12 Great GoodGymers ran 4.5k to St Andrews Youth Club to clear stuff, clean stuff and play some games!

Great to have a super crew to nip through London Town with tonight, managing to negotiate a few hundred thousand Christmas shoppers while gazing at some of the most magical Christmas Lights you could see.

Running South we made our way through the enchanting St James’s park and along the 2 and bit kilometre route to St Andrew’s youth club at 151 years young it is very much still going strong.

Always puts a smile on my face to walk into the club and feel the energy of Westminsters youth being directed into such positive pursuits!

With a big truck coming along tomorrow we first cleared the last of the heavy stuff that will be making space for more activities in 2018. With the garage full to the brim with stuff to go some of it from so many years ago that the dust was piling way up high.

With the garage filled half the group. Made their way up to the boxing store to lift, shift and tidy the boxing store cupboard. Making it so much easier for the boxing groups to access and use the kit on their next session.

The rest of the group made there way down to the gym and amazing to see it looking so good!! A mini makeover has taken place with the January fitness drive the target to try and raise some vital funding to keep St Andrew’s thriving. A deep clean on mass got the gym that extra sparkle and we even got to hear from ** Tom and Adrian** about the amazing work that the youth club does, the history of the club and two amazing and uplifting accounts of how the Youth Club has helped them both from young children to grown adults. Awesome to feel the passion and love that they both spoke with about the Club.

With a few minutes left we took the chance to play some games with some of the youth club members. Great to be able to have fun playing table football, Table Tennis and pool having fun and building great community relationships. Alex even capped off a stunning performance to hold his nerve in a titanic pool battle that will live long in St Andrew’s folklore!!

Saying our Christmas goodbyes and look forward to many more great projects in 2018 not to mention the Epic Kinball Summer showdown!!

A swift run back up to Oxford Street with some more Christmas light action on Old Bond Street rounded off an uplifting evening!!

Thanks for coming along and hope to see you all next week!

Smooth Running

Joel

10 sizzling Westminster GoodGymers ran 5k to the Oasis growers garden to rehydrate some very thirsty herbs, vegetables and plants.

On a scorching Wednesday in Central London we met at the perfectly air conditioned New Balance store. After a few DBS checks and a briefing we headed off in totally the wrong direction seeking the clearest possible run to the Oasis leisure centre. A strong and sweaty 2.5k run got us to the centre in good time where we were met by a sea of sunbathers in the garden. Undeterred we unleashed the watering cans and brooms to get stuck in. Some very thirsty growing beds required a huge number of watering trips. Working hard carrying the 8kg full watering cans up and down stairs and carefully distributing the water all over the garden.

35 minutes of watering, sweeping, rubbish clearing had the community garden looking in top prefer and gave us a strong workout!!

Heading off avoiding the temptation of a dip in the outside pool or the sadistic sauna we headed up to the Squared circle of Bedford square where we hammered out a combo circuit!! Alternating a 300m running lap with 90 seconds of strength exercises we pushed the fitness adaptations before a calm 2k jog back to base where we stretched out.

Great work everyone this evening! Lovely to have you along! Hope to see you all next week when we run to St Andrews Youth Club the oldest youth club in the world to help them with a physical task up keeping the super busy building!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel