As the nights draw in (yes, really) 21 runners covered 7km, swept away sycamore seeds, shifted, lifted, pulled and painted and enjoyed the view.

Every so often we get all excited and plan ahead for what we might do to celebrate a fellow runner's milestone, but sometimes someone might like to quietly put their head down and get on with it, without saying anything. Tonight Jacqueline did just that and completed her 100th good deed!! I only know this now, from looking at her Strava entry, 'My 100th GoodGym at the Seniors'. She's a cheeky one, sneaking that past us without saying. We're fond of a celebration here in Lewisham and WILL NOT be letting this one go without a knees up, so a social is now on the cards for the week after next. Congratulations Jacqueline, we're all very proud and very surprised at the same time :)

Thank you to Steve for the excellent - and apt - title pun!

Lots of our regulars are off enjoying the sunshine elsewhere at the moment, but very kindly keeping us updated, with daily photo updates of sunrise/sunset runs, poolside relaxation and red t-shirts on tour. Those of us still here in a slightly grey south east London (possibly due to the eclipse?) were undeterred by a bit of gloom and were all set for some hills. Joining us this week, all the way from the east was Ian, the trainer for soon-to-launch GoodGym Ipswich. We love welcoming new trainers and showing them the sights, so really put Ian through his paces by appointing him back-marker, along with Sean and Stephen, who are very familiar with the route to Seniors.

Before we headed out to warm up, we had a little celebration of milestones, with a grand presentation of three lovely black 50 t-shirts to Helen, Kim and Stephen, who have been waiting patiently to be able to show off their achievement. Well done you three, I can't wait to see you wearing your tops with pride.

The run over to Seniors is a longer one, but we love the extra opportunity to chat and catch up on the weekend's gossip. It's also a hilly run, but we ran hard and it was great to see everyone picking up the pace to reach the top, even if it was just 'to get it over with'. At Seniors, we were met by Cathy and Norma, who had a few different tasks waiting for us. Cathy went through the various jobs for tonight and everyone found a role and got stuck in. As you can see from the photos, the garden is vast, so there is ample opportunity to spread out and find yourself an area to work in. Tonight's jobs were painting the garden chairs (there are still many more to complete, but what a joy to see some (three) chairs being finished!) and sweeping up sycamore seeds - these pesky fellas are very good (and quick) at taking root and, before you know it, you've got a sapling to deal with.

At the far end, a team of gardeners set to, pulling up the bindweed, which had wound itself around anything that lay in its path, covering a whole area of ground around the raised beds. Along the side of the building were some pallets, which were carried over and laid down next to the existing beds, creating a foundation for some recycled art-handling containers, now destined to become raised beds themselves. In the middle of all this was a shed with a barbecue in it. This barbecue needed pulling out and, to do this, Sean and Michael pulled out everything else and had a jolly good spring clean along the way, great work!

That's an awful lot of work, completed in just half an hour, creating little pockets of transformation throughout the space.

Our return leg took us up and over (again, really well done on the hill climbing everyone, sterling work!). A trip to these parts wouldn't be complete without pausing to enjoy the view of a lit-up London from the top of Blythe Hill, just gorgeous!

Next week we will head out to Crofton Park Community Garden, to work on some more digging, shifting, weeding and so on. I will be away, so this run will be led for the first time by our run leader Conroy. Why not sign up and join in?

17 awesome athletes got a litter bit more than they had bin expecting in BRENT this week.

Twas a beautiful sight indeed to behold, when 17 lovelies up to THE QUEENSBURY strolled YES!! Full squad in place, ready to race, down Walm lane for some tasking and of course fit, fun and games!

First up was the run, but it didn't take long, for high jinx was in the air and all of our usual GG Flair. Running and funning our usual route, smiling at passers by and giving salutes.

Next, we arrived at our base for the night, but poor Rosa from St Andrews was in for a fright. For she had forgotten the required equipment, plastic gloves and bin bags for a lot of litter pickin'.

NO FEAR!, said I, with a glint in my eye, While you go and collect, the task can come next... We can begin with a hop, skip and lark and run a wee bit further down to Gladstone Park!

So off we cantered, with plenty of banter and not before long, were ready to crack on! Wasting no time, onto each others backs they did climb, for piggy back races, making haste with their paces. The winners were easy to see it was simple, girl power all the way, with Zara carrying Dimple.

Following swifty, 100 squats bashed out nifty. Then Core on the grass, before back to the task!! Speeding along each step taking us closer and in no time at all, we were back to meet Rosa.

Ready and raring to begin our task and to - pass the bin bags was our only ask. So with latex gloves adorned, although some were too small and in no time were torn, we embarked on our mission, of speed litter picking.

Not 15mins in and it was all drama in the street, for what I'm about to say, I hope we'll never see a repeat. Drunken locals fighting and throwing cans.... QUICK Said Nicola HIDE BEHIND THE VAN Thankfully for us, quick to arrive, the coppers appeared, phew, we weren't scared, only the brave cower in fear!!

So then we could complete the rest of the night, with no further distraction, of crazy men in sight. We continued until the end with determined action, filling up the rubbish bags in quick succession. In no time at all, the bags were all full, so we said our farewells and turned on our heels.

