T'was the run before Christmas and all through The Stow several GoodGymers were beavering away in the Mill before doing some hard yards in a tough time trial down Coppermill Lane.

We were a little thin on the ground yesterday, but what we lacked in numbers we made up for in tenacity. It takes a lot to drag one's butt out on a chilly, dark winter night in late December to do some exercise so hats off to the crew. In fact, I think these guys all deserve a name check, we had Louise formerly of the GG's Birmingham Chapter but now living back in East London. Great to see you Louise and I hope this is the first of many. We also had Nerys, back from doing a bit of a David Attenborough in Central Americal. Racing Ruby, who ripped it up in the mile time trial (more on that later). Ercole - Mr Reliable who joined us despite having clocked up a ten-mile run that morning. "Hell-for-Leather-Heather" who landed her time trial on a postage stamp with a perfect run. "Racing-Ruthiran" with an IQ and a V02 max that are off the charts.

Fortunately, the task at hand suited a smaller crowd. We were heading to The Mill, a community jewel on Walthamstow's glittering crown. This place provides such an essential service to so many and you can feel the warm glow of friendliness as soon as you walk in the door. Natasha, our hard working contact was waiting patiently for us to arrive despite the late hour. We have been here many times before so no time was wasted in getting down to it. As part of their big Christmas clean-up, we were helping out with the toy room.

After killing billions of germs, we were back out into the night for our 1-mile handicap time-trial. The results were pretty amazing:

| Name | Predicted | Actual |

 | Heather   | 08:00    | 08:02 |

 | Nerys        | 08:00    | 08:34 |

 | Louise      | 08:00    | 08:07 |

 | Ruby         | 09:00    | 08:45 |

 | Ruthiran  | 06:30    | 06:35 |

 | Ercole       | 07:00    | 06:29 |

It was a display of impressive running with everyone posting excellent times in harsh, dark conditions, and it Nerys's case some serious jetlag.

That's it for 2018. It's been a great year for GGWF. We have some wonderful volunteers and a fabulous team spirit. Thank you to everyone who has joined us and made it so special.

We return on Wednesday 9th January 2019 with a lovely litter pick along the green verges of the Lea Bridge Road near Walthamstow Marshes. Sign-up here

We are also planning a weekend starter run to Willow Brook Primary School. More details to follow but do sign-up here

It just remains for me to say, I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year

☮️

A great group of 32 people joined us for the Birmingham Goodgym Launch, running 6.2k to clear glass and litter from a school sports pitch in Balsall Heath

GoodGym launch was supported by Run Birmingham and GoodGym's national sponsor is BT - so it was very exciting to be able to bring the two together.

On a rather ‘nippy’ night, everyone was keen to get moving, so we set off from the BT offices in Birmingham city centre and made our way to Balsall Heath. Arriving at the task everyone either took a brush, litter picker or shovel and got to work clearing the nearby sports pitch belonging to Nelson Mandela Primary School.

"two time Paralympic gold medallist Jonnie Peacock"

As if that was't exciting enough on it's own, we had a two time Paralympic gold medallist Jonnie Peacock (thanks for the Selfie!) joining us at the task as part of the GoodGym Brum launch celebrations. We spent 25 minutes clearing the pitch and I reckon we removed atleast 23kg of glass ;-)

"thighs and bums burning"

Once we had finished the task, Jonnie Peacock gave a speech showing appreciation for what were doing, then we did a little fitness session involving some high intensity high knees, running to get the heart rate soaring and then a bit of leg conditioning work, by getting those thighs and bums burning with some lunges.

We then ran back to base finishing with a bit of stretching and that was job done!

Huge thanks to everyone; the feedback from the Balsall Heath Forum was massively postive; though we didn't get every grain of glass of the pitch it's lightened the load for the next effort.

"our new base of **1000 Trades in the Jewellery Quarter, at 6pm."

Next week we are going to be helping the Guide association and running from our new base of 1000 Trades in the Jewellery Quarter, at 6pm. Sign up here