12 awesome runners ran 8km to help paint at the New Greenwich Scouts!

Well THAT was pretty miserable wasn't it! But as always, it didn't matter because nothing stops you guys from coming out and doing good!!! Well there were a fair few drop outs... but we won't talk about them! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!

We also had three new runners with us. We welcomed two lovely ladies, Sofia and Kirstin as well as Hammersmith & Fulham GG runner, Vojtech... hope you all had a good first run with us! It's not usually that wet.. promise!!! Plus Chan was back for more after her first session last week! Nice one!

Since the run was a little bit further this week, we got going pretty swiftly. Through the park and up the hill that everyone loves so much :) A little break at the top, followed by a mandatory soggy group photo then we set off again!

Armed and dangerous!

We arrived at the Scouts and the injured bike squad (Ben and Mridula) had already arrived and were clearing out the room to be painted. There were some guns which I assumed to be water pistols but turns out they were loaded BB guns... I definitely didn't think I'd need to ever list "being shot" as a risk before the run but maybe next time I will! Thankfully no one died.

So this is the first time we have been to the scouts and done an INDOOR task! Usually we are tackling the huge garden so it was nice to do something different for a change. Plus of course nice to be inside when it's pouring with rain! There were 3 rooms that needed a lick of paint. The toilets outside, and then two rooms indoors. Everyone armed themselves with a roller or a paintbrush, filled up a tray and got to work! A team of 4 ladies headed out to paint the toilets, Amy was struggling with the smell of the boys toilets but Channie was NOT phased in the slightest! She was LOVING it.

Brin and his team of lads were killing it in the pink room and Corrado was doing a pretty damn good job of painting the two doors out the front. A-MAZING.

Times up :(

Sadly time was slipping away from us and we had a long run ahead of us so it was time to call it a night. It is always a bit sad leaving a job unfinished but FEAR NOT! We will organise to come back and finish it all off hopefully next week :) But either way, 12 people doing half an hour's work each works out at about 6 hours that it would have taken Alan to do himself so really well done!!!

After we'd cleared up and said our goodbyes, it was time to hit the road again. No fitness session as we were running a bit behind schedule, plus you guys deserve a break every now and again! See I'm kind really :)

A little sprint finish for those who fancied it/were brave enough to do so on the slippy pavement followed by a little stretch and we were done!!! Teacakes all round for everyones hard work and then home to the dry and warmth!!! A hot shower after a cold wet run is always THE BEST!!!!

Thanks so much for coming last night and braving it in those awful conditions! You really are all troopers! Super hardcore!!! And amazing job on the task, thanks for getting so stuck in. Hopefully see you next week where we can finish what we started in hopefully drier weather!

GoodGym Greenwich smashed all previous records AGAIN last night with a whopping 33 of you running 8km to help the Scouts!

Last night was AAAAAAMAZING. The weather was slightly nicer than the complete washout we had last week, plus we had our biggest turnout EVER in Greenwich. It doesn't seem long ago that I had Taylor Swift in my head after 22 of you came... never did I think it would continue to grow this much... you guys are AWESOME!!!

We welcomed quite a few new faces to the group last night which is GREAT! Big thanks to recruiters Helen and Mridula for bringing their colleagues Maria & Irina. We were joined by two lovely gents Pulin & Nick. We also welcomed back Amy G after a little break and the wonderful Jack from Wandsworth who travelled quite a distance to get to Greenwich, but we're worth it aren't we Jack :) GIVE THEM ALL A CHEER!

HOLIYAY

The headcount used to take about 4 seconds, now it has become part of the ritual and takes a good 5 minutes to go around everyone! Favourite thing pivoted slightly last night to next holiday destination (inspired by the sunshine obviously) and it was great to hear where you're all off to. There were some pretty exotic ones, Swindon in particular, Alex and Steve please could you take me in your suitcase????

We dropped off our stuff, did a quick little warm up and split into 2 groups. Ben with the hat and Ben with the hat led a fast group who we lost sight of in about 40 seconds. The rest of us went at a slightly more leisurely pace :) We went through the park, everyone smashed it up the hill, had a 60 second breather and then pushed on!

20 minutes later we arrived at the scouts. Group 1 had already got themselves stuck in which was great to see! Scout Leader Alan explained the tasks that needed to be done. Arguably the most exciting of which was putting up the flagpole! This is something that has been on our list of things to do the last couple of times we've been here but we've never actually got round to doing it. But last night it was ON! George got started and he dug deep... literally.

"Tonight Matthew, I'm gonna be..."

With a little help from Christian, Elliot & Steve the cement was ready to go in, which created a lovely Stars In Their Eyes puff of smoke. Steve filled a bucket with "water" and chucked it down the hole and 5 minutes later it had set... JOB DONE.

In the meantime, other people were painting shutters, weeding in the jungle, filling fox holes (don't worry Nina there were no baby foxes in there), axing trees... literally everything was going down. 8pm approached and it was time to get going. We had a group photo by the wonderful flagpole which kind of looked a bit naked without a flag on it, just a white stick in the ground basically.... but it had to be done. We headed back the way we came, by this point the sun was a little less fierce which made for a lovely chilled run back. Since we were a bit later than planned and everyone had already run 8km, we skipped the fitness session and went straight into some nice stretching... you're welcome :) Trying to up my game after hearing other GG groups do yoga in their sessions haha!

