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

Cold Thursday evening and 17 of us(runners and guide runners) met at the station to walk over to the the Olympic Park where we gathered to pair up between runners and guide runners in the pool welcome area. Several distances covered at different paces. Our 4 legged friends had a break in the meantime while we all set off in the dark around the stadium and surrounding area based on the distance decided. Mohamed guided a 6.5km run while Steph Ducat went for the longer and quicker distance of 10km(just a little over) with one of the speedy runners. A bit cold and windy but at 745pm we were all back to enjoy a cake or doughnut with a bit of chat in the warm welcome area. Alot of new guides tonight and all went well.

Goodgym and Achilles International held the first weekly group run session of 2025 at Paddington Rec Track on Thursday. An awesome opportunity to catch up following the festive break with some social running with visually impaired runners and sighted guides. We were really thrilled to have 4 first timers down to try guiding this week- welcome to Mohamed, Alex, Nik and Holly. All keen runners who helped with guiding Mark Durban, Mark Colby, Chris Blackabee and Tom Donnelly for some speedy laps!

Find out more about Achilles International here:

https://www.achillesinternational.org/

We will be back running next Thursday 9th January at Stratford Olympic Park- sign up here to get involved!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-olympic-park-stratford-route-831bc57f-3d39-4d8e-bfa0-5a7f13b206eb

Simon, Kim and border terrier Rufous joined Achilles International member Ashfaq and his lovely guide dog Max for a pleasant run around Green Park on Boxing Day morning. We did a great job guiding through some crowded parts of the course, and we had some nice inquiries about VI running, and about Max being a working dog.

After approximately 6km of total running, we enjoyed a cup of coffee in Gail's (Waterloo), to allow our tired dogs to recharge!

Achilles International wrapped up a smashing year of running across London (and the rest of world too, if we consider our many racing exploits!) with a special Christmas meet up at Emirates Stadium. Our crew of visually impaired runners, guides, supporters and dog hosts enjoyed some lovely loops around the stadium concourse on a perfect crisp Winters evening. Very impressive considering some of our team also ran at Runthrough Battersea Park Chase the Moon 5km and 10km races the night before.

Following our session, the majority of our runners joined us for some post run refreshments and food at The Brook Gate, Blackstock Road to celebrate an excellent year.

Some of us are looking forward to running a Boxing Day session. Feel free to join us here:

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-green-park-boxing-day-special

The Achilles International crew met with our regular guide running volunteers and Goodgym runners at Paddington Rec Track on Thursday evening. Our hardy team did a smashing job of running through torrential rainfall around the 400m open access track, and put in some excellent performances. Top props to Camden Area Activator Alex running with Tom D for a full 10km. Also to new guide Tilly for assisting Andrew with his intervals while Kim looked after adorable guide dog Mario. And well done to Harvey for completing some mixed pace efforts with Mark N.

We will be back next week at Arsenal Emirates Stadium this Thursday!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-emirates-stadium-3db3d302-0f0b-49dc-be28-359a0e87147e