Wed 11th Oct 2017 at 6:45pm
Hounslow Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
Wednesday are pretty good. You've got half way through the week and the weekend is just about in sight. What could make it better? A run. What about a run with a group of mates? And throw in a community task that makes you feel good about yourself. A fitness session? Go on then! Lovely stuff.
Firstly, a huge well done to Remy and to Will who both smashed the Royal Parks Half on Sunday. If you've got the need for speed, don't forget that GoodGym are organising a trip to the Bucharest Festival of Running next May - sign up for details. It promises to be a fun weekend of running, eating and exploring and everybody is welcome!
Tonight we were heading back to a local school - Strand on the Green - to help out with a list of jobs that needed doing. But first - the warm up and the weekly Hounslow headscratcher. If you were invisible, where would be the first place you'd go? The Whitehouse, the Pentagon, North Korea, Downing street - looks like we've all got a bit of the secret agent in us.
Sand-on-the-Green
It was only a short run to the school, so we set off, licketysplit , at a nice fast pace. One mile later we were there, finding Claire the caretaker waiting for us with a trailer of tools. Michelle got the work sweeping the bike shed and paths, Claudia took the scooter park, Remy, Will and Andy tackled the fenced play area while Ross, Adam and Jo dived into the huge pile of blocks that needed sanding.
Half an hour of elbow grease later, the jobs were done and dusted and we kicked off with our fitness session. It was a bit of a bumpy start with the flip a coin game, but eventually we got there, splitting into two groups with each side doing an exercise depending on the result of the flip. Next up was a timed obstacle course, which wasn't exactly plain sailing either and was eventually called off thanks to an apocalyptic shower of rain that came out of nowhere. Like a bunch of naughty school children we sheltered in the bike sheds under it had passed. Next week normal service will be resumed, promise!
We were just about to hit the road when disaster struck. It really wasn't our night. The code to the electric gates had mysteriously stopped working, and after several attempts at opening it from the outside and scaling the fence, it was hero Andy with super long legs who managed to hop the gate and release us. Well done Andy!
All that was left was a speedy run back to base, a few stretches and a bit of thawing out. Don't forget, Team Hounslow, that whatever the world throws at us, we all sand together.
Next week, we're back to school - a different one this time, for a spot of painting.
Thu 12th Oct 2017 at 3:30pm
Great work! I need to try you guys out
Thu 12th Oct 2017 at 3:57pm
We'd love to see you Victoria!
Wed 11th Oct 2017 at 6:45pm
Supporting the community and getting fit at the same time!
Read moreWed 27th Sep 2017 at 6:45pm
Hounslow Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
Last night eight runners braved the rain to help out at a local foodbank, got completely soaked, and still ended the night with a smile on their faces. What a team.
It started at the Town Hall with a little light drizzle and a lot of good news. Well done to Dave and Andy who both did great times at the Gunnersbury parkrun this weekend, to Remy, who gritted her teeth and beat the grueling Winshester half marathon, to Natasha who smashed a 5k race, and to Will, who joined us after an intense 10k the night before. What a week of running.
With a short warm up and a quick discussion about our favourite chocolate bars - which ranged from healthy dark chocolate and lime to good old Lion bars - we set off on the 3k run to Ealing Road Baptist Church. Shout out to Jennifer who had a great run down there, and to Michelle for battling jetlag womanfully! We also saw some excellent fartlek from Andy, Will and Remy.
Roger, the Pastor, was waiting for us with water and jobs as we soggily trooped into the building. A quick shake off and we were ready to get stuck in. It started with stacking books and chairs, which we completed in no time at all, before we moved onto the foodbank which Roger runs for local communities in need. With Will and Adam skillfully dismantling a stack of shelves the rest of us formed a (somewhat chaotic at points) human chain to empty and pack up the food. It turned out to be a lot of fun as well as a good upper body work out. Even if we did have to have several attempts at taking the video. " You actually have to move" said Natasha.
By the time the jobs were done the rain was coming even more steadily, which gave us a nice opportunity to 'cool down'. We're fighting a embittered battle to 'Beat the Streets' in Hounslow at the moment, and each have a card which we tap against a whole load of stations across the borough to record how far we've covered. So, despite the rain, off we went looking for meters, happily tapping and squatting our way round and noting all the good pubs that we weren't stopping at.
Before long we had made it back to our starting point, and with a few stretches we finished the night, already anticipating hot cups of Yorkshire tea, warm dressing gowns, even warmer showers and cold prosecco. Next week, it'll be warm and dry as we tackle the fly posters and graffiti under Turnham Bridge, so go on, sign up here.
Don't forget the social next Thursday at the fabulously named Blacksmith and Toffeemaker in Angel, where we will represent Hounslow at the monthly international pun of the month competition!
Thu 28th Sep 2017 at 12:22pm
LOVE the pun Ana!
Thu 28th Sep 2017 at 12:24pm
Thanks Natasha! I'm very much enjoying the Yorkshire Tea photo - should be their next ad campaign!
Wed 27th Sep 2017 at 6:45pm
Thursday 14th September 2017
Removed User completed 5 good deeds with GoodGym.
Removed is a now a pretty committed GoodGym runner. They've just run to do good for the fifth time
Wed 13th Sep 2017 at 6:45pm
Hounslow Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
One big task, seven excellent runners, 180 seconds of plank and six confusing maps!
It all began at Chiswick Town Hall, as shown by the GoodGym poster on the wall which has categorically never covered any other poster on the noticeboard. Just saying.
