17 runners, 7km, 1 new trainer

This week was a mile stone for GoodGym Newham; it was a type of changing of the guard, as I stood down as coach and welcomed fellow Beagle Andres to the GG runners circle. An accomplished runner and trainer he wasted no time in getting the group warmed up with some not-so average exercises. High knees, sumo squat jumps, supermans....yeah, I herd you all breathing heavy. Forehead down to toes all warm, LET'S GO!

Armed with a 17 strong running pack I feel like we owned Westfield this time round; we stretched out and cruised down to Urban Wilderness at varied speeds. Weaving and dodging people traffic at every turn we arrived at Urban Wilderness where the flower bed plants now stood as tall as us, the number of planters had increased and there was an addition of some pretty looking fairy lights in preparation for Autumn nights.

We split up with some of the group tasked with shovelling soil into a large planter at the far end of the garden and the rest of the group disturbing and pulling up weeds at the other end. Darkness sneakily started to creep up on us making the work a little bit more challenging, but as you know we’re pretty much nocturnal, we work all year round in all conditions, so we accepted the dark. And plus, I brought my ever so bright bike light and strategically placed it around the garden for a bit of help…. I KID, it was pretty much the smallest two LED’s known to man stuck together but it’s all I had….Every little helps and all that.

Time for the return, two groups:

• Group 1 cruised back at a comfy, aka Chatty pace, whereby they would live to fight another day.

• Group 2 went hard….It’s still somewhat of a mystery to me as to what this group did as I was with group 1, but as they sprinted back through the park with a Usain Bolt style arm drive, heavy breathing, and a few grimaces I knew it was serious.

Finishing off with a series of stretches which brought everyone back down to ’Shake Shack prep’ levels we ended the session. Whilst simultaneously contemplating what we order in the Shack. To my suprise the group said a few words and presented me with a few goodies, before I embark on my new adventure.

A massive thank you to everyone who came, and everyone who has supported GoodGym and GoodGym Newham. IN SHORT, YOU ARE ALL SERIOUSLY AMAZING and it has been a pleasure to work alongside you all

Get behind Andres once again this week as he leads you through the bustling streets of Newham, Over and out GG Newham

Kirsty

A small but perfectly formed group of 5 gathered in the Olympic park for a mellow task

We have been doing a lot of physical, back breaking work across gardens in Newham lately so this week we switched it up to Librarian duties. After a pacey 3k run to Durning Hall Community Centre in Forest Gate we were greeted with two tasks:

• The first was to unpack stacks of books that have been donated and sort them into fiction and non fiction.
• The second was to replace several notice board cork tiles across various rooms in the centre.

Me and Andreana got to work upstairs with the tiles whilst the others started sifting through books. On the way upstairs we bumped into a new organisation 'Feeding the Homeless' that has literally just set up, and who we will definitely be joining forces with in the near future.

Once in the Hostel we quickly realised there was much more than meets the eye with the job. Armed with nothing but tiles we were unequipped to remove the current tiles and cut and glue up new ones so we aborted the mission.

Instead we rejoined the others who had made huge progress with the sorting (slight advantage in the team with Lauren's past Library experience), plus some great finds - in particular Cheryl and Ashley...thanks for that Sajid.

We got through most but not all of the books, because quite frankly there just wasn't enough room, even after disposing of some that were worse for wear.

Our time was up!

We started making our way back to the park with partnered interval runs through the quiet residential areas and then coasted back after. Not forgetting the sprint up the Rocky stairs.

Thanks for coming guys, back to the hard stuff next week as we visit INUF Mental Health Charity for the first time to take on a big clear out.

Kirsty