the refuge look spick and span, not the most glamorous of tasks but we were all just grateful to be helping in the WARM! We also love coming back to Hestia, the staff are always so grateful of our help and it's nice to see the difference we can make in an evening. The users of the refuge are often around in the evening and we always get lots of thanks yous as we are volunteering!

hardCORE!

A cautious amble back to the start thankfully proved uneventful and we finished up with a quick standing core workout on the green! We got a few strange 'what the hell are you doing out here in this freezing weather' looks but we're pretty hardcore in Ealing and we weren't going to let the snow stop us squeezing in our fitness session this week!

Hopefully next week we'll be back to more normal temperatures as we'll be back to double tasking and working outside for Cultivate London, sign up here in advance!

It was a blustery evening in Ealing but that didn't put off the 16 fantastic runners from coming out on our second double task week last night!

We met at our usual spot, the wonderful Bodyline Studios who very kindly accommodate us every week, before deciding who would go to each task for the evening. Taskforce member Michael C agreed to take Tim, Alexander & Emily off to The Ealing Winter Night Shelter to be on hand for a few tasks to help their evening run smoothly, while the rest of us were excited to be heading to help A Mile In Her Shoes sort donations.

The two tasks were very close to each other so after a few warm up drills we all headed out on the same route together, swerving down the busy Uxbridge Road, dodging pedestrians for some extra agility practice on our run!

We arrived at our first stop (which just so happened to be the pub!) letting the small group of night shelter helpers head on a bit further down the road to complete their mission for the evening.

We were using the function room at The Grosvenor to sort donations, so a massive thank you to them for hosting us and being so friendly and helpful all night.

Inside we were met by Nicola from the charity who explained a bit more about what we were doing for them, and it was basically Christmas! Unlike previous tasks we'd done before instead of just sorting into sizes/type we were opening up all the packages sent in and donated from members of the public. It was lovely to open things up and see all the lovely messages and notes people had sent in with their donated kit!

There was a lot to get through so the night was just about getting it all open and sorting into three sections, usable by the charity, not usable but good condition so can be resold/redonated elsewhere and finally a no thank you/bin pile.

Sorting the good, the bad and the ugly!

A few brutal decisions were made as unfortunately not everything that's donated can be utilised by Nicola and her team but at the end of the evening we had a HUGE pile of great kit that can be used as part of the process to empower women affected by homelessness to find their feet through running!

We even had a bit of a catwalk show with Tony strutting his stuff in a striking pair of jellyfish(?!) themed lycra tights, it was a strong look!

We were joined back at the pub by the night shelter sub team who had been busy sorting the shower schedule, making tea and walking around the grounds to litter pick and make sure the area was safe. They also helped with all the last bits of clearing up from our task so they really did provide the total package last night!

Amazing work last night, thank you to everyone who was involved! Next week we continue the theme of combating homelessness as we have another double task week at The Night Shelter and The Hestia Refuge, get yourselves signed up nice and early here!

It wasn't the nicest of evenings weather wise, cold and drizzly, but with 2 tasks to complete we saw 11 hardy runners brave the elements to join us and do double the good last night!

We were joined by Courtney who isn't new to GoodGym having run in Westminster many times before but is new to Ealing so big welcome to her!

Pantastic!

Way back in December at our Christmas party we raised £50 and voted to donate it to The Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter. Well on last nights run we saw that being put to good use as that's exactly where we headed, the cash was used to buy clean underwear and socks which we delivered to the shelter as part of the task!

So with a bag full of pants we ran the 3km route to the shelter before splitting into two teams as we had a second task to complete too. Our subgroup for the evening went on a separate mission to get the word out about GoodGym to some of the care homes in Ealing on a specially devised route with flyers explaing exactly how missions work!

Mission Possible!

Mission running is on the rise in the area which is great news but it means we need more people that know about the help on offer. This extra little task hopefully means a few more people will know about GoodGym and will spread the word so we can help more people in the area!

Meanwhile at the shelter a small group of us completed a few tasks to help the night run smoothly, we organised the shower schedule, patrolled and litter picked around the grounds and helped lay out clean clothes for the users to access on the evening.

All in all a successful night and we look forward to helping at the shelter for the next 6 weeks! This is a long term task we will be helping with until the end of March so we will always send a small group to help there while the rest of us perform a secondary task, so keep signing up for all the upcoming runs in Ealing!

Well that was blooming freezing BUT we still had 9 awesome runners come to out to plant bulbs in the freshly made orchard in Hanwell on behalf of Cultivate London this evening!

Bex didn't let the cold weather put her off and joined us for her first ever GoodGym run, big welcome and glad to have you with us!

No hanging around!

It was far too cold for any hanging around tonight so as soon as we were all present, correct and briefed with a map to the site, we set off to get ourselves warmed up on the 4km run to meet Rosie from the task.

She was all set ready to go with some bulb planting for us to do around the bases of the trees she'd already put in with another volunteer group earlier today as part of the Hanwell Community Orchard Trail and everyone was keen to get stuck straight in.

Last bud not least...

Special mention to Ronan who made a late appearance this evening after getting confused with the start time even though he's been to GoodGym LOADS of times! Great effort to run all the way down on his own to help finish up the job and then run all the way back with us making sure everyone finished the run safely by staying at the back. Thank you for your dedication!

It didn't take long to get everything planted and with very frozen hands and knees we packed up ready to head back in search of the pub for our monthly social which happens every first Tuesday of the month, a date for your diaries next time round!

We completed a couple of extra reps of Studland Road (for those of you that fancy a hard bit of hill training, here's the place to go in Ealing!) just to make sure we really earned the pizza that was waiting for us in the warm Red Lion!

Thank you to everyone for coming, see you all again next time!

The results are in....

With 2 days left of the January Challenge we needed just 5 more good deeds in the bank to hit our target but an incredible 18 people showed up last night meaning we totally smashed it! Full results to come next week but for now we can rest safely in the knowledge that we did an awesome job this month at GoodGym Ealing!

This week we had one new person join us with Mirko coming along to GoodGym for the first time. He nailed it, getting stuck right into the (grubby) task at hand and finishing one of our longer task runs. Great stuff!

One of our regular tasks, it's always a delight to head down to Hanwell on behalf of The Canal & River Trust to meet Jack with his big van of tricks and last night was all about litter picking and making the approach to the canal and surrounding area look a lot nicer.

Dump & Run...

A lot of rubbish was collected (a simultaneous feeling of satisfaction and disappointment) amongst which was sadly a load of crap... literally! So many poo bags flung into the woods off of the canal path but luckily GoodGym Ealing were most definitely on top of the situation... some may say on top of the plops!

A good haul later and it was time to shut up shop and complete our fitness session for the evening, we did a mix of sprints and exercises followed by a final show down where Alexander showed what his fast twitch muscle fibers were made of with one of the most impressive sprints I've seen on a group run yet!

Absolutely fantastic work tonight as always and a great end to a brilliant month of doing good and running loads!

Here's to more of the same next month!

Happy running :)