Racing celebrations, a huge task under the light of a beautiful moon, and a star turn from a rarely spotted inhabitant of Chiswick House made for a great Wednesday night at GoodGym Hounslow!

Thanks to Michelle for leading the warm up, before we kicked off the evening with a short run to our regular task. We were fresh off the back of some great races at the weekend - a huge well done to Chris, Tish, Matt, Eloise and Steph for a fantastic run at the Vitality 10km, and to Alan and Florian for smashing the Ealing Half!

We arrived at a secret door to meet Chiswick House gardener Chris, who took us to a new spot or the group - the bee hives. The bees produce honey which is sold in the shop to raise money for the charity, and they want to make the area more accessible for school kids. Enter GoodGym!

The aim of the game was to remove all the undergrowth and anything else that was getting in the way. Everything had to go to create a new pathway, and with the green flag from Chris to adopt a scorched earth policy, we got to work!

We pulled, lopped and cleared, slowly but surely revealing a large area of land. Half way through the task, our mystery guest made an appearance - well done to Ariane for safely uncovering and rehoming a gorgeous hedgehog! He was in very safe hands, and was soon happily snuffling his way back to the woods.

By the end the task the area was truly transformed, great work everybody. We ran and walked back to base, where there was the option of a static core workout using the benches by the rockery. We worked our obliques, lower back and abs with a series of (slightly damp) exercises.

Next week we're off to Harvard Hill for some more gardening - please bring headtorches if you have them as this is a dark task.

It takes two (teams of GoodGym Ealing people) to make a dream come true - the dream of the streets of Ealing free from the signs of an amazing community half marathon. And by the time our teams had finished, indeed, there were no signs! They were all unclipped and packed neatly away in some of those big blue bags that look a bit like the ones from a famous Scandinavian superstore. Ealing - where the streets have no signs, ahaaa...til next year's Ealing half marathon!

On a wet Sunday afternoon, two GoodGymers made it to Southall for the Autumn tidy up of the Featherstone High School garden. Steph sported his Ealing Half Marathon medal (yes, he had completed the Half Marathon in the morning!) and battle scars from being knocked down by an inconsiderate runner at the race. Neither the rain, nor the scratches, nor the race stopped Steph from showing up! Kash was already soaked from running to and from her previous mission and couldn't decide whether to put the rain jacket over her damp clothes. Alex, the task owner, Gurpal from Southall Transition, and volunteer Andrew made up for the deficit of GoodGymers, and together we formed a team of five.

In our absence, the garden had been utilised well, hosting Science, Geography, and English classes. The space was in pretty good shape; however, Alex was a bit concerned about the state of the woodchip path, which had started developing bald patches, although it wasn't that old yet! The path certainly needed a woodchip transplant in the near future, and Alex had been working hard to secure some chips. Once she succeeds, our team will be there for another round of joyful shovelling or tipping tonne bags.

As the woodchip delivery hasn’t been confirmed yet, this afternoon was all about tidying up. We weeded (some of us with pretty bendy mini forks!) and filled the raised beds, picked the litter, moved a heavy metal frame to make space for a new edibles growing project, and cut back tree branches to let more light into the garden. Now people as tall as Steph can walk through - teenagers these days can probably be his height!

Despite the gloomy weather, it was a fun afternoon with a light workout and a positive feeling of contributing to a lovely project that connects youngsters to nature. We are already planning the next weekend session at Featherstone, so keep your eyes peeled for a new listing!

A rapid 3 minute mission for Kash and Sevan this afternoon. All they had to do was:

1. Turn Up: Find their was through the maze of Mr R's block of flats to find his front door. Once in Mr R's bedroom, they found an undressed bed topped by a single mattress with sturdy handles. Perfect 👌
2. Flip In: 10 seconds later the mattress top was on the bottom and bottom on top, leaving Mr R very happy. He was too frail to do this himself and said he'd be back in touch in 6 months for the reverse flip operation.
3. Step Out: Then it was time to step out and onto the next task. Southall for Kash and Hammersmith for Sevan 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

In all, taking the photos took longer than moving the mattress.