19 runners ran 6.5 - 7.5 km to spruce up St. Andrew's gym

Sometimes you've gotta get out there in that beautiful sunshine and run really really hard.

And that's what 19 lovely runners did last night in Westminster. After a quick brief on not running into dead (or alive!) dogs, all 19 set out into Central London confusing and amusing commuters and shoppers. We hopped and bounded our way down New Bond Street and into St James Park, weaving in and out of curious tourists until we arrived at our destination.

GoodGym Westminster are regulars at St Andrew's Youth Club, the oldest youth club in the entire world so we dashed in there and gave their gym a good scrub down. Tom, a Personal Trainer at the gym (and recently invited to Downing Street don't you know!) gave us a quick rundown of the impact the youth club has had on his life since he was a wee'un. Inspired and motivated by Tom's words, there was nothing for it but to do a plank-off :).

Mad props to Lahiru and Jai who joined us from Imperial College and took the plank-off by storm and had to be stopped at 5 minutes so we could all go home. Insanity!

Plank-off complete, we set off home, some runners taking a longer route around St James Parknwhilst the remaining squatted, lunged and arm-raised until we were all ready for the final push home. Toyo made a great hare on the final stretch back to base as everyone raced after him.

An excellent evening was had by all, a solid distance covered, a great task completed and a serious work-out that everyone can be proud of. Until next time!

Lucy J

Meanwhile in Westminster despite a record number of attempts by those naughty grey clouds we rolled out to 22 deep to a place called Charing Cross. Why? To hand out food to rough sleepers on behalf of rhythms of life.

Now the task at hand was supposed to take us down to oasis to water some plants but the torrential rain decided that today would not be that day.

A quick briefing on do's, dont's and all things good gym, we were off.

Same deal as previously, it was time get cracking. Peanut butter, jam, bread, crisps, chocolates and of course some fruit all made up into little packages, 25 to be exact.

The route was simple, back streets, side streets and maybe one or two busier roads to keep us light on our feet. We arrived safely and began. Honestly, a few conversations later all our bags were gone to people in an around st martins in the field and most importantly they were happy.

Time to get our sweat on. As usual the question was asked. Long and hard or short and fast on our return. Obviously they went for long, hard and fast so that's exactly what we did. Intervals, drills, step reps and of course a lot of hooooopting and hollllllaring followed by some weaving and screaming. Sounds like a perfect Wednesday night to me.

Thanks for coming, hope you enjoyed and see y'all next week.

Sixteen awesome GoodGym folk ran 7km to help spruce up a 150 year old youth club in Westminster!

On a gloomy Wednesday evening 16 wonderful GoodGym-ers piled into what was definitely the wrong room (no apple and coca cola update - sorry!) at the University of Westminster to be briefed on a great task and decent run for the evening.

More fluoro!

With Cory away, having a well-earned post-London Marathon break, GG Westminster was in my hands and so I tried to channel some of the Cory magic by wearing odd shoes – not sure anyone noticed – more fluoro next time Pritesh!

Tonight we were running to the St Andrews Club in the heart of Westminster which is the longest running youth club in the world at 150 years old! They offer facilities from ages five to adulthood in a safe and welcoming environment.

With a few regulars knowing the route we had Howard leading us down to the club. As ever running in the streets of busy Westminster is always a challenge but Howard was a great help and ably led everyone safely down to the club.

Getting the job done

Adrian, the Deputy Club Manager, met us and led us through to the gym we were working on. With cleaning spray, wipes and cloths ready we go down to the task at hand. We were helping to clean and sanitise the gym at St Andrews to ensure that the members could use the space safely. As ever with GoodGym everyone got stuck in and we were done in no time even requesting extra tools so we could really get the space clean! 'Top' effort from Alex using his height to get to those hard to reach places!

After we had finished the task Adrian took us on a tour of the facilities, it's a really special place and there was a good vibe from everyone there and it was great to see so many people using the facilities. What we hadn't accounted for were the delicious smells coming from the open kitchen as we walked through the club, there's nothing like the smell of home-cooked pizza to get those stomach going when you've just been running and working!

Mmmm, pizza...

With the tour complete, Adrian thanked us profusely and it was time for the run back (well after Bella had picked up her leaflets ;)). Howard did a great job leading again (thank you!) and the whole group did great pounding through the 3.5k with ease. With the biblically dark clouds gathering we were pleased to get back to base, get a good stretch in and be changed and out before the heavens opened!

Make sure to sign up for next week's run here!

Great running and 'tasking' everyone!

Pritesh

Meanwhile in Westminster on a beautiful bright bright night in our capital 13 brave souls head north to a Sayers Croft out post in search of litter to pick, plants, fruit, veg to water and of course logs to move.

We are always in search of new tasks especially tasks that involve an opportunity to work outdoors with plants and wildlife.

Sayers Croft at Paddington Recreation has been set up as a Forest School specifically to educate local young people on Nature.

After a 5k run there from our base our job was to pick up the litter, give some of the outdoor furniture a good clean, move lots of wood and logs from one point to another and water the plants and planters full of fruit and veg.

With 20 mins on the clock and lots of hands we were done in no time.

A task that was both educational and fun I hope you all enjoyed it.

A steady 5k run back and nothing but smiles as we made our way home through yet more bright bright skies.

Thanks for joining us. See you all next week.

Ten Westminster GoodGymers ran 7k to Small Works social enterprise to paint, clean and generally make the community building a nicer place to be.

On a lovely early spring evening we set off on mass on the imposing 3.5k run through the busy streets of central London to Victoria to help Small Works brighten up there community building. After a mobilising and activating dynamic warm up we were on our way weaving through the shoppers and commuters passing Palaces and streams until we reached out destination of Small Works social enterprise.

We met Juliet who talked us through the evenings tasks and split into 4 groups ready for action! We decorated the outside arch with a super creative and striking mural. removed and cleaned a huge white board, cleaned and repainted (in the nick of time) a floor to ceiling black board. Dominated the cleaning of windows both high and low and even managed to squeeze in the re painting of a wall stained with an epic tea spillage.

With such frantic action it was lucky that Juliet had provided a wonderful spread of chocolate biscuits and juice. Think this alone will ensure Small Works becomes a GG Westminster favourite!!

In 35 action packed minutes with a little black board painting sprint finish we had completed all our task and left a very happy Juliet with an brighter, cleaner and a little more sticking building for the local community.

We headed back to base throwing in some loop to the back speed play action along the inclines of Bond Streets. With a final sprint finish we were home!! After a little static stretch out and frantic search for the room key were skipped into the night happy with a great job done.

Thank you for looking after me and hope to see you all again very soon.

Run Smooth

Joel

Meanwhile in Westminster we headed back to St Andrews youth centre to give their community gym its regular spring clean.

A quick briefing, a few announcements about hackney half and we were on our way.

It was mentioned that this was going to be the first night that we've run since it started to get a little brighter.

We made our way through the hustle and bustle to we hit the park, at this point it was time to work through the gears.

We arrived safely at St Andrews where we greeted by Adrian who gave everyone or your as many had not been before.

Then we got in to the task at hand clean clean clean till it was spotless.

Now why waste an opportunity to use the gym? We set up a few fitness stations and got to work, 1 minute on each and move on, running, squatting, balancing, core and an agility station.

Did we love it? of course we did? Did it make our run back a little bit harder? Maybe lol.

Till next time, thanks for coming.