It was a very keen, bright-eyed group of runners who headed to Whitechapel on a drizzly Monday night to join the first day of Tower Hamlets Big Clean Up event.

Despite having rigorously recce'd the route in advance, I somehow managed to miss a turning about half a mile in - a massive thank you to Gabrielle for, a) flagging this up and, b) taking over navigation. We then negotiated quite-a-busy Brick Lane but we were buoyed up by local restaurateurs instructing us to run "faster, much faster".

A warm welcome from Richard and John, our task owners for the evening, proved to be just the ticket for our slightly depleted runners and John proceeded to supply us with plenty of kit and some fabulous litter-picking and health and safety guidance.

We then split into groups to tackle the big task of litter-picking on Whitechapel Road. 35 minutes flew by - we were all amazed at how satisfying litter-picking could be, and how determined we were to grab every last offending bit of rubbish, no matter how fiddly the task.

No sooner had we strayed down Commercial Street than it was time for some final group pics and a friendly farewell.

A speedy, direct route home saw us back at our stretching steps on time (well,almost). Thank you to Steve who, on what was only his second GG run, helped navigate the route back with a real bounce in his step. Thanks to David for ace backmarking - you weren't out of sight once.

A very warm welcome to Rose and Brigita who were on their first runs - it was an absolute joy to have you with us and I hope to see you again very soon. And great to see you back Keriand Miranda - hope to see you very soon too.

Lastly, a big thank you to the group for being so un-flappable in the face of my mid-run, wrong-turning confession and for stepping in and saving the day, and for being so humorous and helpful, and for making Monday evening such a joy, yet again.

And don't forget the GoodGym social on Thursday we chatted about - details can be found here.

And very, very lastly (I know, I'm always saying that...), sign up for next week's task at Hollybush Gardens here.

Have a good week!

15 runners ran 5k to clear the basement at Hoxton Hall

15 runners came to blast away their Monday blues by running to do good in Tower Hamlets last night. On this particular cold and wintery night we were headed to a brand new and indoor task (double hooray!).

Hoxton Hall is a community centre and performing arts space that is deeply embedded in local history having been an East End landmark since 1863. We were there to help them prepare their new youth development programme. Working with local young people has been at the core of what Hoxton Hall does for over 150 years - offering unique creative learning and employment opportunities.

We split into three groups - clearing rubbish from the main basement room, sorting old costumes to go to charity and collate paint supplies. Boris and James were delighted with how much we got done in 25 minutes and set three people to work trying to remove a very stubborn fixture from the ceiling. Happily we'll be back at Hoxton Hall next week for stage 2 - putting together ikea bureaus for musical equipment. With some time to spare, Laura didn't waste a minute and introduced the group to some core work that those dealing with the ceiling fixture missed out on - don't worry, she'll get you next time!

A big cheer for Claire who joined us for her first ever group run and especially loud noises for Laura GoodGym Tower Hamlet's new trainer!

An awesome, brand new task success for Tower Hamlets last night. I'm sad to be leaving you but I'm off to be trainer in Southwark on a Wednesday, come by and say hello :)

Keep running happy, Lucy