It wasn't the nicest of evenings weather wise, cold and drizzly, but with 2 tasks to complete we saw 11 hardy runners brave the elements to join us and do double the good last night!

We were joined by Courtney who isn't new to GoodGym having run in Westminster many times before but is new to Ealing so big welcome to her!

Pantastic!

Way back in December at our Christmas party we raised £50 and voted to donate it to The Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter. Well on last nights run we saw that being put to good use as that's exactly where we headed, the cash was used to buy clean underwear and socks which we delivered to the shelter as part of the task!

So with a bag full of pants we ran the 3km route to the shelter before splitting into two teams as we had a second task to complete too. Our subgroup for the evening went on a separate mission to get the word out about GoodGym to some of the care homes in Ealing on a specially devised route with flyers explaing exactly how missions work!

Mission Possible!

Mission running is on the rise in the area which is great news but it means we need more people that know about the help on offer. This extra little task hopefully means a few more people will know about GoodGym and will spread the word so we can help more people in the area!

Meanwhile at the shelter a small group of us completed a few tasks to help the night run smoothly, we organised the shower schedule, patrolled and litter picked around the grounds and helped lay out clean clothes for the users to access on the evening.

All in all a successful night and we look forward to helping at the shelter for the next 6 weeks! This is a long term task we will be helping with until the end of March so we will always send a small group to help there while the rest of us perform a secondary task, so keep signing up for all the upcoming runs in Ealing!

This week the message was loud and clear, we need to smash this January Challenge! And with that 18 fantastic runners came out to do some good with their evening. This included two newbies brought along by existing members of the group, welcome Tony and Pat and well done to their recruitees Sophie and Michelle!

After a quick warm up (not needed quite a much this evening as it felt positively balmy after the arctic temperatures from the weekend!) and the usual health and safety briefing of 'there may be sharp tools, please don't stab eachother with them', we were off!

It was a straight forward run tonight with only one turn to make, so with clear instructions we set of in different pace groups to make our way down there. We made a stop at the turn to reconvene and do what runners do best, talk about food! We each discussed our favourite cakes with interesting choices all round.

With our appetite now heightened we completed the final bit of the run to arrive at The Log Cabin ready for a big weeding session!

It was straight down to business with three groups spread across the site to take on the weeds and a few other clean up jobs around the playground. Michelle & Michael definitely chose well with a cheeky go on the swings on offer in their area!

Talk soon turned to puns and newcomer Tony came out with some blinders but they may have been slightly too risqué so we've gone for a toned down combination from the group instead, loving your work though Tony, keep 'em coming next time!

We finished up with a quick fitness session in the playground to get everyone's heart racing before a nice recovery run back to base. It was a tough little three way plank, squat and lunge interval session with the intensity rising with each round.

Quads were burning!

Thank you to everyone for coming out and hopefully see you all next week when we'll be completing the last task and run of the month. It's the last chance to make it count for The January Challenge so sign up now!

Happy Running!