Caroline Townsend (Taskforce Member) wrote the lovely run report below:

This week we returned for another sequel to Barnsbury Community Centre. We got up to a range of awesome tasks there. Sadly Simon couldn’t make it but Paul flew in (Camden Trainer and ex Islington taskforce) like Batman to save the day. Caroline was Robin for providing biscuits (oreos) at last minute.

On the way we split into two groups; a mega fast group who did an extra lap of Highbury fields and the philosopher’s group who talked about cake. We all arrived at the same time.

At the centre we had a party due to Patrick’s awesome tunes again. We split into 3 teams… team paint, team heave soil and team stick poles.

Team Paint

Team paint struggled to open a paint can and nearly bent a few keys in the process. However, Patrick had a tool kit (his backpack is a TARDIS) so it was opened in the end. The team then painted flower pots.

Team Soil

Team heave soil continued to remove soil from the circle of dirt. We have been working hard on this area for a few months now and it’s nice to see that it’s nearly done. It helps with team stick poles with their work as well.

Team Stakes

Team stake poles, led by Steve, stuck poles into the circle of dirt at specific heights in the shape of an ‘S’. This sounds complicated and it was. They made a lot of noise and sounded a bit like a tribe due to one of the tools sounding like a bell when it pushed poles into the ground. An installation in being put in this space in the near future.

On the way home we split into 3 groups and continued to talk about cake. A few things we heard was cupcake mix served in a jam jar and what would an iced carrot taste like instead of having carrot cake.

Thank you very much again guys for coming. We hope that you had a groovy time.

Yesterday was Frances 50th task. Congratulations Frances!

On a clear crisp Islington evening 27 wrapped up GoodGymers ran 6.75k to Claxton House to rip up and breakdown playground flooring, weed flower beds, raise some flower beds with compost and cut back the hedges.

So as normal I was late leaving my house so had to run hard to make my normal train, I got off at Waterloo as normal then things got weird!! Running over Blackfriars Bridge, passing Smithfield market and then Angel where was I going? What day was it?? Had I made a mistake? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

No No No I hadn't I was on my way to the magnetic GoodGym Islington 😋😋 to help look after the ship along with the every energetic supremely supportive Task Force😎😎 while Simon had a well earned day off.

Great to see such a vibrant and welcoming GoodGym community, GoodGym Vetrans marshalling and encouraging GoodGym newcomers at every turn. And the Newbies getting stuck right into their fitness and doing Good journeys. 👏🏼👏🏾👏🏽

After a much needed warm up to raise our pulses, mobilise our joints and activate those key muscle groups we split into three select units to take to the streets and power our way up the Islington mountain 🏔🏔🏔 for the 3.3k run to Claxton House. 21 short minutes later we had all arrived and we're all gloving up to tackle the tasks ahead. The flower beds were being raised at a fantastic pace in preparation for some Spring planting 🌼🌷🌾🌹. While DJ Pat was pumping out the tunes 🎼🎤🎧📀📀 his glow in the dark decks for the privileged weeding and pruning crew at the front of the building! And the most I quote "Annoyingly Satisfying" task of the evening was under way with the old playground flooring being scratched, cut, jabbed, yanked then finally to much hooping and hollaring ripped up and broken down 💪🏾💪🏻💪🏼.

35 minutes went in a brink of an eye! All the flooring up up and pilled up, the flower beds were prepared for planting, the bushes had been cut back and the weeds had been removed 👏🏾👏🏼👏🏿👏🏻. We said our Goodbyes and split up into our running units for a handicap race back to base with the Philosophical runners leading us off followed by the medium sexy group a couple of minutes later then the speedies soon after them. The final 2 groups had the privilege of running around the greatest football stadium in the world to increase the level of difficulty in te dash to the finish. A super strong 3.3k run back aided with a bit of helpful gravity enabled a blistering sprint finish from the Philosophers to take the 🏁🏁🏁 closely followed by the rest of the team after a scorching lap of the Emirates Stadium.

Some beautifully executed cool down stretches finished off a great evening of fun on a run.

Don't forget to sign up for next weeks task here

Thank you all for looking after me, and hope to see you all at a Hackney GoodGym run on a Tuesday evening very very soon.

Until next time

Smooth Running

Joel