40 runners, 40 degrees…

40 runners gathered in a rather warm hotel room tonight, eagerly catching up on news, meeting fellow new runners – and expressing a strong desire to head outside to cooler temperatures. And so we promptly gathered on the steps of the hotel to run through our intros, and to greet tonight’s new runners, and welcome Rob, our new Solihull trainer, who’s very excitingly set to launch GG Solihull in the next few weeks.

Lean, mean cleaning machines

With tonight’s new task being just a short run from base, we soon arrived at Oxford House, a much loved, exceptionally well established community arts centre just by Weavers Fields. Sarah, our wonderful task owner, was well prepped for tonight’s task: a mammoth cleaning operation to prepare the entire centre for phase II, the decorating, of its extensive overhaul. Teams were dispatched all over the building: to the ramps for chewing gum-scraping; to the ramp railings for grime-blitzing; to the bar, gallery and stairwells for sugar-soaping walls and to the stairways for skirting board cleaning.

The work was tough going: cloths were left threadbare, walls were scrubbed (“We feel like we’re not making a difference, Laura”. “But you are, you are – there’s less grime, honest.”) It was a journey: of stoicism, strength - and sugar soap.

A January fitness session…

And then it was a task-wrap as buckets were emptied, cloths rinsed, floors swept and hoovered (thank you, Liam) and we were meeting in the beautiful theatre space for 20 minutes of balance and strength work. The runners’ faces were as usual a picture: the grimaces would make brilliant GIFs, let me tell you, but they got the work done – again. Obliques were obliterated; hamstrings hurt (in a good way); teeth gritted for glute-rinsing, and 2019 cores carved. Way to go.

And so we headed back to the hotel, for a final stretch and a cheerio, and chatting about the exciting things we’ve got coming up in the next couple of weeks...

What. A. Night.

A huge GG Tower Hamlets shout-out to our first time runners and visitors

Tonight we were joined by first time runners, Hannah, Matthew, Claire, Louise, Shweta, Jo, Emma and Rob.

Thanks for helping to make the night such a huge success – for all your hard work, and big smiles, and for getting so stuck in on your first run. We really hope to see you again very soon.

Thank you to Rob, obviously by no means new, just new to us, who was such an asset to last night’s task: for the chatter, the energy, the input, the ferocious guarding of the sign-in sheet and meticulous timekeeping.

And a massive thank you and big appreciation from the group to our utterly wonderful task force again this week. Behind the scenes of an operation like tonight, there’s actually a lot of careful planning, all assisted and supported by our truly wonderful task force, who are on board from the off, with everything from route-planning, backmarking, new-runner greeting - to reassuring a wide-eyed trainer just before the run…

We’re pub-quizzing on Sunday!

Talking of which, our latest task force member, Becky G, is also our new parkrun co-ordinator! Big, big hip hooray. So don’t forget, on Sunday we’ll be joining forces with the brilliant Mile End parkrun pub quizzers, at The Coborn in Bow, from 7pm – the more the merrier, so do sign up here if you fancy swapping trainers for trivia this weekend, and hanging out with some friendly faces.

...And we're doing it all again next Monday

Don’t forget - we’re back at Oxford House next week, when we’re lucky enough to be finishing the task with a Yoga for Runners workshop led by Emma Hopkinson. I’d seriously consider being part of the fun if I were you, so check it out here.

Right, that’s it from me for this week. Have a really great week, everyone - I hope January has started well for you - and we’ll see you very soon.