9 Goodgymmers sailed down the river whistling happy birthday tunes to lend a hand at the New River Sports Centre.

Kudos Corner

Toyo visited us for the first time (and for only his second ever Goodgym run) and wasn't even put off when Latoya forced us all to do Squatting Sally again. Superstar!

And Happy Birthday to GGHaringey Extraordinaire Louise who ran with us to celebrate a big birthday milestone. You rock!

Mind Over Matter, apparently

We were back at the New River Sports Centre for a spot of amateur moss annihilation.

Unlike last time around, tonight's team had no qualms at pulling up the lichen from the wall by the tennis courts at the site.

Reader, how they pulled. Ruthlessly. Thoroughly. Methodically. In many ways, it was a scary operation to witness but you gotta appreciate the hussle.

Birthday girl Louise meanwhile led a second team on an exhaustive litter pick of the 5-a-side part of the site and all they got for their troubles was a bagful of rubbish.

Before you could say pubtime, we squatted to that Moby song - Neil spurred us on by chanting stuff about squats being all about mind over matter, or something to that effect. We were all too tired to listen, really. Gramps then forced everyone to lie down on the floor for a photo and, amazingly, no-one even batted an eye at the suggestion.

We then set off for the pub for birthday shenanigans.

Funtimes!

10 weary Goodgymmers took a boat down the New River towards a mission that seemed to shift from under their feet.

Mosspocalypse Now

Let's call a broken hand trowel a broken hand trowel and admit at the top of the report that tonight was indeed a very soggy and chilly night.  No amount of poundshop wordsmithery will be able to sugar coat that one. Not even one bit. Oh no.

Thankfully, a short run from HQ to the Sports Centre was enough to warm the cockles of our frosty souls and our Goodgymmers dived into the task at hand with gusto.

A team led by a self-proclaimed, world renowned Moss-Lover proceeded to terminate with extreme prejudice a living wall of moss with such force and enthusiasm that not one but two of Gramp's hand trowels were broken in the process. Reader, the grunting. The cackles. The singing. The determination.

Sam, Nurjehan, and Carolina did well to steer away from this trip into the heart of darkness by litter picking around a very slippery running track but even they were eventually seduced by the appeal of the mossagedon.

As the cold night threatened to chill our bones again, we stopped for the night for selfies, high fives, and jokes.

Join us next week when we'll be visiting our friends at T On The Green for more fun and games.

Peace <3