16 runners ran to help Ealing Foodbank during their busiest time of year, harvest!

This Thursday is World Mental Health Day so we kicked off the session by getting everyone to go around and say hello to someone new. Sometimes a chat with a stranger and getting outside for a run and chat can be incredibly uplifting. Keeping physically active can have a huge benefit for those experiencing mental health problems and here at GoodGym Ealing we’re all about running, talking and sharing experiences.

Lots of us had donations to bring down to the centre last night so after a quick warm up off we ran into the night armed with jars of peanut butter, cans of sweetcorn and packets of nappies (all things on Ealing Foodbanks most needed list for this month). After a lovely run in the cool autumnal air avoiding the big puddles from the earlier downpour we arrived to meet Hilary who was armed with a long list of jobs for us.

• Weighing donations - everything that comes in is weighed and logged so they know exactly how much and who has donated
• Unpacking donations - So many beans!
• Heading out to help buy as many nappies as possible - They have a budget to buy much needed items they are short on and nappies is always on the list
• Putting donations on the right shelves - they have a great storage system all sorted by date!
• Cleaning the centre, something really helpful for the staff here so they can focus on all the super important jobs
• Shredding - there’s always lots of this!
• And lastly a litter pick around the building, it’s sadly a hotspot for people throwing litter over the fence

We split ourselves up all mixing jobs throughout the night and getting stuck in wherever we could. Harvest time brings in the most donations of the whole year so we weren’t short on things to do and worked right up until the last minute!

It’s my favourite task as I know exactly who and how it’s going to help!

This is a favourite task of so many of the group and it’s great to see the amount of donations they receive but it’s always very sad to know this is still such a needed service. I’m glad GoodGym Ealing are able to play a small part in helping it run smoothly.

17 of us came out to help Ealing Transition Community Orchard for a final round of bramble snipping and hedge trimming before the dark nights really close in.

We started at our base, Bodyline Studio, where we welcomed some new and returning faces.

• Great to have Sam with us on his tourism trail from Liverpool.

• Lovey to have Emily back with us after a long battle with injury.

• We also welcomed back Courtney, after threatening to leave us for good last year by moving back to Aus, you can imagine my joy to see her signed up this week!

• Huge well done goes to Chris who complete his first marathon on Sunday.

• Also to Harvey knocking out an ultra, superstars!

• The biggest congratulations this week however goes to Mollie who joined us this week with her on board co-pilot, he will be coming into the world in January! That’s two GoodGym bumps in the group now! 🥰

With the battle for loosing day light working against us we wasted no time in getting down to the task and collected all our tools en route. We were greeted by Grant who was ready to show us exactly what needed doing.

He also let us know a bit of history about the garden and explained to everyone new to the task how it’s actually built on top of old tennis courts! 🎾 The garden is now used a community learning space and they are reliant on volunteers such as ourselves to keep it at its best!

Splitting up across the garden we had groups trimming the shrubs and hedges and groups taking on the brambles. Team bramble were focused on removing briar around the trees while team hedge were tasked with making the shrubbery surrounding the site much neater and tidier.

We had around 30 minutes before darkness descended so it was all systems go to chop and clear as quickly as possible! With five minutes to go we all pulled together to make sure everything was raked up and and cleared away.

That’s a days worth of work for two people!

We finished up by running the tools back through (the now pretty dark) Walpole Park before dropping them off and finishing up with a little agility, balance and coordination circuit in the park. We had side shuffles, backwards running and even some carioca, no not karaoke!

Great work everyone!

Another balmy evening in Ealing saw 15 GoodGymers out for a night of sweeping success at The Log Cabin!

Get your buts in gear!

We started with a series of warm up drills including some glute activation exercises, lots of runners (very much myself included) don't activate our glutes when we run so we did some simple glutes squeezes to see if we could wake them up before the run! I mentioned a kneeling hip flexor stretch you can do that's great for activation too - check that out here

On with the run!

Chris led the group on a slightly longer run around Walpole park while Alex expertly back marked a shorter route through the middle. Myself and Jenni led a run 1 minute / walk 1 minute group for those of us who are building back up from injury or are new to running, so many options available to get involved!

On with the task!

We arrived at the The Log Cabin to find a whole host of tasks that needed doing around the playground. Lots of weeding, sweeping, trimming and general tidying needed doing so we wasted no time in getting stuck in. We split off each taking on a section to make look tidier and nicer for the children who use this amazing facility.

Harvey, Jesse and Madiha all took on the task of rearranging the storage area and I must say it looked so much better when we were done with it! Milie and Tash took on some nasty nettles, while others worked to smarten up the edges and clear debris from the playground, great work everyone!

There was just time for a quick photo on the swings before locking up and heading to Lammas Park for the last of the evening light where we blasted through a fitness session. In teams we did sprints and a series of leg exercises for an extra workout before heading back to base for stretches and goodbyes.

See you all again next time!

Tonight we once again ran the long 10km to Acton to continue to support Old Oak Community and Children's Centre with their fight to get the garden space revamped and also stepped in to help with some food prep ahead of their community BBQ tomorrow night.

We had 16 of us out tonight including Alex who despite hitting 100 good deeds isn't resting on her laurels and came straight back this week to start totting up the good deeds towards the next big milestone! We had the lovely Tash back with us after starting with GoodGym a couple of years ago, that's the great thing whether you come once a week or once a year, you've still made a huge difference and we always having you no matter how often you can make it!

After some quick introductions getting to know your fellow runners through some Mexican wave squats (yes, that's a thing!) we set off on what was a lovely evening for a run, bright and sunny but not too warm, perfect weather!

Our help is grately appreciated!

At the centre we were met by Elly who always has lots of great tasks for us to help with. These small tasks between 16 of us on one evening save her and the team lots of time and resources so well done team! Tonight we split into two groups, one outside continuing to weed and clear the garden space and one group inside doing some food prep for their community event. Tash definitely helped speed the grating process along and utilised her food technology experience to pump up the indoor team to complete the task at hand.

Meanwhile outside the garden was really taking shape and the before and after was really clear to see! Loads more crates of garden waste removed and a clean sweep for the playground, cracking effort all round!

After that it was just a case of getting the 5km back under our belts, well done to everyone who pushed themselves tonight on the distance. 10km is a long way and everyone got it done! After some stretches back at base we were done!

See you all next time!