This week Kingston Good Gym ran a 10 kilometre plus round trip through Surbiton to help Firs Court in Chessington.

Tonight we were feeling particularly ambitious, running about as far as we can go on a weekly group night. The hill climb out of Surbiton was a stretching highlight. Always good to get out of your comfort zone.

Good to be visiting the residential centre of Firs Court. It might be familiar to some of the group who visited it last year to plant the flower borders at the front. Apparently the previous visit was on a hot summer's day, and hence a contrast to this cold February evening. It was encouraging to see the flowers were still there. This time we came to improve the presentation at the front of the building and after last week's "advanced weeding" it was a more delicate task to cut back some of the overgrowth, pull out dandelion clumps and clear some litter.

Thanks again to Martel for being back marker.

A special welcome to Gemma on her first week and welcome back Steve on your 2nd.

NOW!! Fun fact: Running 10 kilometres burns about enough calories for four and a half pancakes with sugar and lemon- which is good news this evening for those of us with weight loss goals! Enjoy the rest of pancake day.

11 Goodgymers gathered together to take on the Grape Fircroft run. It was great to see Kim back on her 2nd GG Kingston run and it was great to see the great art work Jane has put together too!! (sshhh)

Mark had a fun warm up which had us linking arms, turning circles and avoiding the goodgym tagger, burpees for the winner and the cheaters.

New and fun game for our GG warmups! #goodgym #kingston #guildhall #tuesdays #running #warmup #drills #agility #skill pic.twitter.com/cTTcrOfkf1

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) September 11, 2019

Off uphill towards Ditton road the group staying tight tonight lots of chatting about holidays, our week so far, future runs and goodgyms 10-year birthday.

We arrived to be greeted by Hilary at Fircroft who briefed us on the work Fircroft do in Kingston and shared the task ahead. We were put to work tidying the beds and cutting back before planting some new flowers. A couple of runners were on the brooms sweeping their way round to meet each with their pile of pine needles to be scooped up by a third and bagged up ready to compost.

Hilary was generous with a tray of passion fruit and grapes to enjoy before the run back. The group stayed together for the run back and made GRAPE time, we stretched out and then with many offers to write this report much to Mark's surprise all retired until next week's Birthday run and social.

Look forward to running and seeing you all next week to tackle the Canbury Task!

This is all you need for a warm up surely! #goodgym #kingston #fun #warmup #cancan #wecan #runninggroup pic.twitter.com/yU9vA2Sg39

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) September 11, 2019

The hot and sweaty runners drifted into the Guidhall in a bit of a heat induced daze this evening. We welcomed Ian on his first run with us tonight and welcomed back Shrey and Grace on their second. While some of us didn't feel the need to warm up as we felt plenty warm enough, we were reminded that our muscles needed a warm up and a stretch before we got going to prevent injury. After some brief leg stretches and a revisit to the ministry of silly walks, we were pleased to see a water pistol come out to help motivate us to complete the stretches properly or get squirted! Thanks Rob for providing the brief relief. And then we were off.

It was a long one tonight and a challenging run in the heat with over 5km before reaching our task for this evening. With an injured Rob on his bicycle armed with the water pistol and our water bottles for relief, we were well supported to make it to the task! Although it was a long one, it was another worthy cause that we came to support. We ran up the hills and slow inclines into Surbiton, weaving through Tolworth and down the Hook road towards Chessington until we eventually made it to Fir Croft Trust. They are a fantastic organisation that supports adults living in the community with mental health experiences or learning disabilities, to live well locally and are the only organisation in the borough providing centre-based support for people with mental health and wellbeing problems. We were pleased to be able to support them in the great work that they do in the small way that we could.

Tonight we were called to do some litter picking, weeding, sweeping and general tidying outside the front of their premises. With only a brief time to make a difference in the heat, we did our best before it was time to run back. Before heading back we were kindly offered ice lollies and freezies which we couldn't turn down. Refuelled by the ice poles, we were ready for our return jog through the heat and back to the Guildhall. Well done everyone! That was a tough one today!

Next week's shorter route is another treat to look forward to!

In the news shared tonight:

Well done to those of you that joined the Fishponds community mission last weekend. It was a great success as a missing pond had been uncovered. Well done to Caroline and Martel for sharing our ideas at the Goodgym Shindig.

There is a community mission to pull some Himalayan Balsam growing along the Thames path tomorrow evening at 19:00. https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/thames-path-balsam-bashing-bonanza

And congrats Jen for finishing your course work with distinction!

GoodGym Kingston suffered a late night working epidemic as well as an outbreak of some cold virus. It hit us hard

BUT OF COURSE WE STILL RAN!

There was good to be done for Fircrofts sake.

Fircroft Trust is an amazing charity that helps people with both mental health and learning difficulties. They have a few sites in the Kingston borough but tonight we were running to Ditton Road in Surbiton. Our tasks were of the multi kind , including potting some plants for World Mental Health Day on 10th October, and they intend to introduce these at their new listening cafe. We also had to fill two huge planters with soil to make ready for those that use Fircroft to do some planting . Finally we tackled our friends the weeds to enhance the presentation of the outside area.

The transformation was immediately visible as a result of our efforts and all this was done with an al dente brisk 7km run and some funky running warm up drills (or as others may say "our school of silly walks". )

On return to Guildhall , we had the pleasure of meeting the Mayor of Kingston which was a great surprise to round off our run and it was lovely to hear him compliment all the good work we have been up to in the borough.

To those that could not make it, we missed you and to those that sniffled their way through tonight, you are all heroes.

As ever it was an honour to run with you and look forward to seeing you next week.

Oh by the way, I said I would remind you, if you are interested in the 837 steps up Broadgate Tower let me know this week and I will email you the details. Also there is the GoodGym London Social this Thursday, here are the details

15 runners ran 10.4km to visit** Fircroft Trust**, an assisted living facility in Chessington.

It was the one that they had all been talking about. Months of training, crumb rain or shine, had built up to this night. It was THE LONG RUN!!

Undeterred 15 eager runners turned up for the challenge, including 3 intrepid new runners Elena, Gary and Aaron who definitely showed us how it was done!! We were also celebrating Jen’s 99th run and despite suffering a recent injury she certainly didn’t crumble!

After a speedy warm up (Mark didn’t waffle on!) we wasted no time and headed out onto the route, jammy dodging the pedestrians and roadworks on the infamous Surbiton hill. We set a good pace and despite the distance the smiles and chat continued along the running line.

This batch of smart cookies made brilliant time and it showed just how far we had come as a team (both in kilometres and fitness!) We had really risen to the challenge, such an awesome achievement!

Our task this evening was to clear the car park and front garden of rubbish and weeds. In case we needed any additional motivation we were greeted by a fantastic refreshment selection of biscuits and choc ices kindly provided by the Fircroft team!

At first it didn’t seem as though much clearing was required, but the black bags quickly began to fill and the sugar rush certainly helped to push us all on! When there was muffin left to do, we swept up the final crumbs and were on our way. As quick as we had arrived, we were scone!

A bakers dozen returned and the run back definitely felt quicker than the way there, whether that was due to the down hill route or biscuit fuel we’ll never know. While stretching off we may have felt cream crackered but we were glad we had donut!