Brownie points!

We went to stuff our faces with some amazing brownies baked by the equally amazing Mridula! Then we parted ways.... until next time gang!!!

For those of you who are new, here is the link to our ever growing Facebook group where people post about races and missions and well, anything really! Please join :)

Amazing job last night everyone! Thanks for getting stuck in as always, that would have taken Alan a whole day (if not more) to get everything done that you did in half an hour so really well done!!! And congratulations on, once again, being a part of our biggest ever run! YOU GUYS ROCK!! XXX

21 of Greenwich's finest ran 8km on a blustery Wednesday evening to tackle the garden at the Scouts!

I knew yesterday was going to be good. Why? Because Mridula was back from holiday YAY! Apparently she hates running but I don't believe it for one second.

We were 21 strong last night which is great especially considering it was a lot further than normal! We welcomed one new runner, the lovely Emma, GIVE HER A CHEER! Also Jo made a return after she injured her knee a few weeks ago, great to hear you're on the mend Jo!

We celebrated some wonderful marathon news from Vickie, Ben P and Brin and we shall hopefully have more to celebrate next week after our 10K on Friday! Fingers crossed!

TWIN EGG

I was feeling festive (yes Clare you can definitely be festive at Easter!) so favourite thing this week was Easter related and therefore favourite egg...! We had some lovely answers, dippy eggs, lots of posh avo and smoked salmon eggs, poached was a firm favourite, twin embryo egg... you know, the usual types.

We dropped our stuff and did a quick warm up which featured a light jog, some nice partner leg swings to increase hip mobility followed by some other bits and bobs to get the whole body nice and warm. 5 mins later and we were good to go.

We took a group photo along the river with some nice tall ships in the background and then set off for our 4km run + hill! We split into two groups led by the two Bens so everyone could go at their own pace. Everyone knew there was a hill coming, but didn't know quite how steep or how long it would be. Even I wasn't sure which one to pick... short and steep or a long slow climb? But in the end, to me it seemed both long and steep. URRGH. That being said, hills are GREAT for training. Why? Because it helps build muscle and power, it helps with your running form and it also increases your VO2 max. So hills make you a faster, stronger runner in the long run if you keep doing them so I do it because I love you! Plus it makes running on the flat feel way easier and it's downhill on the way back :)

We had a little rest at the top of the hill, Simon even went back down for round two without any pestering whatsoever, nice one Si! Matt and Vickie also went for another hill rep after a little convincing... and a resounding "I'm good" from everyone else. To be fair to them, a long run was coming...!

After we'd all got our breath back, we ran through the park and down some roads towards Charlton. The first group went off to find the scouts which is tucked away in a little alleyway. They got started with the task and then a few minutes later, the rest of the gang arrived.

This place is great because there is always so much to do. Almost too much! Last night the main things on the agenda were giving the shed a hair cut, clearing the back of the building, pruning a big tree out front and weeding the fence along the side. Everyone grabbed a tool. Nina was pretty excited about using the axe and partnered with Brin for some tree surgery. Ben P had the fun grim reaper tool but I could see it in his eyes that he couldn't fully enjoy it because he was worried his new shoes were going to get dirty :( "I only wanted to wear them so I could show off to James." It's ok Ben.

20 minutes down and things were looking GREAT. Simona was weeding with a saw and was doing a fantastic job! The tree was being stubborn but Nina & Brin managed to get the last two big branches off in the nick of time. Must've been all that pressure from everyone watching! In the last few minutes, everyone mucked in to drag the bits of tree away. We took another group photo in front of our handy work and off we popped!

Sprintervals!

Since we were a little tight on time, we did the fitness session as part of the run back. We grouped into similar paces and did little fast bursts from landmark to landmark all the way back to the uni. This is another great way to mix up your training if you are stuck in a rut just doing easy mid-paced miles all the time. I saw some lovely speedy sprints going on which was WONDERFUL!

A nice speedy downhill section to finish off and we arrived back for a few stretches. 5 miles DONE! Amazing.

We grabbed our stuff, had some mini eggs and went to the pub for a well earned bev and some (insanely overpriced) food, although Helen's bangers and mash did look amazing.

Down the twins' side of the table, we found out that everyone was pretty good at social media stalking. When you're looking at a photo from Malaga 2008 of your friend's girlfriend's brother's cousin and you've not already accidentally double tapped on anything, you know you've done well. Christian was unfortunate enough to be scrolling through his ex-girlfriends Instagram and double tapped to zoom in on a pic of her new boyfriend to see how ugly he was and obviously liked the pic instead. CRINGE!

Thanks for such a nice evening everyone! We truly have something special in Greenwich, you guys are the best :) Massive well done on the task and the run, you got loads done in such a short space of time so really great work! See you next week for a slightly shorter run :)