Last year GoodGym H&F were invited to take part in a new project ‘Humans of Hammersmith and Fulham’, which is now on exhibition at the Lyric Theatre. Our lovely Katie was photographed as part of the project (so is pretty much the face of GoodGym in the borough now!), and Helen is a patron of the United in H&F charity, which organised the project. So we were very much a part of the whole thing!

In essence, the exhibition is a gallery of photos of people within the borough, reflecting what an amazing, diverse and interesting bunch of people we really are - from Elias, a premier league footballer to be, to Adriaan who opens up church doors to the homeless, Blue the tattooist to Steve who keeps the streets clean; Keiko who runs a French patisserie and of course Katie, who loves to do good and get fit!
A truly interesting and inspiring piece of work.

In true community spirit fashion, GoodGym were called upon to help out at the opening of the exhibition. Our jobs included greeting and directing, getting guests to sign up to the United in H&F newsletter, spreading the word, taking photos with the selfie frame and generally making sure everything ran smoothly. We also made friends with the mayor of the borough and told her of all the good work we get up to, met some of the other ‘Humans’ from the photos, and, although there wasn’t cake (a GoodGym first?!) we did sample some excellent sausage rolls.

If anyone is interested, the exhibit is on at the Lyric Theatre until the 22nd of February, and is well worth a visit.

On the first dark winter run of the year, 17 GoodGymers turned out for another ‘two task Tuesday’ for UNITED in Hammersmith & Fulham and Loris Community Gardens. Sadly, it was also Will and Bex’s farewell GoodGym H&F run before they head off travelling and onto their new digs in Edinburgh 😢.

With everyone gathered in their GG tees, winter layers, and Halloween shirts – shout out to Johnny and Sarah for their Halloween shirts tonight, a very lucrative investment as it won them some new running shoes at the Chiswick Bridge 10k time trial at the weekend! - we headed out into the cold for a round-up of this week’s news and announcements.

Savraj from UNITED in Hammersmith & Fulham kindly gave an overview of the Warmer Together Campaign that half of the group would be leafleting for tonight. Before splitting into our groups for the evening we had a quick warm-up which featured extra helpings of spotty dogs and jumping jacks to get the blood pumping and pulses raised.

Leafleting for the Warmer Together Campaign

Helen led 7 runners down to Parsons Green to the streets marked by UNITED in Hammersmith & Fulham based on house price in Hammersmith & Fulham. Of the 19,000 residents aged over 65 in Hammersmith & Fulham, over half have a long-term health problem or disability. 25% live in poverty. 43% live alone. Team Helen's task was to distribute up to 500 leaflets, spreading the word about UNITED’s campaign to encourage older neighbours who can, to pay forward their Winter Fuel Allowance. All monies raised will provide extra support for less well-off older neighbours this winter.

#squadghouls

The team split into smaller groups and efficiently leafleted all the marked streets. Check out the teams leaflet action:

Gardening at Loris Community Gardens

We had a short 1km run up to Loris Community Gardens where we had been asked to do some leaf sweeping and weeding 🍂. We cracked the padlock code to the side gate but unfortunately could only locate one large broom, one trowel and four plastic children’s spades.

Considering the lack of tools the team had on offer they did a wonderful job sweeping up leaves into the bin, weeding by hand and litter picking around the area - the garden definitely look far cleaner and nicer!

Trick or treat yo' self!

We called it a day on our slightly haphazard gardening efforts and headed down to Brook Green. The team divided up into two teams to play a quick fitness game of ‘trick or treat!’ While the treats were 10 jumping jacks or lunges and included a chewy Japanese sweet, the tricks were 10 burpees, shoulder taps, squat jumps and other slightly more strenuous exercises.

With our trick or treating done for the night we had one further challenge, to help Mo find his car key, luckily this was quickly spotted lying in the grass by the eagle-eyed Matt! We then headed on a longer run back to base via Furnival Gardens and Cookie’s house so that he could collect his bank card!

Back at base we all had a cool down and stretch off before heading home or to the pub to say a sad farewell and bon voyage to Will and Bex. Great work tonight team, a fab-boo-lous evening!

Dates for your diaries!! 📅

1. FREE Holland Park run - Wednesday 30th October - Meet at the Stable Yard in Holland Park at 5.45pm for a 6pm start 🕕. Baggage storage and toilets are available.
2. Unofficial GG10 party 🔟🎉 - Friday 8th November at Topolski Bar on the Southbank. All the details are here.
3. GG Christmas party 🎄🎉 - Friday 6th December. Places are limited so make sure you sign up early! All the details are here.
4. GG H&F CHRISTMAS PARTY!!! 🎅🎄⛄🎉 - Saturday 7th December at Hop Poles - keep an eye on the WhatsApp group for more details!!

Next week we'll be helping spruce up St Dionis Church ready for its official re-opening, and will be postering on our run down for Food2You. For all the details and to sign up, click here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend. Hopefully see you next week!

19 GoodGymmers supported United in Hammersmith and Fulham to promote their Warmer Together campaign, in which those who aren't reliant on their winter fuel allowance can donate it to those more in need. Big welcome to Lucy and Ella on their first GoodGym run, and to our visitor Mikaela from Hounslow. Give them all a cheer!

First up some quick announcements:

• Congrats to our international half iron woman Helen who came in well under her target time, and Will and Jonny K who both conquered the Spartan race last weekend.

• Good luck to Matt and Eloise running Oxford Half this weekend

• The GoodGym-wide social is in Islington this Thursday

• H&F Christmas Dinner will be Sat 7th December at Hop Poles

Helen gave us a rundown of United in Hammersmith and Fulham's work, we had a warm up involving legs swinging all over the place, and we set off down to Parsons Green. Here we split into 2 teams led by Helen and Catriona and set off in 2 directions following our beautifully highlighted maps.

25 minutes and 200 leaflets later, the two groups reconvened at Parsons Green. Many of the houses' walkways were tiled which, while very stylish, were also very slippy. Sadly Lucy's shoes didn't have the grip to match, succumbing to a fall or two. Thankfully no serious harm done.

Katie and Lucy treated us to an improvised Hakka in honour of usual trainer Beth, currently in Japan watching rugby, and we headed back to base. A pit stop at Normand Park for a little sprint on their track and we were back in no time.

Thanks for having me as your trainer for the last two weeks gang! Beth is back next week and we're gardening at Josiah Braithwaite Community Garden. Sign up here