Is this a bit tardy in its publication? YES. Would Raymond ordinarily have already sent me a reminder and a gentle ribbing? TOO RIGHT.

So many of us came together last Saturday morning at Walthamstow Parkrun for a GoodGym takeover, to celebrate and remember Raymond/Ramon/Ray as he was variously known, who we lost so sadly and suddenly just before Christmas, on 18th December.

There was a huge turnout, despite the freezing 🥶 weather, reflective of how much he was loved, with close family and friends from all areas of his life coming together. Ably run-directed by the lovely Louise, and I have no doubt that Raymond would have loved seeing his son start the runners off, which he did with aplomb.

And SO many Goodgymers! Thank-you Ruby for organising, and Saj, and many more. A full complement of GG marshals, time keepers, barcode scanners. Not just from GG Waltham Forest, oh no. You see, not only was Ramon an active member of GGWF (let’s be honest, Raymond WAS GGWF!), he did so many GG tasks for other branches too. Particularly solo missions for isolated people in all of Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Hackney, Harringey, Tower Hamlets, Islington, and probably more. He wasn’t flashy, he just got on with it, including what he was able to do during COVID. Like it says on his GG Page “Just me…No Dramas”.

He was a friend to many, enormously perceptive and kind, being quietly or completely not quietly (😊) supportive when required! He had a wicked sense of fun, and he never turned down a challenge to construct the most outlandish random outfits while rummaging through and organising charity donations 🦸🏾‍♂️.

Thanks to GG Ivofor coming (always a pleasure), Latoyafrom @GoodGymHaringey , and so many others who were lucky enough to have known Ramon, and had the opportunity to “do good” alongside him.

It was truly wonderful meeting some special people in Ramon’s life, and having a good chin wag while being the Tail Walker and sharing memories of him.

It wouldn’t have been Walthamstow Parkrun without some cake 🍰 at the end, and then off to the local greasy spoon, as I am sure Ramon would agree, was only right and proper.

Farewell lovely Raymond. Please consider making a donation in his name to one of the 3 excellent charities on the flyer. Thank-you.

Another beautiful evening for a social community gardening session!

We were back at Saint Church in Leyton to continue laying down the woodchip path to make this wonderful green space accessible to more people. There are lots of greenery and woodland flowers and great trees - so good to spend an hour in this wonderful place.

On arrival we were offered a cuppa tea (always a nice way to start the task!) and then got stuck in with Clara and Mel shovelling the woodchip into wheelbarrows that Tony, Pippa and Rebecca were quickly moving to the path where Ama was raking it flat, later joined by Julia who also cleared the overgrown path from brambles and green alkonet to widen it!

A great workout and great community spirit! Well done everyone!!

Super enjoyable evening for a jog, talk and baby clothes donation-sorting!

This was a tale of two groups coming together - one group that included Pippa, Ramon, Julia and Saj (who met us mid-run) met at the usual base to catch-up and wait for others to arrive. We started with a small warmup and then took a very flat direct route to Leytonstone - it was a very nice evening with minimum cars on quiet roads so time went very quickly and we arrived at the Cornerstone church in no time where we met the second group (Amarjit, Tony and Helen) that came directly to the 'do good' part of the evening.

Our lovely hosts Lindsey and Sophie met us and showed us inside where they kindly prepared some water and sweets for us:) They then explained what needed to be done and we got on with it. It was such a nice way to spend this time on Wednesday evening - great opportunity to catch-up with fellow goodgymmers and hear what's everyone been up to, sort super-cute baby clothes to make sure that only the best gets donated.

Time went super quickly!!!! So the running crew left to jog back to Walthamstow whilst the rest of folks carried on helping out to make it into a full community mission.

Great job everyone - always a pleasure to see our community come together like this on Wednesday. See you next week for the next session - sign up here.

Wowzeee this was a great session - all body workout and all mind banter!!!

As usual most of us met at Greenleaf Church homebase, where we left some of our stuff, and then started with the usual warm up so that we could easily jog for a mile or so to The Hill of Hell, which by now is feeling like a normal hill after weekly 'training' up it! Well done to Tony, Rebecca, Ercole and Francis coming for a pre-task mini-jog, it's always great to have a nice chat and a jog in the beginning. Once at St Mary's we met Amarjit, Ramon and Saj, who made their way there by walking/running from their homes.

Shovelling, Wheelbarrowing and Weeding! Once welcome hugs and greetings were exchanged, we got on with the task which included three parts:

• Load wheelbarrows with compost and then push them all around the construction structure to the churchyard where a huge planter (also an empty tomb (?we think?)) needed to be filled with compost.
• Lift wheelbarrows and tip the compost into the planter - this was a great workout that involved a step/squat onto a raised pedestal, and then using biceps pushing up a wheelbarrow to tip the contents in by shouting Pivot!Pivot!!
• Clear the ivy - to ensure that all the hard work was equally distributed, we rotated between those who loaded&wheeled with those who lifted&weeded alternating after each task.

Ama the photographer As Amarjit couldn't do the heavy lifting, she was in charge of catching the best moments from the session and didn't she do a great job - the photos are amazing and Ama also managed to clear a lot of ivy off the gravestones!!! Check out the maestro in action:

Warm up for Wednesday session by Frances and Ercole By the end everyone was really feeling the hard work and we definitely felt like we did a lot by filling up more than 2/3 of that humongous planter!!! This was definitely a great cherry on top of an active day for Francis and Ercole, who earlier in the day decided to do a 30km run and a hill workout - just your average Wednesday;)

WRAP UP, COOL DOWN

We finished the evening with half of the folks making their way home from the churchyard, whilst the other half had a very easy jog back to the base for a nice stretch-down, paying attention to the arms:)

Until next time - sign up here for another fun active sesh!