26 of us GoodGymers came out to run on another Wednesday night in Camden.

We had one lovely newbie tonight - Jodie - it was great to have you with us. Looking forward to seeing you on another run with us soon next week's link is here if you fancy! Tonight was also a milestone for Meredith and Hayley, as tonight's run marked their 100th good deeds! Well done both of you, and what an achievement. Here's to the next 100.

After our part crowdsourced intro - thank you CJ, Frances and Meredith for firing off the ways you can get fit and do good with GoodGym - we stretched and then headed off on our task just over 3 kilometers away to the Ashdown Court Sheltered Housing in Kentish Town.

After what seemed to be some of the longest waits until the green man flashed at crossings - or was it just me?! - we finally arrived in Kentish Town, met Cathi and got stuck in. There was lots to do:

• Clearing out, sweeping and reorganising the tool shed

• Sweeping and de-leafing the terrace and paths

• Bulb-planting in the garden

• Moss-scraping the patio stones

• Moving some furniture from upstairs

Beth and Frances even helped tidy up one of the residents' balconies (see photos!).

With the bulbs planted, the paths swept and the moss scraped, our job was done. We had a quick team photo and said goodbye to Cathi before running another 3km back towards the Living Centre. After nearly 7km (!), we made sure to stretch out properly when we got back to base. From there it was on to the pub for some - there was an amazing cake baked by Hayley to celebrate 100 good deeds - and others headed homewards.

Next week and other news

COMMUNITY MISSION: Some of us will be heading back to Story Garden on Thursday evening to carry on our work there from 5pm. Sign up here if you want to help out!

NEXT WEEK: Join us on Wednesday for the an October run up to Kentish Town City Farm to help Mel and the team put up their marquees for the annual Apple Day celebrations! It's going to be a big one, so come along - and bring friends - as there'll be lots to do.

SOCIAL: Oh it's a biggie - the last social to be organised by Pritesh - and an unofficial GoodGym 10 year party, coming up on the 8th November. The record attendance to beat is 83, I think we can smash that! Put your name down here if you're coming along.

Have a great week and see you next time.

Happy running,

Ben

Cracking run (and cycle) tonight with 22 lovely Goodgymmers, tackling a huge pile of branches and foliage at Sunnyside Community Centre.

After a short warm-up around the slopes of the Emirates Stadium, we connected on to Hornsey Road and powered up the 2.5km of incline to Sunnyside Community Centre. Upon arrival at the volunteers portacabin, Bridget handed us rakes, shearers and clippers and directed us to a large mound of branches, leaves and bushes, collected from the gardens. This would usually be a task for a shredder, but the groups machine suddenly broke down just as Autumn began, leaving the space covered in green foliage!

In 40 minutes, our Goodgymmers raked the massive pile of branches into lots of smaller piles, and snipped them down to a smaller concentration of greenery. Before we left, we moved all the branches back into an orderly spot, away from the main entrance to the community centre. Amazing effort considering the light was fading as we worked. We were treated to a steady downhill slope back to the Emirates, some nice easy relaxed stretches and a few jammy dodgers and lotus biscoff biscuits for the road!

Plenty of runs, events and get-togethers next week, continuing Goodgym's 10 year anniversary celebrations:

• Goodgym Lambeth will be leading a monthly long run this Sunday, starting in Brixton, and following the Green Chain Walk to Crystal Palace. Sign up here.
• Former Islington trainer and all round excellent fellow, Paul Bown has announced the dates and details for Goodgym Euro Trip Kiev 2020. 4-5 days of holiday fun with 10km or half marathon races in between! More info can be found here.
• We will be visiting Thornhill Gardens for next weeks task, helping the organisers with some willow tree weaving for decorations (pop your name on the list here). Hoping to test out some new portable flood lights as well, but I still recommend bringing a headtorch if you can!
• Also, we plan to visiting the Victoria Tavern after our run next week and you are very much invited to join us!

Have a smashing week everyone, and see you for the next one!

Back and ready for action this week were Simon, Andy and Deepa. And joining them on her first trip to GoodGym was Lily, who'd spotted one of GoodGym's tube ads on the Victoria Line. Welcome, Lily.

Our task this week was aother 2.5k run over to Ealing Road Baptist Church for more clearing. A small and dusty room that was filled with... pretty much evrything you could imagine, had to be cleared out.

We set about the task, removing pots of paint, pumps, tools, shelving brackets, poles, magazines, old books, tool boxes, curtains, clocks, lightbulbs, screws, brick mortar and lots and lots of dust.

Then after shifting a few fold-up tables we were done.

Deepa took us through the "Sun Salutation" yoga moves again, Roger gave us an assortment of food to take home (tuna, Indian sweets, Jaffa Cakes, biscuits, and a pot-noodle-wannabe) and we were off.

En route we conducted a little experiment to work out if health food or junk food was better for running. The test was a four-person relay first using a tin of tuna as the baton, then using a pot noodle as a baton. Tuna time came to 1 minute exactly, whereas pot noodle saw us smash that with 55 seconds.

There you have it. Eat junk and prosper.

Thank you Roger for hosting again.

We are back next week for more of the same.

See you there,
Simon