Peeling off home, the group soon diminished, with only a few left to race me back to the finish. But with stretches and hugs and goodbyes complete, it was homeward bound, now everyone can eat!!

Another brilliant event, in our beloved Brent. See you next Monday for another chance to play!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

POW POW!

An amazing 8 braved the weather to run 5k all the way from Willesden to Wembley and can...Someone call the 'Plum-ererrr, we got flushed out!!

It was a wet and wild time down at Wembley community orchard for our tasking this week!! Thinking we'd been super clever and managed to dodge the downpour we arrived at our lovely hosts with 40mins to gift, after powering down the route in 35mins flat!! Oh yes, expect.... it was not all flat oh no... the route had us beasting off not one but TWO epic hills, through Dollis Hill and Neasden!! POW POW

Yes...We were a great little wolf pack, running in formation with 2 beautiful blokes in the 6 strong fruity female fold. Although we nearly didn't have our gallant gents in the mix - a last minute moment of doubt and email exchange between Dinesh and myself, had me persuading our lovely lad to absolutely come down no matter what the rains say!! Oh and Joe just made it aswell, by the skin of his teeth, no less....."I had to stop for doughnuts on the way home" he confessed! But thankfully the sugar-rush got him to the start line, just on time so he could patisserie-pate.

Upon arrival we were met by the wonderful team down at the site, who explained away the giant pile of mulch which needed shovelling into wheelbarrows and running across the fields to be arranged beneath the bases of the apple trees!! Easy enough... we thought.... Then, the heavens opened and what was a running session turned into a swimming one, as we battled the heaviest downpour I've ever experienced at an outdoor Goodgym task!! Eeekkkkk!!!!

But no fear, the rain made the team Water-Rapid and the barrows filled up fast with mulch getting delivered to its new homes, as promised!!

As always this crazy crew never fail to make me laugh and feel so proud: Jo, Eliza, Tabitha, Debs, Karen, Joe and Dinesh all laughing and joking the whole time, despite being totally drenched!!! Helping and supporting each other and just making the most fun out of what could have been a totally 'wash-out'! I love this crew!! Even when he was absolutely soaked, we had Dinesh sharing his water-proof jacket with the ladies!! What team spirit..... Although I think he was trying to make up for 'women driver' shout when poor Jo's wheelbarrow collapsed!!

After 40mins of shovelling and delivering I had to unfortunately call end on the task, despite the team not wanting to stop and me literally having to wrestle spaced from hands!!! Tabitha and Joe!!! Lol

But to our delight Stephanie and Daniella, our hosts had arranged a table of home grown goodies for our efforts!! Plums, blackberrys and the good old well known fruit - the biscuit fruit which Eliza tucked into straight away!!

After fond farewells and we will certainly be back!! We turned on our heels and ran the 1 mile jaunt up to Wembley Park Station. Time for some Training as we got to work on pull ups on the tube and Tabitha amazingly demonstrating her circus skills and backwards flip on the bars!!!! Wow!!!

Back home and hugs all round, what doesn't make you wetter makes you stronger!!! And my goodness did we bond in the rain and make the most of this wet and wild night!! Crew Love

So we'll see you next time familia!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

12 runners ran 4.5km to strip paint for Kingsgate Community Centre

High knees, hill sprints, 'n helping. Climbing was a big theme of this Monday's GoodGym Brent where 12 runners ran 4.5k to help out Kingsgate Community Centre.

Starting from a brisk warmup outside the Queensbury, we jogged gently for 2k before arriving at Kingsgate Community Centre. Kudos to the Brent regulars who prevented me from going the wrong way!

At the Centre we were first told they weren't expecting us - argh! But not to fear! Our lovely contact Louise soon explained to the caretaker that we were there to help out and we got cracking on brushing the paint off the railings to set the groundwork for repainting. This should help Kingsgate when they come to repaint, so a worthy cause! Particularly inspiring to see some extra-pro scraping techniques being practiced including backwards scrubbing (courtesy Joe) and musical scraping tools (courtesy Tabitha). Definitely a visible difference and a good chunk of paint off by the end of the evening!

Whilst one group brushed and scrubbed to get the paint off, another group practiced hill sprints. We learned how to work the arms, technique for landing properly and driving the legs forward, and maintaining good form running uphill, before putting that into practice with either three hill sprints, or a continuous 5 minutes on the hills.

Everybody's form really improved even over just a few minutes, which was really encouraging to see!

But were the GoodGym Brent regulars satisfied with one fitness session? Oh no. We had some serious fitness fans in the mix tonight. Post-task we jogged over to Kilburn Grange park to do an exercise set and some core work with everyone contributing 2 of their favourite exercises. Some particular highlights were: squat jumps, burpees, riding your bicycle on the floor, and 10 seconds of mindfulness. Obligatory sit-ups and press-ups included.

Two fitness sessions down, we ran the rest of the way back before cooling down with a few stretches. Top running and good-deeding from all involved, and a lovely start to the week. Thanks for making my first visit to Brent such a great evening :)