6 Goodgym runners, supporters and dog walkers joined the Achilles International crew for their weekly group run session. Paddington Rec Track was significantly less cold and icy than it was 2 weeks ago!

11 visually impaired runners enjoyed a smashing social run around the track, with fellow local runners in Westminster. 3 guide dogs were on hand too (Max, Hugo and Mario), along with Rufous the border terrier for support. Great work everyone!

Next week, we will be meeting at Emirates Stadium (Arsenal Tube Station).

Follow the link for more info:

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-emirates-stadium-398b3240-7201-49b9-b73c-d75d86b6a86e

GoodGym Ealing's latest visit to Care 4 Calais had them working through a familiar set of tasks, which they've been building experience in over the past few months. By the end of the task:

• 🛍️ A stack of clothing bags were created, ready for delivery to Care 4 Calais' beneficiaries;
• 👞👚 -> 📦 Shoes and women's clothes donations had been sorted and stored;
• 👟👟 2 identical right shoes were found. Only the task owner's sharp eyes realised that it was a wrong pair of shoes

Earlier, the team had helped bring new, very cold, donations inside to sort through. Once they (the clothes) defrosted, Kash, Paul and Mohamed got to work, first sizing the shoes that had been received, then separating the clothes into men's, women's and children's piles. The majority of the new clothes were for women which Mohamed and Kash stayed to do the next round of sorting on. T-shirts, legs and warm top categories were broken down by sizes from XS to XL. There were donations of Indian clothes as well as some from a mosque, so Kash learned from Mohamed how to identify abayas from non-abayas.

In the packing area, Paul and Sevan had created new standard packs for small and large men. No new packs for medium men today as clothes stocks in their size were low. The pair then moved on to fulfilling specific requests, with Sevan hunting in the stock rooms for children's school clothes for the first time. The completed bundles of clothes kept increasing and Paul neatly organised them by destination.

Any unsorted donations were left for the next volunteers to pick up and clothes that wouldn't be needed for a few months were packed into suitcases to go into storage. Kash was sent away with the suitcases. She may or may not make it out of storage for the next group run to Walpole Park on Tuesday.

Icy Sunday morning and its normally Action Junior Parkrun, a chatty group run was organised from Ealing Broadway Station to Acton Park. This Sunday was a day with a twist!! To start I, Steph Ducat which is vey unusual was running late, so messaged Kash and Sevan to advise and they saved the moment by starting the warmup and I arrived late but on time for the warmup. During this time, 2nd twist of the day which meant changes in plans which had a knock on effect for all of us. Due to the cold weather a pipe burst in Action Park, which meant the Junior Parkrun was cancelled due to the water all over especially near the finish line. Bad news meant no mission at Acton Park, but on the other hand good news with 2 new starters at the chatty run session Liuba and Lucy which meant 6 in total as we also had Mohamed at the station. We all decided to still go ahead with the run or twisty runs as the streets had ice patches so needed to avoid slipping. Once at the park, we had a stretching session in front of a pile of woodchip : looks like a Goodgym favorite tasks coming near you. Then we all went for a nice hot beverage and a lovely chat with the new comers. Lucy left and shortly after the 5 remaining ran back to Ealing broadway station. Double success today despite the twist : 2 newcomers and 2 runs(total roughly 6km).