You've been dong some great running this week, Hounslow. A big well done to Adam who has been notching up the runs, with a new parkrun PB on Saturday. Must be the beetroot bread! A hat tip too to Jo and Andy who are sailing through the good deeds. Don't forget that we might have our first 50th good deed to celebrate next Wednesday, so stick around after the run for a little fun to mark this great milestone.
This week's task was leafleting for Waterman's Art Centre. Not everybody's favourite task, but a very useful one for the charity. This weekend is the centre's River Weekender - a festival inspired for the river packed with free events for the whole community. Our job was to spread the word in the local area, and it began, as all good things do, with a run.
After a quick warm up featuring a rather natty side hop ("isn't this just...running?"), we set off on the 2k run down to Waterman's. But not before finding out our favourite condiments! There was no stand out winner this week, but ketchup, Lea & Perrins (other brands are available), dijon mustard, mint sauce (from the veggie), pepper, chutney and BBQ were all contenders. Lovely stuff.
A nice speedy run later we arrived at reception to be presented with a bulging trolley full of leaflets and a series of highlighted maps. Cue several minutes of trying to figure out what to do next ("isn't this the same map? Turn it upside down. No, the other way"). We soon cracked it though, and split up into groups to start putting leaflets through doors, into hands, pubs and travelodges before meeting up towards the end of the run to smash out a few door to door sprints.
We finished on a bit of a high after having delivered countless leaflets and enjoying a nice stretch when we were brought up short by the angriest flamenco teacher in town. No we didn't move your poster, mister. Still, we had the plank off to make us feel better, and what a plank off it was. The seconds ticked by and everybody was going strong - who was going to emerge victorious? Some great work from everybody, but this week the crown goes to Andy with an impressive 2 min 37 plank. Wowzer!
Next week it's going to be all sorts of fun planting bulbs and hopefully we'll have something to celebrate too. Sign up here for your Wednesday dose of goodness and fitness!
Wed 13th Sep 2017 at 6:45pm
Wed 5th Jul 2017 at 6:45pm
Greenwich Report written by Sarah Place
32 awesome runners ran 7km to sweep leaves, pick up litter, clean windows and flyer for Charlton House!
What a beautiful evening it turned out to be! Quite warm, yes, but lovely nonetheless. It was Mridula's 50th good deed last night and we suspect she might even have been the fastest person ever to have reached 50! Isn't she AMAZING!!!
We were joined by a fair few new faces last night which is GREAT! Please welcome Matt W, Tina, Stephen and Corrazo to the squad!! Give them all a cheer!
After talking about what we had for lunch for 10 minutes we went a did a little warm up consisting of a few lunges, squats etc and a little run around pretending to be flamingos on one leg :) A few minutes later and we were good to go!
We split into two groups. Ben C took the lead and headed off through the park with his speedy gang. The other half of us took it a little easier, although the hill never seems to get any easier does it!! But once again, you all smashed it, and it must be helping, since Mridula did hill repeats in Hilly Fields with GG Lewisham on Monday and said it was a piece of cake compared to our hill so the training must be paying off!!!
Our group had a well deserved rest at the top, we took a lovely photo under the tree and then cracked on towards Charlton.
We arrived and group 1 had already started working hard. Alex, Steve, and Matt G ran off to deliver some leaflets whilst everyone else had a bin bag in hand going round picking up litter. Unfortunately, there wasn't a huge amount of equipment but thankfully you're all a bunch of superstars and just mucked in regardless. Everyone buddied up to clear as much litter as possible. Linda armed herself with the broom to sweep the leaves off the path whilst other people cleaned the windows. According to Clare, they were actually making the windows worse... but I don't believe that for one second!
3, 2, 1... GO!!!
At just after 8 o'clock, the boys returned from their flyering duty and everyone else had finished their jobs. Mridula had of course collected the most litter because she is the best at everything! We put the bin bags inside and brought everyone together for a quick little relay! We split into boys and girls in attempt to make the teams relatively evenly weighted. Teams 1 and 2 lined up one behind another and the simple task was to run to the wall, run back and tag the next person in to do the same thing until everyone had finished!
The twins went head to head on the first run... it was tense but they came in roughly neck and neck. Next to go was Matt J who was running SO fast he even had a little tumble! Hope your knee is ok Matt!
In true GG spirit, everyone was cheering and clapping for their team mates which was LOVELY! And of course it was never about the winning was it guys and girls.... no not at all....! Ha, yeah right! I've never seen you lot run so fast!!!
Team 1 finished a few seconds before team 2 but as it transpired, team 2 had an extra person and therefore an unfair disadvantage so victory was theirs! Better luck next time team 1!
After a lovely group photo at the front of the house, we headed back the way we came, through the park and most importantly down the hill!
Oh hey Vickie!
We arrived at the uni and along came Vickie. I of course took this as an opportunity to massively embarrass her in front of everyone by announcing her huge ultramarathon success but she is amazing and it was such a huge achievement so how could I not? :) And Mridula saw this as a perfect chance to gloat that she had beaten her to 50 good deeds.
There was no time trial this week due to the concerts at the uni blocking the way. Chris had a mild panic attack when he realised the Jacksons were playing at the weekend. We have an MJ superfan in the house!
We had a little stretch on the grass, made our way back to the room (Chris moonwalked his way back) and then headed to the pub!
Thanks so much for coming everyone! Well done on the run, 7km is a big deal especially in that heat so give yourselves a pat on the back! Also thanks for just getting stuck in at the task. You're all amazing! See you next week!
Thu 6th Jul 2017 at 2:48pm
Great photos and a text to keep us laughing, as always. Thank you Sarah.
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