4 runners run to the River Colne to litter pick for Rivercare

Small group - Big achievements

This Friday lunch time was a very productive one! Getting out of work to get some fresh air in the lungs and do some good for the community. Perfect.

Our little group consisted of 2 current goodgymers and a newbie led by the expertise of Angela! The lunch time event was part of an Essex County Council innovation project called 'Art of the possible'. So after a warm up and introductions off we ran up the hill of Castle Park to collect our tools: the task was litter picking along the River Colne.

Now I mentioned expertise and Angela has this in abundance, although it seems her ability to name sweet packets, crisp packets and various other pieces of litter is a hidden talent. Your secret is out.

"Your secret is out."

We managed to pick up two bin bags full of litter in around 35 minutes including a boomerang! Naturally I gave the boomerang a go and got it stuck in a tree...but I got it back so I will take that as a successful throw! The ducks, swans and squirrels definitely appreciate our efforts and having a clean safe riverbank for families to enjoy is indeed a very good thing.

We finished our session with a jog up the hill and some parkrun prep, practising hill running technique and efficient racing lines. Our little group achieved a great amount in a short amount of time. Well done to Helen (first-timer) and Aaron and thanks to David for providing the equipment, not to mention Angela for the coaching. Let's keep up the great work and spread the word so that we have big groups and huge achievements.

Run Report written by James Taverner

Our next Group run is on Wednesday evening, when we'll be running to the Colchester Food Bank to give it a deep clean. Sign up here.

4 awesome Greenwich runners ran over 5km to spread the word about the Big Bike Ride in aid of the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice

Last night we were joined by Stacey who came on a few runs earlier in the year and is now back woohoo! Welcome back Stacie! It was lovely to meet you! We also had the lovely Simona back after a few weeks off and brilliant Ben and his head torch!

We did a little warm up and got going relatively quickly as we had a lot of leaflets to get through! Even if we were to only deliver half of them it would have been a success but we had quite a bit of time so I was hopeful! So we set off towards Maze Hill station. There is a good cluster of residential streets around there and the plan was to hit as many as possible in the 45 minutes we had. So off they went, running between each house.. AMAZING! Good interval training right there!

There were some pretty annoying post boxes. Those ones with the brushes in are a real pain and the ones really low down on the floor as well. Ben and I got stuck on the high side of the road for a good 5 minutes with each door having a flight of stairs leading up to it! What a workout! And then the houses with the gates... urgh! #postmanproblems.

After 15 minutes everyone's flyer pile was noticeably smaller, and the end was in sight! Just a few more houses to go! Simona struck gold with a block of flats with all of the postboxes on the outside.. Nice one! A few minutes later and they were all cleared! Amazing! We took a group photo and headed back for the fitness session.

Even though we were running and walking the whole time, it was at quite a nice chilled pace so we finished off by a little track workout! We did 5 sets of 30 seconds at 80-90% effort and 30 seconds rest in between and the idea was to run further round the track each time. We used the quad back at the college which made a pretty good makeshift track! This is a pretty hard workout but everyone absolute nailed it!

Really well done guys, hopefully the event will have lots of attendees now! Thanks so much for all your hard work and see you next week!

On a lovely Wednesday evening 23 GoodGymers ran between 4-10km, delivered leaflets and did some DIY.

Wow lots of newcomers to GoodGym, welcome to Kat, Lucy, Mara, Sylwia, Rosie and Frederic. Fantastic to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. GG monthly drinks, an opportunity for everyone from GoodGym to meet up, is on Thursday 6th October (Pritesh's birthday), sign up here
2. Well done to Danica who completed Richmond Half Marathon on Sunday in 1.59.29 - completing her sub-2 hour goal. Well done #proud.
3. Also well done to Steve Moody for doing Hull Marathon at the weekend, he is planning to do a marathon a month between now and April, amazing!

Our tasks this week were to help Abbey Community Centre spread the word of their amazing work through leafleting and doing some DIY for C4WS, a national homeless charity.

DIY Run Report:

After a game of tag we did a short run to C4WS led by the wonderful Sophie Hedges, arriving to find a cabinet and desk to put together.

Ikea!

With Ikea instructions, great minds, allen keys, and focused hands we were sure to complete the task. We lacked a little space in the room so five of us headed for a run around the block while the other 10 split into teams, with Polly in overall charge, putting the furniture together.

With a swap of DIYers and runners we were only getting closer to finishing the mammoth task. Boom the cabinet was first to be put together, after a group pic 10 people headed to Russell Square while five team members stayed to continue the finishing the job.

We've done the Good now for the GYM!

Intervals - this weeks fitness session was based around a PYRAMID, using time as our tool. It went something like this:

• 1 min fast
• 1 min slow
• 2 min fast
• 2 min slow
• 1 min fast
• 1 min slow

Everyone did very well and really smashed the fitness session!

Meanwhile the DIYers continued to put together the table, with Steve, Arnulfo and Polly staying until 8.45pm! #commitment #good

Leaflet report written by Pritesh:

Tonight I had seven hardy runners joining me on my favourite run up to Abbey Community Centre. It was a great little group and we kept a good pace (including the ‘stomp’ up Primrose Hill) and had some nice chats about what we’d been up to over the summer and various race plans for the winter too.

Tower Block Climb!

We weren’t sure if there’d been a ‘cock-up’ as we arrived at the community centre as there seemed to be no lights on but Laura was awaiting us and was just saving some energy. Tonight’s task was some leaflet distribution in two nearby tower blocks to let the residents know about the various upcoming activities at the community centre. We had a 102 flats in each tower block and so we split into two teams (“How about girls vs boys?”) and Laura then led us out to the blocks.

Girls vs boys

The girls took on ‘Casterbridge’ and the boys ‘Snowman’, yup there really is a Snowman House – we suggested Steve might want to consider a new place here so he could have the address ‘Steve Coman, Snowman…’ Both teams went hard at the task but in the end the boys prevailed and were first back to the community centre. The girls were not far behind and Laura then showed us the mural that has gone up (we whitewashed the walls on a previous task so great to see the outcome) in the kids playground. There was some discussion over whether the boys might’ve taken the lift but the evidence was inconclusive and so thoughts turned to the pun…with ‘Snowman’ and ‘Thomas Hardy’ as possible references we thought we’d be in for a jackpot… we came up with nothing!

Lemonades!

So with that we had a quick group pic and some goodbyes and then we headed back into the night. We naturally split into a fast and faster group and headed back home for a good stretch and then a few lemonades at the pub. Smashing night – thanks all.

Thank you as always for coming along, sign up for next week's run here.

PB out.

On a very hot & sweaty night, 12 intrepid runners made their way 11km to help out on the farm.

The promise of piglet viewing meant that most people weren't put off by running in the heat. We assembled at Old Spike, did a quick warm up of high knees, bum kicks and lunge twists and got on our way. It was a pretty pacey group as we avoided Rye Lane and made our way up into Rotherhide.

Michael and Helena led the way ensuring that everyone got there safely though

We were guided by the scent

As soon as we arrived, Gemma welcomed us by showing us how big the piglets had gotten since the last time we visited. They were still pretty cute even if they were disappointed when they realised the commotion was a load of runners and not dinner time.

This week, we were clearing the yard next to the goats. It's the area where all of the volunteers come in and the farm is going through the post-summer holidays quiet with few volunteers available.

Sweeping, shovelling and wheeling shhhh

We had the help of Roo the bottle fed goat who helpfully stood in swept piles of manure and let us say hello without head butting us. Together, we proved we really are the goat-to people to tidy up the farm!

Once we'd cleared the yard, there was time to see the new pig hut and say a quick hi-bye to the sheep. As ever, time was too short and we had to leave tearing runners away from the animals.

We knew what was in store for us... Another 6.5km back. But we triumphed and made it to Old Spike ready for a lot of water and to say Bon Voyage to GG regular Becky for 6 months as she goes off travelling. And a mini goodbye to our new-regulars (it's a thing) Hanna & Chris as they head off on an epic safari-hike adventure. And not forgetting Michael who's off on a birthday adventure. We'll miss you all.

Don't worry everyone else, we've got GoodGym to keep us going! Post run drink anyone? 28th September